Wednesday, October 04, 2017

Nowhere, October 4

Why didn't we swim today? Because of this chart from the Wilmette Buoy:

The blue is the water temperature, the black is the air. Notice the lack of correlation, the factor is the wind direction, which became almost westerly yesterday afternoon when you see the final plunge on a warm sunny day. For us Americans the high water temperature was 71.5 F early in the week and 61.5 F this morning. Since temperatures at our spot have been running a degree or so below the buoy we could expect right around 60, maybe even less. It wasn't worth finding out.

Monday, October 02, 2017

Evanston October 2

Once again we make it into October. Small craft warnings again but this time it is fake news. Mostly 2 foot trochoidal waves with large periods. A few 3 footers which is unusual for reflected waves. But not too hard to swim. The buoy temps were posted in the 66 degree range, cooling down before midnight but rising again towards morning. Apparently that was not happening where we were as it ranged from the upper 63 to lower 64. The sun was behind lake clouds much of our swim so the affect was cold. We shortened our swim a little but did visit the south wall to compare the crashing waves on the south side of the wall to the quiet lake on the north.

Is this it or will be back? Keep up with us for a few more weeks to find out.