DISCLAIMER: Open-water swimming is inherently dangerous. Open-water swimmers risk drowning, hypothermia, hyperthermia, heart attacks, panic attacks, cramping, jelly fish stings, fish bites, boat or jet-ski collisions, collisions with floating or submerged objects (including other swimmers), and other calamities that can be injurious, disabling or fatal! The "West Neck Pod" is an informal association of open-water swimmers who swim "outside the lines" with no lifeguard protection, it has no formal membership, organizational structure or legal identity, and its participants, including the author of this blog, make no representations and assume no liability with respect to its group open-water swims. All swimmers who participate in West Neck Pod group open-water swims do so at their own risk. Be careful out there!

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Rain Washout...Again!

Torrential rains driven by tropical storm Andrea drenched the east coast all day yesterday, flooding roadways and basements -- including my own! -- which Carole and I spent the evening pumping and bailing. By morning the storm was over and the sun was shining brilliantly in the cloudless sky as we made our way to West Neck Beach with the dogs "just to see." Though I am not usually squeamish about runoff, I felt no inclination to swim after such a massive rainfall (especially after seeing what was "swimming" in my basement!), but I knew Marc Leahy and at least a few others would be itching to get back in the Salt....Sure enough, Marc was already there, with a cluster of  hopeful "Posties": Stuart, Dave and Lorraine; and then Orlando arrived to survey the possibilities.

Stuart, Lorraine, Dan and Marc 
Orlando
But the skies had already filled with clouds again, driven across the Sound by a strong northwest wind, and last week's almost-comfortable water temperature had dropped back down to 61 degrees when I waded in for a reading. The remnants of the storm were evident in the copious strands of seaweed and beachgrass that wrapped around my ankles as the waves slapped the shore and in the murkiness of the water that hid my feet from view though I was standing little more than ankle-deep. 



 
 
  
 
I'd had no intentions of swimming today anyway, so I wasn't disappointed when the rest of the assemblage reluctantly opted against swimming, though Marc seemed particularly stricken...Tomorrow's forecast is for sunshine and warmer temperatures -- and hopefully for me, a return to blogging about swimming rather than about not-swimming....See you in the Salt!

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