A Storm Brewing

I left the house a little after 9:00 today. Skies were partly cloudy to fairly sunny most of the early morning. However from mid-morning onward they are becoming more fickle.

As I approach Doheny, I see what looks like a fog bank creeping through the San Juan creek bed and into the ocean. I didn’t see any fog on the web cams and this looks pretty meager but we’ll just have to see what happens.

Sure enough, once I am in the parking lot, looking north I don’t see anything resembling fog however the cloud cover seems to be expanding. It’s not a thick or heavy cloud bank, just lots of wispy clouds in the sky. If anything they make the sky more interesting. There is plenty of light right now.

As I walk down the stairs, I find myself thinking more about tomorrow than today. I am wondering just what conditions hurricane Hillary (a tropical storm by the time it gets here) will bring. I’m reading lots of mixed reports. The major news franchises are predicting some kind of eschatological event but the surf report is much more toned down. I trust the surf report more at least when it comes to wind and swell.

South OC is not supposed to get big waves except maybe some head high surf tomorrow afternoon/evening and wind is supposed to be normal. According to that I should be ok to swim but if it downpours from 3AM and all day like my weather app says it will, water quality is going to be an issue. Who knows? I guess we’ll just see what is happening when I get up but I’m setting expectations for no swimming the next couple days.

Thankfully the water looks much calmer today than it has been in a couple days. I do like it rough sometimes but I am ready for a rest. There is a pretty good crowd down here and as I make contact with the sand, a decent but not really big set of waves roll in. There is a pretty large pack of surfers well past the point at Salt Creek. I wonder if the surf report has under reported conditions - it wouldn’t be the first time.

By the time I hit the water, there is no set in sight and I swim out past the surfless line of surf. I’m heading north today and am going to play it by ear as far as how far I swim. I might go to Monarch Beach or maybe just the northern Salt Creek bathrooms.

When I first plunge under water I immediately see a large school of fish hanging out on the bottom. I set my aim for the tip of Monarch point. As I cross the Salt Creek point about 50 feet past the surfers, I can feel the waves roll through that will break by the time they get to the surfers. I’m definitely in a safe spot but my mind starts playing tricks with me.

Maybe this all is a terrible idea. Maybe some rouge set from Hillary will create some crazy conditions out here. Maybe this really is the end of the world jut like CNN says it is. I know myself well enough to know how ridiculous these thoughts are.

Overall I feel really good and it seems like I could just swim forever. I tell myself to just calm down and focus on my breath and my surroundings - the real ones that are actually all around me right now.

I’m facing the horizon on the entire north bound leg of the swim and occasionally seeing how I am lined up with the end of the bay. I choose not to pay attention to my paranoid thoughts, which are still active, and just keep swimming.

I run into this interesting mound of sea weed and stop to take a picture. I can see that I am well past the northern bathrooms which was the minimum distance I wanted to travel - boy that went fast - and I decide to get closer to the cliffs. I swim for at least another ten minutes until I decide I am close enough and then I turn around to head back.

The wind is starting to pick up and the water is definitely more agitated than when I started. Still it is not nearly as bad as yesterday and I am going with the current.

The light here seems to wax and wane. There are moments where the sun pokes through and I can feel it lift my spirits and I enjoy the water shining through the water and onto the ocean floor where I can see the reflection of the ripples on the surface. I see the people walking on the beach and frolicking in the ankle to knee deep water and it seems only good things could ever happen here.

Then the clouds obscure the sun and it grows darker and my paranoid thoughts grow in strength matching the size of those rouge waves coming my way. I choose to ignore all that and I tell myself that I have all day to swim back to where I started. And this is true - I actually really do in fact have all day, but I’d like to get some other things done as well.

The water feels just a bit warmer today than yesterday. There are some frigid spots and some warmer spots but on average the warmer spots seem to out number the colder ones.

I love this view as I head south - both the constant scene of the shore as I swim and then when I pause, the double points of Salt Creek and Dana in the southern distance.

As I near the surf break, I can feel the waves grow steeper and I decide to veer ever so slightly more westward to avoid the break. I see the lifeguard tower as I pass Salt Creek point and it’s front side looks like a gaping open mouth with its lower doors wide open and revealing a dark void inside.

Soon I am back in Dana Strand territory and it’s a different beach than Salt Creek. Most notably, significantly less sand. It feels like I cover this final distance between the point and my finish at a unusually high speed but with no extra effort expended on my part.

I make it to shore and as I look out on the water, it’s just another day here. Well maybe that is not entirely true. It is absolutely more cloudy than when I got here. To repeat a quote my two and a half year old son has recently picked up from TV, “it looks like there is a storm brewing!”

Climbing up the stairs a couple asks me if I felt anything unusual in the currents today. I report that I did not.