I wake up at 5:30 and hear water dripping into my rain gutters. It’s a drizzly 4th of July morning. I’m releasing all expectations of a sunny swim today. I check the Strands web cam and it is just a sheet of untextured grey.

I go through my usual morning routine of meditation, walking the dog and other random chores. By 6:30 the beach is starting to surface on the web cams. I still can’t see Monarch Point from the Salt Creek Overview cam.

I head to the gym for an elliptical suffering session. Oof, my random hill routine has three maxed uphill lines plotted and I can tell it’s gonna be a grind. Actually, it wasn’t all that bad in retrospect. Leaving the gym - still thick clouds.

At this point, it looks foggier here in Capo than it does at the Strand. I head out at about 9:15.

The parking lot is fuller than usual. It is July 4th afterall. I wonder what the tourists and even those who live just 30 minutes away and rarely come here think. It was probably sunny at their houses when they left and they were thinking “oh what a great day it will be at the beach!” I’m not saying it won’t be a great day, but it might not be what they expect.

As I walk down the stairs, I can see some waves rolling in. There are a couple south swells in the water today. It’s definitely bigger than it has been for a week but the sets are pretty well spaced out.

By the time I actually get to the beach, I don’t see any waves of significance until after my swim. However throughout the swim I can feel the energy rolling through every now and then.

The swim is good. The water feels like it is in the neighborhood of 65 degrees.

I see a couple other non-wetsuited swimmers - not a common sight. I see this boat not too much further out from me where I see several stand up paddleboarders launching from. Most notable though is what I do NOT see. When I get to the bathrooms at the north end of the beach, I cannot find the Green Monster buoy. I look and look and look and finally give up. I feel like where I am should be practically on top of it.

The swim soon comes to an end and I walk down to the Salt Creek lifeguard tower with my Dad. There are a ton of chairs laid out on the beach with no people. We figure they got here early to claim their spot. Hopefully they come back before the tide claims their stuff.

From the vantage point of the shore, we conclude that the Green Monster is gone. I just hope it went quickly and painlessly. Perhaps it was an aggressive Sea Lion that had just had enough. It was probably thinking, “Who’s the monster now!?”

The lifeguard tower posts the water temperature at 65-66 which seems about right. Then when we walk by the little lifeguard station at the Strand it posts 62. 62?! Don’t these lifeguards talk to each other? I think it’s time to get a new thermometer.

As we are finishing our walk at 11:30, we can see blue sky peeking through. Well happy 4th of July everybody - it may just burn off by noon.