The Days Are Only Getting Longer

The air temperature was supposed to get to over 70 today and I was excited to experience some actual warmth in the sun at the beach today. When I got up before dawn, it was 46 and at 8:00 it had just moved to 50. That’s ok. Wind is forecasted to be calm all day long so I could swim late and still have potentially glassy conditions. Also I’d like to give the 10:00 high tide about an hour to come down a notch.

I’ve been watching the cams and the water at The Strand looks beautifully calm with a kiss of sunlight. Oh it’s gonna be great! So here comes 11:00 and I give the web cam a final peek before heading out and there is nothing to see at all. The fog has drifted in and it is “white out” conditions. Are you kidding me?

I switch to the Doheny web cams and the sun is shining. You can see the well defined fog bank hovering out in the distance but it is a pretty good ways out. I look at the river mouth cam which points southward from the main Doheny lifeguard tower and you can see the fog bank curve and touch land at what looks like probably Poche beach which is about a mile past Capo Beach. Well I proved to myself on Saturday that Capo is swimmable and today’s conditions are much more calm and benign. Capo Beach here I come!

It takes me less than 10 minutes to go from the front door of my new apartment a couple blocks from Pines Park to having my feet in the water in front of the first house at Beach Road. That is pretty great. It’s a beautiful day here and the sun sparkles on the water. Looking north to just outside the Dana Point harbor break water, it’s a different world of mist and fog. Strands might as well be on Mars right now.

I had been wanting an opportunity to swim at Capo in the sun but then I thought to myself, if the sun is shining why would I not want to be at The Strand? Well these clouds answer that question. The water is much more settled than this weekend. Most of the beach is basically flat in the wave department with a small surf break just to my left. Despite the small waves, the slope of the beach and the dip at the water’s edge here make for a strange break right at the edge of the shore. You can see this mild lump roll forward that suddenly pitches up to about stomach height before gently crashing to the pebbly ground. It looks more intimidating than it actually is. You’d think the break would push you over onto the ground but it just kind of crumbles apart and into the earth.

Still, gentle or not, this makes for a pretty quick entry and transition from dry to wet. About as soon as your legs are wet, you take one single step and then start swimming.

The water is cold. I have to think that the mid 40’s air temperatures lately are not helping anything and hardly believe a few hours of mid to upper 60’s temps are going to do much to offset the damage. Well the Winter solstice is behind us now and the days are only getting longer!

By the time I pass the intersection of Palisades and Coast Highway, I start to feel good. The water visibility is about the same cloudy conditions as they were on Saturday. I watch my hands fade into the deep below me. It’s easier to keep track of the hotel and condo buildings across the street on Coast Highway in this sun light. I’d like to get a better idea today of just how far I have swam.

I stick fairly close to shore. There is really no surf west of that funky break on the shoreline. However, I can feel the constant up and down of the oncoming wakes. The water has a very rolling feel to it. I am constantly moving up and down and as I swim north, I take in several mouthfuls of water as these wakes roll right into my facial orifice. I’m not really bothered. I’m enjoying this. I still prefer the beauty and isolation of the Strand’s coastline but it feels novel to have a different vibe.

The cold doesn’t really bother me. I focus on relaxing my entire body with the goal of having it melt into the water so that my curves and crevasses match those of the sloshing water. I want to lose the line where my skin and the water meet. I want to think and breath like the ocean. I don’t really know how that looks or works but I sense it is something that comes from moving my body in the water rather than thinking of ideas about the water. I don’t think the water harbors ideas. The ocean seems to be all about presence and action and the space in between.

I lift up my head and see the pedestrian bridge that traverses Coast Highway. This is about as far as I came on Saturday. I think today I can go farther. According to my watch, I have about another 7 minutes and no harm extending that to 8 or 9. Finally, I am just south of the Doheny State Beach campgrounds and right about at the first hotel building south of the freeway onramp. I think this is a good turn around spot. I look south from where I came and it looks foggier than it did when I started maybe - hard to tell.

As I swim south, I’m taking in less water and getting a more interesting view of the shore. I’m cold but loving this. I pass building after building. I watch the edge of the bluff that’s level with Camino Capistrano slide on by. Every now and then I think I hear what sounds like a motor boat of jet ski and then realize it is the sound of the inside break hitting the pebbly shore and driving all of those little rocks into other little rocks. I’m even further inshore as I swim south than when I swam north.

Based on the movement of the beach, it seems like I am going pretty fast. Everything is gliding by quickly and before I know it I am in front of the rocky barrier at the northern edge of the Capo Beach parking lot. It is still relatively high tide and I briefly lose the beach and then I eventually make my way to the little bit of shore just north of the Beach Road houses. Once I am just at the edge of the houses, I pivot shoreward. A set of a few waves break right about where I am and I let them roll over me. After they pass, I swim the rest of the way in. It feels like I go from “can’t touch the floor” to literally lying on the rocky beach in about 2 seconds.

I walk probably less than a minute to get to my car. I sit, buckle and start my car…wait…it’s not starting. What the…

I call for roadside assistance. All I can think is that I have a dead battery but I just replaced it a couple months ago and it’s not acting like a dead battery. All of my electrical things in the car are fine and the starter doesn’t crank or click. Simply nothing happens. It’s super weird. I suspect the gear is not fully in park because every now and then the ‘R’ light comes on. My toddler son has recently gotten into the habit of racing into the driver’s seat and messing with the controls and I think this may be related. I’m still waiting for roadside assistance who is lost up at Catalina and Las Palmas. I do a little internet surfing and stumble upon a post that suggests I might try shifting into neutral and starting. I do this and voila - my engine starts!