Special But Not That Special

I’m on the road by 11:45. I would have liked to have left earlier, but I’ve been waiting for the fog to clear and wondering if it would clear at all. A week ago I moved into an apartment that is closer to the water. So when there is fog at the beach, there is likely fog where I live. Looking at the ground in my backyard this morning, you’d think it had rained. Finally at about 11:00, I could see signs of a beach on the web cam and by 11:30 it looked like it was earnestly clearing.

It’s cooler outside than it was when I last swam a couple days ago. It’s 58, but it feels nice enough to me. It’s the last day of fall here in the northern hemisphere and it feels pretty much about what I would expect the last day of fall to feel like. It’s not a bad feeling at all, but it sure isn’t summer.

I can see the fog bank still looming in the distance beyond Capo Beach and the southern stretch of Doheny State Beach and I can see it curve close to the point just past the harbor breakwater. It’s a familiar view. Doheny usually sees the sun well before The Strand. I’m sure there are sound environmental reasons for this and I have my theories, but I’ll save myself the embarrassment of sharing them.

When I roll into the parking lot, I can tell that although the lingering fog does not look too far away, we do not appear to be at risk of it reclaiming the shore during my swim. Then again, you never can tell. I’ll take my chances.

There is a small amount of texture on the water but it is mostly calm. It is beautiful here for sure. Other than the distant fog, it is a sunny day out and that fog really only makes it all the more interesting. I head down the stairs and when I reach the shore, a flock of Pelicans are flying north right on the water’s edge and super close to me and my camera is on and ready.

There is a group of youths on the beach doing youthful things involving a ball. I have always underperformed in any sport that ends in the word “ball.” The closest I come to interacting with a ball out on the water is with the buoys, which I do love. Buoys come in all shapes and sizes. The ones on this beach are very ball like. Not so much in Laguna Beach, except for those large, spherical white metal buoys inshore at Emerald Bay.

I get in the water and it feels pretty similar to my last few swims - cold. However, I don’t suffer the cold shock I had when the cold water season began. My head feels like it is just shy of a headache but I know that will clear up in a minute.

I swim south. I don’t know when I’ll swim north again. Maybe not until April or May when the water exceeds 60 degrees again. Visibility is so so and I can at least see something that I’m sure is an ocean floor. The water has a green tint to it today. Somehow when I look into this water and let myself get lost in that green, I feel great comfort. I don’t know just what it is or how to describe it, but the tone and timber of the water sooths me.

I don’t take a lot of pictures today. I can’t bring myself to stop and tarry about in the cold. Especially in the later half of the swim, it feels darn cold. I want to say 57 but I just don’t know. I don’t know why I don’t just get myself a thermometer and bring it out here. I just need something smallish and simple. Perhaps I shall vow to get one this weekend.

I feel like I travel through a vast and expansive territory on these swims. I’m out for roughly an hour but it might as well be a lifetime. I can identify several segments of the swim and they each have their own distinct character. I cover the same route almost every swim but every day it feels and looks different. Will that fog ever sit on the water quite like it is sitting there now?

As I approach the northern end of the swim, the cold comes closer and closer and the space I dwell in inside of the cold gets smaller and smaller. Then when I make the final turn around toward the finish, that space opens up slightly with the knowledge that I am nearly home free. I get closer and closer to the shore and could just as well head to dry sand if I wanted but I don’t.

Well here I am and I come to a standing position just as a Pelican is practically right in front of me. I grab a shot but the bird is not angled all that great. It’s an ok pic but I just can’t ask the pelican for a redo and ask him to pose just like so. I do think I have a special relationship to the birds here, but not that special.