Evanston May 23

After a warm start in March it became cool in April and May has been mixed, but I have been occupied with other things. Finally on a sunny but slightly cool day I made another trip to the lake, this time Evanston. There was a steady east wind keeping the shore in the upper 60's with 1 foot waves. Not dressed for swimming I had some trouble sampling the temperature but finding some reasonably dry rocks to sit on I dangled my Casio Fishing gear watch with the water temperature sensor using my toes. I'm not sure I got a good sample but trying twice both at the north and south end of Evanston came up with the same 65.4 degrees. Although cold to the touch at first after the 6 minutes or so it takes to get a good reading my feet were quite comfortable in the water. Lots of people on the beach but no one was swimming. If I had my suit and someone to swim with it probably would have been an OK swim.

But the chances of getting another east wind strong enough to bring in warm water but not strong enough to bring in breakers are small so it may still be a while before we start swimming seriously.