Swim Report – July 16, 2011 – Nick’s European Adventure!

Nick jumped the pond for a few weeks, and here’s his account of his various adventures on the other side of the Atlantic. Great job, Nick!
——————————

Below is my attempt at making a video in the Mediterranean. The water felt extremely warm, I estimated it around 75F. I took the video in downtown Barcelona on Saturday July 16th.

As far as my much anticipated swim in the Baltic goes…I attempted to swim in the Swedish Archipelago just outside of Stockholm on a kayak trip when we stopped for lunch, but had a difficult time. This was due to the area of the Baltic we were in, it was rather shallow, about 3-8 feet deep with crystal clear water and surprisingly warm water temps (I’m estimating the temperature to be in the 65F-70F range).

This sounds great, but this clarity and the lack of a strong current allows kelp to flourish from the sea floor up to the surface just about everywhere except for a few of the deeper spots in the main channel. I gave it a shot anyway and quickly gave up as I was swimming like a newbie to open water – going left, right and every way but straight trying to dodge the kelp. So I stopped at a sandy spot and took this picture.

A few interesting things about the Baltic…It is actually brackish water and not entirely salt water. You could definitely taste the difference when water got it in your mouth; it was a very mild salt taste that would seem quite pleasant on a real hot day after a workout when your body is craving salts.

The facts behind the water having a hint of salt is due to the majority of the water in the Baltic coming from rivers and streams with a small amount of salt water creeping in from the Atlantic around Denmark.

Looking forward to tomorrow morning’s swim at L1!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *