Different Day

Ok definitely a different kind of day out there today! The day started out pretty much like all the others this week. It was clear skies at sunrise. I just couldn’t make up my mind whether or not to swim. I was gonna swim. Then I wasn’t gonna swim. Finally 11:30 rolls around and I’m still working and know I need to get my workout done. The sun is shining into my apartment and it all feels so warm and spending an hour in the water is feeling irresistible.

Now the forecast was predicting cloudy skies to form later in the morning and on the web cams, I am seeing a building cloud bank off shore. However there is still a fair amount of sun shining. By 11:00 the Salt Creek cams are starting to look just a little gloomyish but I still see golden sand on the Strands cam. C’mon, just take a look outside here. Feel that sun coming in through the window. Just how gloomy could it possibly be?

I walk out my front door just a little after noon and the temperature immediately drops here on the shady side of my apartment. Still, the sun is shining. Well by the time I make the turn from Golden Lantern to Selva, that sun is gone. It’s ok. This will be a nice change of scenery. I mean just how much sunshine can one possibly take? Hmm. Short answer: a lot.

Once I am in the parking lot, I’m wondering where that golden sand is now. I can’t see the beach quite yet but by the looks of things here, gold is not a color I will be seeing. I’m not turning around. I’m doing this. I get out of the car and the absence of direct sunlight on my skin is palpable. That said, I’m relatively comfortable. It’s by no means arctic conditions here. Let’s just see what unfolds out there.

As I near the sand, I can see something out on the water and I’m trying to figure out what it is. I’m not wearing my glasses so it is hard to tell. It’s not dolphins because whatever it is, it isn’t going anywhere. It’s not birds because they seem to be submerging and emerging and not flying away. Finally my hypothesis is that these are divers or swimmers. As I get closer to the beach, I’m feeling more confident about this and I see a couple standing and staring out and looking at the same thing and they have perplexed looks on their faces. I ask them if they think they know what it is and they also think they are swimmers. Well there you have it! Mystery solved.

The cloud cover definitely seems to be getting more dense. At this point I welcome this. I love the sun. Love love love it! But I have had my fill and this is something different. I get in the water and start to swim south. The coolness does not seem quite as sharp as it did yesterday when I got in. As I continue to swim, the water feels nice. Any chance that the clouds would make the water colder seem to be nonexistent. The water is pretty clear too. There just isn’t as much light to illuminate what is here.

As I keep swimming south , I watch birds, terns I think, fly out to the water and loop around. I’ve noticed that is a common pattern of terns. While pelicans usually seem to be on a journey to get somewhere, terns are more frolickers and tend to fly out and back and this way and that. Once a pelican passes you, they are gone and never to be seen again, but terns are worth waiting for and who knows, you might just see them several times in the period of a few minutes.

The water is definitely more clear in some spots than others. Some spots seem incredibly clear. As I reach the south end of the beach, waves are passing under me as I wade near my “turnaround” rock. The tide is lower than it has been and the rocks stand tall above the water. I put my face under the water and the sand is moving near the floor with the waves and it looks like heavy fog or smoke is covering the ground. Then I see a school of medium sized fish swimming away from me and I want to catch up with them but it’s not meant to be. The headlands look starkly dramatic in these clouds and dim light.

I swim back north and am just really enjoying the water. I think it is noticeably warmer than it has been the last couple days. I have to wonder if that is purely psychological. I wonder if the sunnier skies and the contrast of the warmer air and cooler water makes the ocean feel colder. Who knows? I’m not prepared to be submitting any academic papers on the subject any time soon. What matters is that it feels good. I’m so glad I decided to swim today. I hear music playing in my head over the entire swim. It’s only been a week since I got my new digital piano and I feel like it is transforming my mind and awakening something that had been dormant inside of me. It’s also becoming sort of a new obsession as if I needed another one of those. I feel like I am on a quest to learn how to record. That is a whole thing in itself. 35 years ago I had a whole setup and I sold all of it off when I wanted to go back to school. Well it is a completely different world now and a better one too. You used to need so much gear and now you just need a computer and if there is something I know something about, it’s computers.

About half way up the beach I come to a patch of kelp forest that is absolutely beautiful. Even without the extra light, there is alot to see here. I see these fish that are blending in with the kelp leaves. They don’t look familiar at all. There are lots of them and this is all so super cool to look at. It’s beautiful. I dive several times down towards the floor and then watch the vines of kelp against the light coming through the surface of the water and I thoroughly enjoy this.

Meanwhile above the surface, things are growing more and more dim. I have to stop a few times to get my bearings because I am having difficulty seeing where I am in relation to land. It is not so socked in that I can’t see the beach but it is extremely fogged in and I can’t see the headlands anymore and the lifeguard tower up at Salt Creek looks very fuzzy. I wipe out my goggles which improves things but not by much.

In the midst of all this cloudy fog is a strip of bright whitish greyish light outlining the edge of the horizon. It looks really cool. Soon I reach the northern end of the beach and of my swim and I head back. I hover close to the shore and still it’s hard to make out where I am. I like this because it is obscure enough to be cool but not enough to be scary. I don’t particularly like scary swims and I have had several.

I finish up and as I walk back up the stairs I can see the fog filling the pines here near the upper bathrooms. It all looks much more Decemberish than it has all December. By the time I get back to my apartment, what sunshine and warmth that was here when I left is gone now. It’s a different day for sure than the one I woke up to.