This all went so well yesterday. Why not do it again today? Well, if I want to swim at all, it is my only option. Lucky for me it is a great option!

The weather today looks to be about identical to yesterday, which is perfect. The sky is clear and at 9:00 it is just over 60 and forecasted to climb to 70 in the next few hours. It’s a February gift. It’s like 2025 decided to dispense a small bonus for our efforts so far because it looks to be shaping up to be a strong quarter. Hey thanks 2025.

I’m off to a 90 minute head start from yesterday’s run and I start running to Capo Beach at a quarter after 9. The late morning breeze has not kicked in yet so it actually feels warmer than yesterday. I can feel that sweet sweet sun on my neck. It occurs to me that I really don’t need this shirt at all which I will have to leave at the shore when I start my swim. Oh well, I’m not going back to leave it in my apartment.

The water looks smooth and I swear that on my walk with Ocean (my dog) through Pines Park earlier this morning, the water looked just a little more blue than yesterday. We’ll get there.

There is a WNW swell in the water. Strands and Salt Creek will probably be about shoulder high surf but it is smaller at Capo and Doheny where I am swimming. At the break where I get in the water, the waves rise and look like they are going to be decent sized but then they come down a couple notches just before they actually break. Its all fairly soft and mushy which makes it easy for me to swim through.

The tide is a little higher when I get in the water and I’m taken a little by surprise when I step into that trough at the edge of the water and quickly descend over my head. So I start to swim but just about 20 feet or so before I walk again past the surf. Boy it is so dark under the water here. It is an odd contrast from the full sunlit surface.

It’s not long before I am as far past the surf as I want to be and I start swimming towards…hmm…what am I swimming towards? I certainly don’t want to point towards the harbor. That would lead me way offshore. At The Strand I swim towards the lifeguard tower below the Ritz. Oh hey! Look! It’s Doheny lifeguard headquarters. Yes, that makes a perfect waypoint to focus on. Nothing like a good solid lifeguard tower.

The water feels the same as yesterday which is great. I am telling you it feels like it is darn close to 60. I actually feel almost comfortable the entire swim. That Camp Pendleton buoy that was reporting 59 yesterday was back to 58 today but apparently Doheny didn’t get the memo.

There isn’t much to tell about the swim itself and it is a near repeat of yesterday other than the fact that it was totally different. The light, the texture of the water, the sound of birds from I can’t tell where and a Seal sighting were compltely different from yesterday. Ther was no hydrofoil today. However I swam the exact same distance in about the exact same time with the current running in the same direction and from what I could tell, all of the same buildings were standing on Coast Highways and the same trees and houses were standing on top of the bluff. These are all good and wonderful things.

Ok maybe the Seal is worthy of special mention. I had stopped to catch a glimpse of where I was. I was just past the pedestrian bridge. And I see this bulbous form floating on the water. At first I think buoy but I can hear it breathing. Wait a minute, buoys don’t breath. Oh it’s a Seal. I say hello and keep swimming and never saw it again.

When it was all over, I was pretty darn spent. After almost two weeks without swimming, I apparently need to regain some fitness. It felt like it was going to take forever to make the final swim to shore until I noticed that I was in stomach high water from a pretty good ways out. So I just stood up and walked the rest of the way.

The real challenge was the very last step. I needed to ascend that final and suddenly steep 2 feet rise to the dry shore. The sand here is soft and I was hoping the oncoming waves would help me make the final push. They did not. I must have looked a little funny crawling up and over.

The run home was great. It reminded me of that final ascent up the stairs to the Strand parking lot. It was a time to reflect on the greatness of what I just experienced and given that and the outstanding pleasantness of the weather, to bask in gratitude for being able to live in such a beautiful place.