Warm Blanket

Early swim today. I have a meeting scheduled for 8:30 and I need to get my ex-wife’s car to the mechanic, which leaves me without a car for the day, so I need to swim before that meeting if I want to swim at all today, and I do indeed want to swim. Turns out there is no need to have set my alarm this morning. My dog is waking me at 4:15 to let me know our morning walk needs to happen right now this instant. Not a problem. In fact this should make sure I get out for a swim on time.

It does. I’m out my door for the beach just a couple minutes past 6:30. The light has not been out long and we have full cloud cover here. I don’t anticipate this will clear before the swim ends. Everything is gray and I can’t see too far out on the water. Everything is covered in clouds. Still, I am expecting the swim to be nice. The buoys were reporting 65 degree water when I woke up.

I park and get out of the car. It is somewhat cool but mostly comfortable. Today is one of those days when the water might just be more comfortable than walking here on the shore. It looks like there has been some more sand deposited on the beach in recent days. Jupiter rock is about half buried in sand. The tide is high but there is still a few feet of shore. However, a wave comes in and rolls all the way to the rocks and drenches the legs of a morning beach walker. She seems to take it in good spirits.

I get in the water. The waves are present but fairly small. The surface is nice and smooth. The luminosity is still quite dim. It’s nice though - very peaceful. Gray sky, gray water, very few people. There is just the gentle sound of the waves breaking and a pelican or two flying south, low over the water.

I get past the white water and start to swim. Just a slight pulse of coolness runs through my body and soon it calms and becomes quite pleasant. I do think I am warmer now than I was on the beach. There is some slight variation in warmth and coolness but overall it is very palatable. I swim south. Beneath the surface, all is a very light, pale blue. It is as peaceful below as it is above. I pass over a smooth sandy bottom with the occasional rock here and there.

There is really not a lot going on here. No surfers except for maybe one or two and no birds except for maybe three or four. It’s just gray everywhere I look. That’s not a bad thing. This all lays a sort of warm blanket over my heart. Then I reach the south end and I can see the cliffs beneath the headlands and there are earthy colors and rugged textures spanning my vision. It looks very pretty. A seagull comes flying by and lands right on my turnaround rock. I say “hello.” No response.

After briefly looking around, I proceed north to span the entire length of Strands Beach. Although the cloud cover remains, I can see wisps of blue tones escaping and hinting that somewhere here there exists a sun and blue sky. I am sure they will be magnificent when they finally show but I won’t be here. I swim and I swim and I pass a few random stalks of kelp and then eventually there is the Salt Creek lifeguard tower and it is time to turn around again. I can hear hoots and hollers from the small crowd of surfers in front of the Ritz. It sounds like a young group and they are having fun.

I swim back to where I started. The surface is still relatively smooth and peaceful. I gradually veer closer and closer to shore until I stop just in front of the house where I always begin the swim and I can feel the sand under my feet. Glassy waves are rolling in and breaking just up the beach parallel to my position. They are soothing to watch and so I do. One rises right over me and at the same time I see a pelican rising from a floating position on the other side of the wave. The wave breaks over me and I pop back up and try to aim my camera in the general direction of where I last saw that pelican. I have no idea what I am going to get, but I click the shutter button. We’ll just see what I capture later. I guess you are seeing it now.

I get back to my car at exactly the time I was hoping for - 8:15. I get home with 5 minutes to dry off and put on dry clothes before my meeting. I rush to my computer and the meeting is delayed an hour. Perfect. Just enough time to sit down and write this.