Report Re: 7/20/25 noon swim.
Upcoming Swims: See below
"typical" schedule.
Kru: Good sized Kru this noon, including Sandy
(Beach Name “Sandy”), Bobber, Brick, Itch, Super Herra, Luna, We’Tack, Fin Fin,
Katie (first timer?), Jason, Lauren, Kahuna, others (my apologies if I missed
your name, please add in comments).
Water: One degree less than 70. Tan to brownish near shore, bright blue out
there. Waves 1 to 3. A moderate current from the North.
Air Temp and Weather: Partly cloudy, breezy
from the East.
Typical Weekly Swim Schedule: The Typical
Schedule for group swims is M-F 6 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.; Sat. &
Sun. 8 a.m. and noon. All swims (unless otherwise expressly
indicated are at Klode Beach (WFB). Check blog comments, for additional
"impromptu" group swims, or changes to the schedule.)
You Are Reading This, and You Have Never Gone for an Open
Water Swim with the Lake Michigan Swimmers Before, But You Are "Kru
Curious"
Folks who are interested in open water swimming in Lake
Michigan are always welcome to come swim with us. To see the answers to
frequently asked questions about swimming with us, scroll down past the
pictures in the rignt hand column, and click on "Kru FAQ's." If your
question is not answered at that webpage entry, put your question in the
comments, and a member of the Kru will probably reply to your question
shortly.
Bloggers & Commenters Welcome: If you
swim, please consider posting a blog piece, or at least a comment, regarding
your swim/experience, especially when you swam, and what the
temperature and water condition was (that's very helpful to others
who may be contemplating a swim
What’s the Spawn ‘O Kahuna Up to These Days?
If you are interested in the above question, read on; if not
you can skip the rest.
Some of you remember my youngest son Gus (a/k/a “SonAKahuna
v2.0”), pictured below.
Above, Gus looking at me with his usual pre-swim expression of “I not only
intend to swim faster than you Dad, I intend to crush your soul out there.”
Gus is currently living out East, working on a
Ph.D in microbiology, but he was in town briefly this
week, to ship out on the R/V Lake Guardian, the EPA’s largest research vessel
on the Great Lakes. At 180’ long, it is
the well-stocked floating lab for Great Lakes research.
Gus has sailed and done research on the Lake Guardian a
couple of times, and I asked him what the Ship’s and his mission was this time
on their approximately 10-day voyage around Lake Michigan. Here’s what he told me:
This voyage is monitoring the
health of the water column and the benthos (lake floor) in Lake Michigan. It is run by the EPA, which is responsible for
monitoring the health of the Great Lakes. Since the boat is already out and about, they invite
other researchers on who are studying the Great Lakes. On this cruise, there are teams from the EPA,
NOAA, Buffalo State, Wright State University, UW-Milwaukee, and Cornell. I am studying how the density of zebra mussels
changes bacteria in the sediment (under the mussels), on the mussels
themselves, and in the water column above the mussels. The density has
big impacts on the metabolism of bacteria, which affects the availability of
nutrients like carbon and nitrogen, which trickles up to larger organisms like
plankton, the fish that eat this plankton, and the humans who use Lake Michigan
for drinking water (or open water swimming). The main purpose of this survey, from the EPA
perspective, is to map zebra mussels’ coverage of the lake and their impact on
the health of other life that lives on and relies on the lake floor for food
and habitat and assess the health of the sediments/lake floor.
Gus gave SheWhoMustNotBeNamed and me a tour of the ship, while
it was in port on Thursday, to re-stock.
Built, in 1980 as a research vessel, it’s no luxurious “Carnival Cruise Ship,” but
it is a pretty impressive thing, to see all of the equipment and labs on the
ship. Below are some of the pictures I
took on the ship.
Above, proof that Gus actually is one.
Above, lots of Lake Michigan water samples to be processed, and Gus showed
us how they store some of the micro-organisms collected in a container cooled
by liquid nitrogen, cooled to about -321°F.
Above, the big heavy robotic scientific thing that they lower over the
side, that goes down to the bottom of the Lake, and collects the samples.
Gus showing SWMNBN a screen on the Lake Guardian, showing some of the recent data
they’ve collected about temperature, turbidity, and a bunch of other stuff.
Above,
Gus and a colleague working on collecting samples at the stern of the Lake Guardian.
Above, Gus and SWMNBN near the bow of the Lake Guardian.
But What about SonAKahuna v1.0?
How about the other spear-side "Spawn ‘O Kahuna"? Is SonAKahuna v1.0 doing any important
aquatic research these days? Well,
maybe. He completed hiking the CDT
yesterday, so to celebrate, he stopped by the Sip ‘n Dip Lounge,
a tiki bar in Great Falls, Montana. Once
ranked by GQ Magazine as one of its “top ten bars in the world,” patrons get to
enjoy a drink at the bar, while watching local mermaids swim in the huge glass
tanks behind the bar. Who knew?
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