13Aug13

Got up at 0430 and was out the door at 0500 with Grace.  We were headed to Shaw's Cove which was about 45 minutes away.  The interstate was clear so we drove pretty fast to get there.  I was excited because I would be seeing Lynn Kubasek again and Jen Schumacher.   I just saw Lynn in swim camp but I haven't seen Jen in almost a year.  We arrived and they were both there along with some other people Lynn swims with regularly.  They go for a pre-work swim daily. 
Shaw's Cove was beautiful.  There were about 12 of us and after a quick chat, we waded in.  I was barely knee deep when a "fish" about 6" long came up to me and almost brushed against my leg.  I made a comment and one of the regular swimmers there said it wasn't a fish, it was a baby Leopard Shark.  AWWWWW....but he's so CUTE!!!!!!!!!!!!  He's just a little guy!
The water was in the mid 60's and felt great.  We headed out and the tide was high enough to do what is known as the Patsee shoot.  It's this narrow gap between some big rock formations that the tide has to be high enough to swim in.  I was behind the Patsee it was named after and followed her in.  It was risky and dangerous to be swimming through this.  JUST what an adventure swimmer loves.  I was right on her feet and made it safely through. I did notice that if I didn't do it well then I would become busted up against rocks quickly.
We cleared out to more open water and headed to Seal Rock.  It's just a big rock in the middle of the Cove with a bunch of sea lions on it.  The closer we got, the more came out to swim with us.  Although I didn't see it, many others saw one that was tagged with a bright orange tag on his fin by a local oceanography group for study.
We went around Seal Rock and headed back. I mainly stayed next to Lynn since she swims here all the time and knows where we are going.  We finished our swim and I felt great.
A short trip to a coffee shop for some chocolate milk and a eclair then a good long chat with some of the people we swam with.  Unfortunately this was my last swim of the vacation.  It was time to head to Long Beach because tonight, Gordon would make his Catalina Crossing attempt.

Grace VanDer Byl and me

Got to Long Beach and picked Sue Frehse up from the airport at noon.  We had 6 hours to kill so we walked around a bit then went to a movie.  We both fell asleep during the movie then went out to dinner.  We met up with Josh, Jim, and Jim's wife while eating.  We met up with Gordon and his crew at 1900 and started to pack our gear on the boat.  We pushed off around 2000 and were ready to go around 2300.  Details of the swim on tomorrows post!