Fish Food

I’ve been eyeing the Strands web cam all morning. From dawn until 8ish, fog was threatening on the horizon. The beach would get blurry and then clear then blurry then clear. Then all of the sudden it was gone. It was like the beach was on some kind of interstellar journey and there would be a period of time when it would need to sling shot around the sun and temporarily lose contact with the earth. Meanwhile we are all waiting with baited breath hoping that we will indeed reestablish communication. Well around 9:30 or 10:00, the water became visible once again. Whew. I can breathe again.

The fog and sun continue to dance with one another until it looks as though things are settling a little before 11:00. The wind forecast is very favorable today and there really is no bad window in the wind department which is somewhat unusual. So I know I could wait longer but I’d really like to get this behind me. Not because it is this terrible thing I want to get over with but because it is easier for me to focus on my job after my workout.

I leave my apartment a few minutes before 11. I’m aware there is a possibility things could get socked in again but that could happen at any time on any day. It’s a risk I am willing to take. Let’s just get in that water and see what nature is going to dish up today. It is beautiful outside right now.

As I drive to the beach I am comparing what I am seeing to the exact same thing I was seeing yesterday at the same time. Basically I do not want to repeat yesterday’s experience of being lost in the fog. That said, yesterday was pretty epic. In the end, having survived, I am glad I had that experience but I’m ready for more benign conditions today. Well, really I just want to be able to have a view of the beach while I swim or maybe I should just bring a compass.

Things do look similar to yesterday, but the key difference is that I can see the end of Monarch Bay. I couldn’t yesterday. There is definitely a fog bank out there but it is a good ways offshore. Of course this means absolutely nothing because it could make landfall in just a couple minutes.

Well I am noticing that the water is calmer today and the waves are smaller so if I do end up having to stick close to shore, that should not be treacherous. I pass by Sam on the way down the stairs who is just returning from his swim. He tells me it was beautiful and from the looks of things I have no reason not to believe him.

My feet hit the sand and the water is lovely along with everything else in sight. There is a bodyboarder hanging out not far from where I will start swimming. I head into the water and once I am thigh deep, I am taken aback by how beautifully clear it is. Everything in front of me right now belongs in some sort of museum dedicated to beauty.

I swim north in the hopes that today I will make it past the point and not be turned back by fog. I feel pretty confident this will happen. The water feels good. It is cool and is pretty much perfect. Of course if someone were offering to turn up the heat I would happily accept that too.

Water visibility is so so but good enough to see lots of ocean floor and kelp vines. I reach the point and still no fog threatening my passage. There is a decent crowd of surfers here for the small surf. I continue north hoping to reach the Monarch Bay Beach Club. As I progress, that fog bank does grow more ominous. It forms large vaporous masses that expand and contract just on the surface not far west of where I swim. I try to just appreciate its beauty and not be worried about how things could turn. I will just keep pushing forward until I can’t.

I do make it all the way to the beach club. While the fog is definitely alive here, it chooses to live at a safe distance from where I am. Looking south towards the Dana Point headlands, it is looking quite dark and obscured. Even the lifeguard tower below the Ritz appears barely visible. Regardless, I have a plain view of the shore from where I am and I’ll just keep swimming while I do. So I turn around and head back to where I started.

The water is palpably cool against my skin and it makes me feel alive. I am alive. I am here. The water is all around me. This shoreline nurtures my spirit. There is no better place to be right now than here. I reach my arms forward and hold the intent of embracing what is here right with me now and let go of everything else. Every ambition and every worry and every notion of a person I wish that I were - I let them all fall off of my bones and into the depths of this water. There is plenty room for them to find a home somewhere here nestled in the rocks and kelp. I’m sure they will make good food for the fish.

Eventually I make it back to the lifeguard tower. That thing that I could barely see a half mile up the beach is now perfectly visible even if things have lost a little luminosity since I was last here. It is obvious now that I’m going to make it all the way back to my starting/finishing point without issue. There is some mist gathered here but just enough to make things more perfect. I wouldn’t change a thing right now.