Saturday, September 14, 2013

Evanston, September 14

Even though the race is over there is still summer left in Chicago. After a day of high winds and waves but to Jody and me it seemed an interesting morning for a swim. The prediction was for 3ft waves at 5am subsiding to nothing at 8. Not quite true. We did not rush but did get to the Lake around 6:30. The air was about as clear as we have ever seen, high buildings in the loop were clearly visible. We were in time for another spectacular sunrise, in fact it happened twice, first the sun popped out of the water, then it re-emerged from behind some low clouds near the horizon. The evidence on the sand did show that very high waves had been around recently. Perhaps you saw the
pictures of yesterday's water spouts near Kenosha.

The air temp was in the 50's and initially the water felt warm, it was about 67 near the beach but there were areas of 65, especially near the far wall. There were still some 4 foot swells and waves converging in various directions. But overall swimming was pretty good and we were even able to touch the far wall without difficulty. We took our time this morning and paused various places to test the currents, which were present but fairly random. We tried to find the eddy by the end of the near wall but it was not present, only a mild southward current. The waves did subside somewhat during our swim but Jody did get a few rides on incoming waves.

We may try again but if this is the end it was a glorious end.