Summer, where have you gone?

I woke up at 5:30 to nearly clear skies. There was just a strip of cloud I could see along the coast in the dawn twilight. As the morning grew brighter, I could see it was a thick cloud bank. From my house, it looked like fog but from what I could make out on the web cams, it was just low clouds and you could see the horizon rather clearly. So it wasn’t anything that would disrupt a swim.

I started off by heading to the gym for some elliptical. Ugh. My ankle has been pretty tender this week, so I think it’s best to give it a rest from running. I do run to the gym but that is conveniently less than a mile.

After I get home, I take care of a couple house hold tasks and then head to the beach at about 9:30. It is super warm at my house but just a few miles away in the Strand parking lot, it’s much cooler but not cold. I can see the cloud bank not far to the North West. It’s looking like things will likely clear up before too long.

There looks to be quite a bit of churn on the water.

As I begin the descent down the stairs. There are two women standing to the side. One looks to be steadying the other. The weaker one falls and drops her phone. I grab her phone and help her friend get her back up. She insists she is ok and I really hope that she is.

I get to the beach and it is not quite the summer paradise it was yesterday. The sky looks like it can’t quite make up its mind about what season it is.

As I begin to swim out I notice one thing. It’s cold! Like low 60’s or even high 50’s cold. Summer, where have you gone?!

As I swim south, this cold water continues without much respite. The water is super cloudy and churny.

Once I reach the south end, the water begins to clear up and also warm up. Now it feels like high 60’s. I am well aware that I better enjoy this while it lasts because it is going to end soon as I retrace my way back North.

As I slowly approach the North end, I can feel the fickleness of the cloud cover even with my head in the water. It transitions back and forth between bright sunny water to grey.

Every once and a while I look up toward the Monarch Bay cliffs. There is blue sky and a light mist of fog hovering in the hill side. The cliff just to the right of the Salt Creek lifeguard tower is a beautiful grey/brown/silver against the patch of blue behind it.

I finally make it to the Green Monster buoy and it looks like this day is turning around and burning off the clouds.

I head back South to finish the swim and it does not take long for the grey to settle back in. The walk back up the stairs continues this grey and I don’t see much of any sun until I round the corner on PCH into Dana Point’s Lantern District.