Scary Helicopter
Well it looks like May Grey is in full season today. Very overcast skies all morning. I leave the house at about 9:20 and its 60 degrees outside. Walking down the stairs to the beach today I’m feeling a little cold. I’m not really feeling into swimming today. I’m even thinking this to myself all the while knowing that it will be good and I will be glad I swam when I am done and also glad while I’m doing it too. Probably because that is what happens every single time. I honestly cannot think of one swim where I said to myself, “I really should have stayed home today.”
I get to the beach and the water feels a little warmer than the weekend. I notice that all the medium sized rocks that had been hanging out at the shore line are gone now (or more likely covered with sand). Also at the end of the sand at the base of the bluff, the rock outcropping stands taller. That just means that a bunch of sand at the base has washed away. I usually put down my back pack on the rocks and its up to my waist. Today it is easily head high. The sand shifts all year round at the beach. Sometimes after a big swell and high tide, there might be no sand at all on the beach and just rocks. It typically does not last long and the sand always comes back.
I get in the water and it is fairly comfortable. Surf is up just a notch over the weekend. I get pass the surfline and start heading south. There is very little visibility today but the water is a beautiful soft turquois blue/green and I can make out the tops of several stalks of kelp. The watchers of the ocean, as I imagine them. Timelessly observing the ocean floor day and night.
It’s a good swim. I’ve been feeling very emotionally ick the last few days and something about the water helps to wash it away at least for a while. I see a small motor boat not too far out from where I am. As I swim with my ears underwater I can hear a high pitched metallic hum. Then not much later I hear what sounds like a roaring engine super close. I have a minor inward freak out thinking a boat is gonna plow right on top of me. It ends up being a helicopter flying really low right above me. What is with all of these helicopters? I see them (not so low) out here all the time - like every day. Where are they all going?
I make my way back to shore. The sun feels much warmer now than it did an hour ago when I was getting in the water. It feels real good to walk up the stairs and feel the sun on my skin even though it is still cloudy. I was definitely correct before thinking that this swim would do me good.
