Air to Water Ratio
It’s a little cooler today. It is 61 degrees and there is a bit of a breeze as I leave the house at 10:45. However there are no clouds in the sky. I can not only see the sun but I can feel it too and it feels good.
The water looks fairly ruffled up as I enter the parking lot. I look for signs of chop and at first I think I see some but then realize those are lobster trap buoys I am seeing. Even still, it’s not like I’d call off the swim if there was chop.
I walk down the stairs and I am traversing sun, shade and wind and my body can’t seem to decide if it is warm or cold. Just how much longer do I have where I can walk to the beach with only trunks. In previous seasons, it is the water that decides it is time to carry layers of clothing with me and it has always been some time in November. Here we are well into December and it may be the air this year that makes me reach for my backpack, but I’m still holding out.
The beach is lovely and it is a medium tide. There is an ever so faint layer of haze on the horizon. The sun shimmers on the water’s surface giving it a silver tint. I enter the water and I am trying to judge the temperature differential between today and early Sunday morning. It seems like it should be at least as warm if not warmer now but I can’t get a solid confirmation on that. All signals point to colder.
I dive in and make my way south. Yep, it is colder today. It’s not a drastic drop and I wonder if it is me or the water. There are so many factors involved in the perception of cold. I’ve been listening to this book by Diana Nyad who swam from Cuba to Florida. She talks about the 85 degree water and how even at that warmth, she would get hypothermic after a day or so. She also talked about trying to put on weight before a swim marathon event in an effort to add fat to prolong the onset of hypothermia. Hmm…maybe I’ll have some ice cream tonight.
I’m trying to collapse my entire sense of self and the outside world into this pin pointed moment of swimming in this water. If I can drop the anticipation of warm and dry, can there even be a cold and wet? I notice myself trying to swim ahead of the cold and then I try to bring myself back to it - right in the center of it. I’m trying to find that place where there is only breath, only water and only my stroke propels me forward in space and time. I know that place is right here.
The current is definitely westerly and from the south. As I head north it feels like my mouth and air way is under some kind of attack. I go several breaths in a row where water creeps in. I try to twist my neck further up toward the sky to get a more favorable air to water ratio. I have to stop a couple times just to get a good bit of air and then proceed onward.
I finish up the swim and feel the exuberance typical of almost every swim. The walk back up is not exactly warm but not exactly cold. I hold the hand rail and feel its heat. Where is that ice cream? Or perhaps a warmed up cookie would do the trick.
