I left about 10:45. It’s overcast and just a bit foggy. It was totally socked in around 7:00 but it cleared up pretty quickly. As I approach Selva, the hills over Laguna Niguel are almost completely hidden. Looking west, you would think there is absolutely nothing to see but rolling into the parking lot, behold, the ocean. Visibility isn’t the best but it’s good enough. Also it’s plenty warm. The moment my foot touches the ground as I exit the car, it feels as though the sun were shining even though it is not.

I head down the stairs and look out onto the water and everything is grey but lovely. The water slowly moves in a rhythmic motion of up and down and forward. The water’s surface looks smooth and I can see the North Star buoy off in the distance. To my right is the Salt Creek lifeguard tower and Monarch Bay beyond that behind a very light screen of haze.

At the bottom of the stairs is the asphalt which is covered by about half an inch of soft sand. Usually this blacktop holds a very course grit that can be rough on the feet but this sand is nice. It’s amazing how the sand manages to cover the road all the way up top here a couple hundred feet from the shore. I guess it is either caried by the wind or it falls off of the people and their stuff as they walk back to their cars.

The lifeguard station says the water temperature is 71. Now we are talking. When my feet touch the water I immediately register it as warm. It’s like stepping into a pool. This is definitely a notch warmer than my last swim on Sunday.

As I walk into the water, it’s not getting any colder. I’m wondering where the surf is that is reported on Surfline. They claim it is 3 to 4 but I’m seeing 1 to 3. You just never know what its gonna be like based on the Surfline numbers.

I’m being careful to walk out with a shuffling step to avoid stingrays. Someone in the San Diego Open Water Swim Facebook group posted a pic of their stingray stung foot and it looked nasty. I don’t want that.

A set of small waves pass and I walk a little further and then lean in. There is hardly any cold water reaction - probably because the water is not cold. AT ALL. It is so nice.

I feel a little fatigued over the entire swim today. I was feeling a little under the weather yesterday and did not exercise at all. I feel fine today and I almost wonder if I feel tired because the water is so warm that there is no cold sensation to help push me forward. I just want to float out here and go nowhere.

I swim south and then north to almost Salt Creek and then back to where I started. Not much more to say. The water below the surface is a perfect light blue in every direction. There is nothing but blue with some occasional dark shading in my periphery. I swim and lose myself in this gradient of shade. Can I just stay tucked away here in this void of empty blue water and feel it all move over me as my arms and legs propel me forward?

I try to match my thoughts with the water. Any memory or fantasy or fear or hope I reduce to a seaweed-like figment that glides past my field of inner experience. This inner experience blends with my outer sensations and one becomes indistinguishable from the other. Until, that is, I feel something solid yet soft bump against my head. What the heck? Oh it’s the Big Bob buoy. Oh Bob! Once again I’m gobsmacked by how it is that this happens. How does my head and this other spherical object not much larger than my head manage to make contact in the vastness of this ocean. Sure, I’m not wandering about the entire ocean, but even this immediate strip of shoreline is pretty darn broad. I’m beginning to wonder if Bob is sentient and has powers to draw me in. Well that’s fine by me. Bob even has a smile painted on his back side so I know he is super friendly.

I walk out of the water. Things are still grey as can be with the exception of a faint thin line of blue out east of the golf course beyond Salt Creek. A kid who looks to be about 11 asks me with total sincerity, “Hey! Did you see any Orcas?!” I just respond “nah.” Now that would have been something special to write about.