Joining the Notorious Alki Swimmers

I am thinking about revamping this blog.  The year I started it I did not successfully swim through the winter, but I'm giving it a try again this year, and I have some help.  The help comes in the form of the "Notorious Alki Swimmers". I swam with them for the second time today.  They are a (crazy) group of people who swim year round out of Alki point in West Seattle.  Today more than 20 people showed up (that arrow is pointing to me).

I was in the water for about 45 min but never got comfortable enough to put my head down and full on swim. The issue wasn't the cold. It was the chop.  The waves were high and strong. I've swum in higher, in fact two weeks ago snorkeling in the Keys the waves were higher (but the water A LOT warmer). Today I was still struggling, as the waves were coming across fast and hard.  So I did head up breast stroke.  I figure the best way to get used to waves is to swim in waves.  I never felt panicked.  But I also never relaxed enough to really swim.

Air temp  41.  Water temp 48.6!