Today it was raining, so I packed up my wetsuit and polar cap and headed to my usual swimming lake. I’m pretty picky about what water I swim in, and, living in Northern Minnesota, I can insist on clean water; anything with less than 15 ft of visability is a swamp.
Anyway, I’m in my fullsuit and polar cap swimming along for about a half hour just fine when my foot starts to cramp. I look down at it, and it looks pretty white. Only then did I realize how cold the water really was.
After stretching my foot out, I swam back to the beach and chatted with some scuba divers. The general opinion seemed to be that the water was in the low 50’s.
I think I’m going to wait a little longer before hitting the open water again.