All I Need To Know
Finally the fog has lifted. I was wondering if I’d ever see the beach again. On Sunday (four days ago) I drove to the Strand early, took a run, and then the fog rolled in and I decided it was just too thick for a swim. It has been like that every day since. Tuesday the fog didn’t break until after 3:00 and yesterday I don’t think it broke at all.
Today at about 10:45 I was just about to give up and leave for a run when I could see just the faintest hint of white water on the web cam. I gave it a few minutes and by 11:00 it was pretty clear. I left my house at about 11:45 and as I approached PCH, I could see patchy fog lingering in the creek bed east of Doheny and west over the ocean. Often on foggy days, Doheny is the first to clear and Strands is the last. Tuesday morning I ran along the south end of Doheny and it was not bad at all but Strands was invisible.
I get to the parking lot at strands and am happy to find that I can see all the way west to the horizon and north to Monarch. It’s still completely overcast out but the air is fairly warm and it is quite pleasant. Sure, sun would be lovely but I feel like beggars can’t be choosers. I’m so happy just to be able to see the water. I think that’s the longest run of dense fog we have had here in the four years that I have been swimming here.
As I head down the stairs, I’m trying not to think too much about the potential water temperature. I’ve been watching the buoy data and it’s remained pretty much flat all week. We are finally getting some south wind today and warmer air temps are in the forecast so things could turn around.
Not a whole lot of people here today but it is not completely vacant either. It is lovely. When I get to the shore and look south, you can see a foggy mist hugging the cliff just below the headlands.
Still not much surf here. It looks like there is something more than nothing rolling in but nothing to get excited about. The water feels about the same as I left it on Saturday. However after I start swimming for a couple minutes, I think the temperature may have come up a degree. It’s certainly no colder. Some spots are warmer than others but on the whole it’s not bad.
I’m just happy to be here. It’s only been five days but that’s a good while for me. The water is super clear out here in front of Niguel Shores but as soon as I pass the little lifeguard station, the visibility becomes cloudy until I reach the south end of the beach.
Everything feels calm and peaceful here. The clouds and fog give this place a sort of muted quality that feels far far away from any sort of stress or hurry. I look out to the horizon and ponder that I have all that I could ever need right here and right now. I have so many questions about the world and god and all that kind of thing but those questions just kind of fade away here. They just don’t seem to matter much. What questions can I possibly have about the nature of god as I look out on this vast expanse of water? What I see here is all I need to know.
I stay pretty close to shore all the way back to the north end of the beach. I don’t know if this is because of the current or some subconscious drive to remain in close reach of land in case the fog returns. Fog is an unpredictable beast. There are times on the swim when the edge of the water where it meets the sky appears so soft and the edge almost becomes lost and I wonder if the fog has re-emerged. It does not.
There are a couple boats I see come close that appear to be checking on their lobster traps and I swim around two lobster trap buoys as I circle back to return to my starting spot.
The water is clear out here and I dive down to get a look at the cage on the floor. I probably get about half way before feeling a desire for air and heading back to the surface.
I watch the bluff below Niguel Shores all the way back to the asphalt road and things feel like they are moving along quickly. The ocean surface remains fairly smooth over the whole swim and there really is not much of any current to fight today. Over these final several strokes, I look down upon what looks like white sand beneath sky blue water. There are a pattern grooves in the sand that look like a Japanese Zen garden. I reach the shore and stand. There is that fog still at the end of the beach.
