Cancelled Meetings

Well what yesterday lacked in visual titillation, it was well made up for today.

I thought I had missed my swim window this morning. I had a 9:00 meeting and got caught up in some work and by the time it was light and I was good to go, I knew I would not make it back in time. Wind is supposed to kick up early today but from the north-east so it might be fine later I hope. Then the meeting is cancelled at 7:45 and I’m out the door by 8:00.

It’s a beautiful clear blue sky. There are some large puffy clouds looming about just barely visible far on the horizon. It’s 58 degrees out here just above sea level but I can feel that sun and it feels good.

I get to the parking lot and the ocean surface is smooth. I can see the sun shining on the multitude of lobster trap buoys scattered about the water. The air is clean and cool. It’s a bit cooler on my walk down the stairs than it was yesterday but I’m comfortable enough in just swim trunks.

The tide is quite high. The water comes all the way up to the end of the beach just south of the asphalt road, but there is still a good 10 foot strip of sand I have to walk on to my starting point.

The water feels unremarkably cool on my feet. So unremarkable in fact that it inspires hope that today’s swim will be pleasant in the water temperature department. That would certainly be remarkable enough for me.

There is surf today. I’d say slightly more so than yesterday. Early in the week we had a fairly significant SSW swell. The first in weeks. Trestles saw some 10 foot waves. That swell still lingers but with less intensity. Today we are supposed to be getting a pulse of north-west energy to fortify the easing SSW swell.

The shade from the inshore cliff comes up to just where the water meets the sand. With the high tide, there are waves breaking close to shore so I get wet up to my shoulders pretty quick and it’s not bad at all. I soon start to swim. No. It’s not 70 or even 68, but I’m gonna say 64-65 and that is nothing to complain about. It’s really pretty great. So glad that meeting got cancelled. This is way better than what the meeting would have been.

I’m not too crunched for time and it is so pleasant here that I decide to go north today. With the extra surf, I’m trying to aim a little more westward than I have been the last couple months. I can see the waves breaking just past the point in front of the big lifeguard tower up there.

The light is just exquisite and the water is smooth. I’m looking north and the water looks like melted butter. I can see the ripples on the surface appear almost motionless like they are carved into the water. The forerunners of waves that will eventually break 100 feet west of me roll in gracefully. As they do the tip of Monarch point disappears. Then they pass me and I watch them crash and bounce white water on the shore.

I pass a seemingly never ending string of lobster buoys. Kelp gathers and clings to the rope below them. They are all different colors. Some are green others red and yellow and there are plenty more combinations. I see several that have a large ‘P’ marking on them and wonder if that signifies a particular fisherperson. A commercial lobster fisherman contacted me a couple weeks ago after seeing some of my pictures and recognized his traps. When I started reading his message I got nervous that he might be angry I am posting them here on the internet but he thought they looked cool and wanted a way to get the pics. I discovered that he sells many lobsters to Jon’s Fish Market at the harbor and might need to look into that.

As I pass the point, a popular surf break, I can hear hoots and hollers from the surfers. Sounds like someone caught a nice ride. There are definitely some good ones today. Size is pretty good and conditions are super clean. It’s also a beautiful day and that’s gotta count for something.

I’m getting closer to the Monarch Beach Club and the sky above the golf course is looking kind of dirty. I’m guessing there must be a fire burning out in the hills somewhere. This gets darker and darker and a little more widespread as the swim continues.

The water is so nice. I seem to be getting warmer and by the time I turn around just short of the beach club, I’m not bothered by the cold one bit. I love staring at the shore on the way back. I just lose myself in the sand and the grass and the houses and the little lifeguard stand and the immensity of the Ritz and I can hardly believe it when here I am in front of Niguel Shores already.

I see a couple of commercial fisherman boats presumably checking their traps. I wonder if that guy I talked to a couple weeks ago is on one of them.

I’m staring at house after house pass by above the bluff. I’m slightly annoyed when my thoughts seem to intermingle with dreams and I temporarily can’t tell what is real. What is memory and what is fantasy? I often find myself fighting to find the intersection of real and not real both in and out of the water and grow frustrated when it all seems like a blur. Maybe somethings are never meant to be so clear cut. Certainly not as much so as I would prefer.