Ultra Woo Woo

Another incredible day here in Dana Point. Here we are in the first day of March and it feels more like June. It’s about 65 degrees outside at 9:30 when I leave my apartment. The sun is shining over a cloudless sky. Despite what is happening in the news which I am trying, not too successfully, to ignore, I feel like there is the potential for an unlimited number of marvelous things here today.

As I approach the water on Selva Road, I look out onto an exquisite ocean and sky that are but an empty canvas for the painting of dreams to come true. I’m feeling ready to start painting mine.

I can’t help but wonder what the water will feel like. It felt nearly warm on Friday and looking over yesterday’s (Saturday) buoy data, it peaked at 68 degrees. 68!!! The morning temps have come up about two degrees to 63 which is still great compared to the previous week and unbelievable compared to the previous several years. This year is truly an anomaly in the water temperature department.

I walk down the stairs and everything seems wonderful. I’m in good spirits. I got to sleep in until almost 7:00 and I really have no plans at all today. The only thing I really have to get done is this. This swim is the only thing on my calendar and it could be the high point of the entire day.

Yesterday I took my son to the little cove at the end of the harbor near the Ocean Institute. The tide was super low and it was in the mid 70’s. Honestly it felt like it was 80. There was no wind and the ocean was so smooth and glassy. The water felt wonderful on my feet and I so wanted to dive in and swim swim swim. There were lots of people getting in the water because why would they not? I just can’t believe sometimes how incredibly amazing of a place it is where I live.

I get to the shore and the tide is pretty high coming down off of a 6.1 just a couple hours ago. By mid afternoon, it’s going to be pretty darn low. I cross paths with another swimmer I recognize. He is just finishing and has on a full wetsuit and hood. He was last out earlier in the week when it was 59 and was delighted, like I was on Friday, that the water was warmer. He said he may be putting his wetsuit in storage. He also said that he saw dolphins in both directions of his swim. Oh man that sounds so amazing.

I head out into the water and while it’s not exactly a sauna, it is noticeably warmer than even Friday. Surf has picked up just a little bit but still relatively small. It’s “fun sized” as the surf reports call it and who doesn’t like fun? The waves are breaking closer to shore today thanks to the higher tide so I am past it pretty quick. I begin to swim north and I honestly have no idea how far I am going to go. Maybe Crystal Cove? It’s only a 20 mile round trip swim. With any luck I will be back before dark.

I pause just short of the Salt Creek lifeguard tower and I see a bird resting on the water. I’m not sure what kind of bird this is but I think I saw an article on it a couple weeks ago and wanted to look further into it but can’t find that article now. It’s a beautiful bird. I think it quickly notices me and probably thinks something like, “oh fucking human” and promptly dives below the water and I don’t see it come back up. I so wish the water was more clear (it is very murky this week) so I could see it swim underwater but I can’t. I later see another similar bird about 20 feet further out and wonder if it’s the same bird that just relocated itself further away from me. I try to apologize loud enough for it to hear me.

I swim past the point and it feels like I swim past the crowd of surfers really fast. Does time travel faster through warmer water? Perhaps. The water is very nice. There is definitely some 60 degree water still lurking here and there but they are more like cold pockets in warmer water today rather than warm pockets in cold water.

Part of me would love to swim to Three Arch Bay today. It’s definitely a lot closer than Crystal Cove but still a good long haul for me. I’d at least like to just go to the end of Monarch point and get a good view of that craggy point in the sun.

I’m getting close to the Monarch Bay Beach club, which is my usual turn around point. I’m not ready to stop yet but Three Arch Bay feels like a stretch. As much as I am enjoying myself, I don’t want this to be an all day event. I’m looking forward to getting home eventually and having my coffee and writing this post. I am reminded about this youtube interview I saw earlier in the week about a woman who had this psychedelic experience. She saw this white light and did not want to walk into it because she was afraid that if she did, her life would be so transformed that she would become ultra woo woo and unrelatable to others. I wonder if I allow myself to view that point, if the same might happen to me. Better not go. It might be too late.

I end up making it well past the beach club and nearly to the end of the bay just below the small cliff upon which stand houses that have a view of Dana Point to the South and Laguna to the north. I have mentioned it before, and proclaim again now that if I survive the next apocalypse, It will be in one of those houses where I make my encampment.

I turn around and am just a little disappointed that I have seen no trace of dolphins unlike the swimmer I spoke with just before leaving the shore. I know they are out here somewhere.

It’s a beautiful swim all the way back to the Strand where I started. I skirt the edge of the surf lineup and get a good view as the surfers take off on super clean and perfect waves just in front of the Ritz. The tide has come in quite a bit since I left an hour and a half ago. I can already see lots of exposed rocks along the shore as I walk back through the shallows to dry sand.

I’m sure so many wonderful things have happened here in this short little while. So many people have walked here as I have swam and wondered how it is that they are in such a place and now I am wondering the same.