[ swim ] 台東活水湖 (Flowing Lake)

Flowing Lake is right next to the estuary (新呂武溪/卑南溪), so it was quite windy there usually.

There are signs all around the lake saying, "Danger Ahead: Deep Water (more than 2 meters). Keep out of water, otherwise take the consequence yourself". (its Chinese version is even more harsh. I could hardly think of any reason to put in such tone. I think it better put, "Deep water without lifeguard, swim at your own risk.") and "Watch your property, be ware of thieves." Since I rode the bike there, so I had to carry the valuable along with me in the water, which hindered me from swimming freely.

When I first swam across the lake, to be conservative, I swam breaststroke. It was tailwind, besides I was the only one in the lake then; so, it was easy and smooth. When turning back, swimming just 300m, I was caught up by a jet ski and told there would be some jet ski drills on the lake and was asked to swim aside. It was headwind, the wind turned stronger, and jet ski also helped boost the waves from time to time, so it was quite tough to swim back. Originally I intended to have taken the opportunity to practice sighting skill swimming crawl back, but after swam along the shore, I did not brother to sight.

Overall, it was quite like swimming at Sun Moon Lake, both are of plain water with very limited visibility. The water of Sun Moon Lake tasted a bit sweet, while the wind at Flowing Lake smelt salty faintly.

time: 12:58pm - 2:13pm, (Wed) Aug. 14, 2013
transportation: bike
visibility- atmosphere: 10km
visibility- water: 5m to 7m (estimated)
swimming dist.: 2.3km (lake length: 1.1km)
temp.- atmosphere: 31.0º ~ 28.7º
temperature- water : 30.2º ~ 30.4º (on surface) much colder at a foot deep.
weather: party cloudy to cloudy (with drizzle)

route: http://goo.gl/maps/UW2pv
photo: http://photo.pchome.com.tw/portege/0698/

remarks:
1. the data about atmosphere were taken from the website of CWB.
2. the water temperature was recorded by CASIO watch AQF-100.
3. the route was registered by Garmin GPS etrex VISTA HCx.