"Like a Fish Out of Water"

Steven Levey

Nancy Reycraft, whose last open-water swim of the early season was five days ago at her home beach, Centerport Beach, where the water quality after the week's rain remained questionable,  reported that she was beginning to twitch and flop about and gasp for air, so she was somewhat desperate to rejoin the Pod for its 8:00 open-water swim at West Neck Beach this morning. Nancy was not the only "fish out of water," as the freakish rainstorms and continued cool temperatures that have held the 2013 open-water season to a stuttering start have kept many a Podder from the Salt.  But this morning's warm sunshine and clear blue skies drew a few more Podders out for their first-swim-of-the-season.  Among the returnees: Chris Vasallo, Nancy Aboff, Steven Levey, and Margot Edlin (who actually went in above the knees this time and swam all the way to the South Buoy, proclaiming the water "just lovely"!).  Also joining us for the first time today were  Lorraine and Dave (whose first attempt last week was aborted by the cold water), and Gregory Nieratka, who accompanied regulars Carole Wickham, Joye Brown, Gae Polisner, Annmarie Kearney-Wood, E.J. Voss, Magda Petryk, Marc Leahy, Rob Ripp, Paul Coster, Tim Sullivan, Don Bond,  and me for either a short jog to the South Buoy and back or a more extended swim to New Beach and back (with some tacking on a jaunt to the North Buoy just to show off)...There was virtually no wind and the 63-degree water was calm and flat, and relatively clean and clear, though a fair amount of seaweed dredged up by the outgoing tide peppered the water, along with the occasional dead horseshoe crab.  I collided with one of these monstrosities despite Don Bond's best efforts to warn me, and was astonished by how solid and unyielding it was when I hit it with my outstretched hand (and screamed like a girl when I realized what it was!)  

 

At New Beach, the usually squeamish and delicate Gae surprised the assemblage when she plopped a huge clod of pungent seaweed on her head and commenced prancing around like Esther Williams (whom she was perhaps channeling),  but she was promptly disciplined by former teacher Nancy Reycraft, who commenced hurling wads of seaweed in Gae's general direction (perhaps the now-retired Nancy misses the cafeteria food fights....). 

 

Esther Williams lives

Joye at Muscle Beach (I mean, "New Beach")

  

Tomorrow promises to be as warm and beautiful as today -- at least in the morning -- so we'll be back at 8:00 to do it all over again!  See you in the Salt!

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!