High Tide
Yet another beautiful morning in Dana Point. It’s on the cool side - 54 degrees when I got up at 6:20 but I realize that is mild for much of the globe. It looked like there was a fog bank possibly threatening from the southeast but that never really materialized at the beach. It is a lot like yesterday - mostly sunny skies with these large islands of cloud hovering in random locations throughout the sky.
I’m in a hurry today, or at least I think I am. It is 8:15 and I realize I need to be home by 10:30 which means no time for any lolly-gagging. It ends up I didn’t really need to be home at 10:30 but that fact was not part of my reality when I left the house.
I get to the beach and the air feels warmer than I anticipated which is nice. I am assuming a walk/jog down the stairs. I don’t have time to philosophize over the potential water temperature. There really isn’t a need to anyways. I basically know what it is going to be even though that conflicts in my mind with the cool early morning air temperature.
I also know that the tide is going to be a high 6.5 pretty much just as I am finishing my swim. When I see the shore, it is indeed high. The waves are rolling right up to the rocks at the base of the bluff. Waves are a touch larger than yesterday but breaking almost right on the beach thanks to this tide.
I step into the water and immediately jog toward this oncoming wave and dive beneath it as it is breaking. Another just behind it is about to break and as I dive, I can feel its lip hit my feet. This is all pretty great actually. The water feels nice - perhaps a tad warmer than yesterday. I swim south and the water is all swish-swoshy for much of the way due to the backwash rushing back from the beach in these high tide conditions. The water is a rich, clear blue and filled with the light coming down from the sun rising over the bluff.
I do have the sense that I am swimming beneath a canopy or some kind of shade cover. I must be beneath one of those cloud islands. Soon I notice the light resume its dominance in the water as I emerge into the cover of pure blue sky.
Of course my mind is filled with doomsday scenarios of coming back to a shore that actually is not a shore but large waves crashing right on the rocks. I wonder was this a good idea? What if I die and I can’t get home by 10:30? I allow these thoughts to serve as a sort of Zen koan. Sure there are dangers in high tide and large surf but it seems pretty benign overall today. I let these thoughts pass though my mind. I think of the other thoughts that rage in my head - personal circumstances that I convince myself will lead to utter ruin. How much difference is there between the worry of a killer rouge wave on the rocks and my house falling apart or my money (and my ability to make more money) vanishing or my children living beneath a freeway overpass? I pretty much know the on-rock breaking rouge wave is non sense and I take some comfort in knowing that means the others probably are too.
Heading back north and getting close to the end of the swim. I can see that I can sight plenty of sand on the beach. At the very least, that rouge wave will land me on the sand.
