I didn’t make it out to the swim site on Sunday, but Chris and Laura got in an early morning swim. Dave made it out there in the afternoon. Per Chris:
Well after Saturday’s beautiful swim went back down Sunday arrived about 6:30am little late due to traffic rerouting due to Chicago half marathon. The Ochoas said a lady had just left ladder one. I could see the swimmer mid wall by looking at the gear left behind I figured it was Laura. I proceeded to follow with my leap into the lake.
Well the water took my breath away. I’m not talking about how beautiful and pristine flat it was like a mirror. No, it felt extremely cold right away. Oh well, get swimming you’ll warm up, I figured. Well that didn’t work either, so I started to think about the different lake temps I’ve experienced and calculated this must be about a 10 degree drop from Saturday’s 71 degrees.
Well I hit one or two spots where the water rose a degree or so but they were just a few yards long. When I got to Oak Street Beach I scanned the area looking for Laura both toward Ohio and back to ladder one. Seeing no one, I proceeded to swim back to ladder one. Once there I went to my vehicle to get thermometer.
I was shocked after taking numerous readings to find the lake temp at 55 degrees. When I got home I checked all sources to see if maybe my thermometer was off. I get a call from Dave (it’s now afternoon) and he’s telling me how frozen he is after doing a mile swim. He said his dive thermometer was reading 57 degrees, so it got a couple of degrees warmer since the morning plunge into cold water.
Yes folks, that’s a 15 degree drop in a 24 hour period. The photo is from last winter but just a reminder if you don’t have cold water survival training don’t go swimming unless you know what conditions are.
Aquaman Chris
Wow, that’s strange. I swam at Ohio St at 7:30 am on Sunday and it didn’t feel any colder than usual, certainly nowhere near 57 degrees or I would have noticed, since I was just in my swimsuit. I guess the cold current didn’t reach that far south?
Chris-Sorry I missed you–I was on a roll and headed to Ohio. I know what you guys say about that area, but it was a heckuva lot warmer over there!
Carol, I’m going to have to get one of those thermal shirts like you have for days this this one!
Here’s where I got mine:
http://www.brucejones.com/cgi-bin/surfshop.cgi?page=oneillcold.htm&cart_id=5955319.12781
I have the O’Neill Thermo-X short sleeve (size medium). It’s about three years old, so I need to get another one pretty soon!
So glad I went Saturday, I was on to something when I said I was cold! See you in 2 weeks!