The Bay - Part 2

This is a not particularly good picture of the bay, looking towards one side, from about the halfway point.

Further thoughts on this increasingly ridiculous idea.

A few weeks ago I went down to the dock (the halfway point) and looked at the water in the bay and thought about getting in and decided it was too cold and didn't do it.  I was scared.  This train of thought, 'it is too cold to start swimming', worked up until a few days ago when I took the children swimming at a friend's house.  I put my feet in the water and it was actually nice and warm so my cold excuse is gone and I should Get. In. The. Lake.

I have scrolled through all my photos trying to find one where you can actually SEE the distance from one side to the other, and unfortunately the above pic is the best I can do.  I mean, I could take a camera and walk to the side of the bay and take a picture and come back and use that, but I'm not going to do that today.

So I drew you a map!

Essentially, the bay is a big U.  At the curvy part of the U is what I keep referring to as 'the dock' or 'the marina'.  It is a pier jutting into the lake, with berths on one side for boats, and also two small docks and a boat launch.  I wouldn't call it BUSY, necessarily, but certainly pleasure craft are coming in and out with some frequency, especially in the summer, especially on nice days, especially on weekends.  Which is likely when I would be swimming.

Looking at the drawn map you can see that the bay, like all natural bays, is not exactly a 'U'.  The line shows the approximate route I'd try and take.  I would start at the left hand side of the line, in the slightly swampy, rocky launch point, and swim over the deepest part (marked by the red dot buoy) and end up at the rocky top part of the line. The buoy is not exactly at the same height up the 'U' arms as the start and end points, but it provides a good place to mentally tally 'this is about halfway'.  Also the buoy does not exist for foolhardy swimmers to aim for, in fact it represents the deep channel that boats entering and exiting the marina aim for.  I did discover the depth, but I can't remember now just what it was, and the number will probably only serve to frighten me anyway so best not to dwell on it.  I think it was 19 feet deep at the buoy.

I planned to get in the lake a few days ago, and then I didn't.  Then I made another plan to get in the lake...and I didn't keep that one either.  I'm actively AVOIDING the lake at this point, which is ridiculous because...I WANT TO DO THIS.  Surely this is some strange, never before seen psychological phenomena.

Oh, I also tried to figure out if swimming 1.34 km was something that required me to actually, really buy a new bathing suit.  Which I don't want to do.  Or goggles.  Or a bathing cap.  Or anything that costs money.  I don't want to spend any money at all on anything.  And I told myself that if I just gosh golly darned Got. In. The. Lake. I didn't have to buy anything at all.