Dead Hand
We are recovering from yesterday’s rain before round two comes this weekend. Earlier this morning, the sky was cloudy but over the course of the mid morning hours, there is more and more blue sky emerging.
By the time I leave at 10:30, I’d say the cloud coverage is about 50% but it feels like it is mostly sunny. By the time I get to the parking lot, there is even more sun. As I walk down the stairs, I can feel the warmth of the sun on me and it is becoming very much a lovely day.
I’m watching the lines of surf steadily roll in. Looking a hundred feet offshore, it looks large but then it doesn’t amount to much once it actually breaks near shore. The water is a deep rich blue and the cloud formations are super interesting all around.
Once I reach the asphalt at the bottom of the stairs, I can see a group of about 15 Pelicans mostly just sitting and floating on the water and there are several incoming Pelicans in the air diving and plunging into this same area of water presumably hunting for fish.
The tide is high just starting to come down from 6 feet. There is about a one foot wall of sand at the high tide line where the sand below has been eaten away. Despite the fact that the surf is not breaking huge, it is larger than what was here on Monday. The water feels about the same as it has been the last week.
I walk into the water and start swimming. I swim through an incoming set of waves, climbing over the faces and on to the next one. Once I am well past the surf I reach a couple of birds who don’t seem at all concerned with my presence. I’m looking for that larger group of Pelicans but they are no longer here.
I swim south and I can’t really tell if the water is warmer today than Monday or not. I definitely feel more comfortable today. I try to just keep my body and mind relaxed. My internal perception of comfort improves the more relaxed I let myself be.
I am thoroughly enjoying the swim. I watch the clouds over the bluff and it makes for an extremely picturesque view.
There are so many birds in the air today. As I near the south end of the beach, there are lines of Pelicans swooping down to just above the water near the shore and then hovering and gliding around the point.
Further off in the distance past the point I can see waves breaking on the rocks. Then I turn to look north towards Monarch and I see a gathering of clouds just above the Ritz Carlton that casts a shadow over the bathrooms on the beach.
So now I head back north towards those same bathrooms. The current today is definitely coming from the south and I can feel myself being pushed by the constant procession of wakes. I’m surprised how quickly I seem to reach the northern turnaround point. It was a delightful trip along the way.
The water is not clear but it also has a sort of clean and pristine look to it. There are a couple patches where it gets a little cloudy and simultaneously colder. There is very little wind out and besides the wakes from the swells, the water’s surface is smooth. Eventually, looking toward the horizon, I can’t really see a single cloud with the exception of a small layer of thick cloud in the further distance.
I finally head back toward where I started to finish off the swim. There are lots of clouds to the east scattered about. I point myself directly toward the asphalt road. Over the last half of the swim, the outer edge of my right hand has grown numb. This is fairly normal once the water gets into the low 60’s which is where it is now. Other than that I feel great.
I finally reach shore just as a larger set of waves is coming in. The light, water and sand all give this place a very special glow.
I walk up the stairs and let my right hand settle on the warm railing and that starts to breath some life into my dead hand. I look behind me and spot that same outcropping of thick cloud cover near the horizon that I saw out in the water. It looks like it is all concentrated around Catalina Island. It makes me wonder what it would be like right now to stand in the Avalon harbor and look toward where I am standing now.
