I saw this post on the LOST Facebook page that a prospective LOSTie (Renee Devereaux, whom I’ve never met by the way), wrote that pretty much sums it all up:
“I was on the rocks this morning watching the goings-on to see if this would be a fun group to join. Within minutes I was envious of everyone in the water. Hoping to join soon, and wondering if anyone has suggestions for where I might find a second-hand wetsuit in the Oakville area. I’ll check Kijiji but happy to hear any other suggestions. Anyone looking to get rid of a wetsuit for an average-sized 5’9″ woman?”
Kinda cool. Within minutes she wanted to join… and get a wetsuit! I always tell people who are on the fence… come out and watch for one morning… you’ll be hooked! Well said, Renee! (And feel free to respond to Renee on Facebook if you have an extra wetsuit!)
After 11 years of swimming in Lake O every Saturday in the summer, you’d think I’d know the Lake pretty well… but it still surprises me once in a while.
I remember when I learned about it “rolling over”. In 2006, I didn’t know anyone that swam in the Lake regularly… well, because there was no one. So I remember going down one evening to check the water temp and it was 72F, perfect for the long swim I had planned for the next morning. And I arrived the next morning with my daughter, Maisey, who was going to kayak for me. She checked the water temp while I got ready. She said it was 55F!?!? I got kind of angry with her and told her to stop fooling around and go check it again. She did. She left it in longer… and it was actually… 52F! It had literally dropped 20F degrees over night!
Well, now we know that the Lake rolls over regularly. And that is in fact how it warms up. The roll overs are caused by the wind. You get nice warm stretches of weather like we’ve had these last few days, which warm the top surface water, but that can’t warm the water at the bottom of the Lake. Then you get a wind from the north and that blows all the nice warm surface water over to Rochester and Buffalo… which pushes the water on their side down to the bottom of the Lake… and that cold water at the bottom of the Lake then comes up on our side! Conversely a nice south wind brings the warm water our way and makes the other side of the Lake cold.
Eventually this happens several times over the summer and the whole Lake, from the surface to the bottom gets warmed all the way through. And since water holds its temperature longer than air does, that explains why often the Lake is still warm into September and even October, even though the warm weather is gone.
But the strange thing that happened yesterday, and that I’ve never experienced before was that the Lake was rolling over while we were actually swimming!
I measured the temp while I was setting up at 7:30… and it was 58F/14C… however by the time I actually got in at 8:30 (after playing the Walmart Greeter)… the temp had dropped to 54F/12C! So it dropped 4F degrees in an hour, while we were swimming! That’s amazing!
Having said that… all 76 swimmers got in and had a great swim! And everyone was in for quite a while, 15 – 45 minutes! I think everyone is getting tougher already! It really is amazing how seeing everyone else get in and do it helps you believe that you can do it!
See you next weekend!
Cheers,
Rob