I left at about 7:15 this morning and it is another beautiful Fall morning in Dana Point. No clouds in the sky to be seen. A little crisp but I don’t exactly need to pull out the hat and gloves. I haven’t had to do that since moving from Washington.

I get to the parking lot and it is looking and feeling a lot like yesterday but the skies are even more clear today.

Down at the beach the tide is high like yesterday as well and surf is still up but I think it is down a notch from yesterday.

Another swimmer is starting his swim and another person is getting in to just get wet and swim around the shore break.

The water feels the same as yesterday (which is perfect - maybe 67) and visibility is pretty terrible. No sign of the ocean floor today past the surf.

I head south and am soaking in the sun’s rays with every stroke of my arms. The sun has freshly risen above the cliffs and ignites the surface of the ocean below. I pause and look back at the beach. The shore practically looks dark under the cliffs.

Just shy of the headlands, it feels like the lights just go out as I swim into the shade of the bluff. Water is still pleasant. I get to my usual turn around point just beyond the big rock that sticks out of the water there. It looked like everything was calm as could be and then I see a wave growing just beyond me. Wait…it’s not really going to break all the way out here is it? Certainly not. It looks huge and soon it becomes clear that I should dive. I swim under and back out the back and can feel the spray of the curl blowing back on to where I am. I watch it pound on top of that big rock. I can hear the fisherman hooting that are standing on the rocks just to my south.

Well that was almost interesting. I get a shot of the wave’s aftermath and then head back north.

Such a beautiful beautiful day. The horizon is a crystal clean blue and pink. There are lobster trap buoys all over the place in all different colors. There is a medium sized boat patrolling the shoreline probably checking its traps. I see a large school of Corbina swim by me and I can hear the boat’s high pitched motor as I duck below the surface to get a picture of the fish, which totally does not come out.

Once I am well up the coast towards Salt Creek, I look back toward Dana Point and I can see a mist falling off the bluff and onto the beach. I frequently hear the sound of the breaking waves throughout the entire swim. It definitely does not have quite the drama of yesterday except for that “rouge wave” on the southern end.

Yesterday afternoon I came back with my son to throw rocks into the tide pools and walk down the stairs as though it was some kind of feature attraction at Disneyland. The surf was pumping at Salt Creek. The waves were breaking way out beyond the point. That doesn’t seem to be happening now.

At the northern bathrooms I turn around and head back to where I started. Shortly before I finish as I am swimming into the surf zone, a wave comes. It is breaking slowly from left to right making this wonderful noise as each successive cascade of its lip hits the water at the base. I can still hear it now like a string of fireworks each igniting the next.

When the wave makes contact with me, it pushes me to the edge of the shore, I stand myself up as the high tide hits the rocks below the bluff and I’m off and walking to the stairs.