Translation: Warm

These mornings are starting to look reminiscent of late spring through early summer with the overcast marine layer. The cloud cover is all consuming here in Dana Point this morning, but if I look straight up and into the creases in the clouds, I do see little shifting spots of blue sky.

I leave at about 9:20 and get to the Strand parking lot which has almost no wind and a nearly smooth ocean surface. It’s about 58 degrees outside and very peaceful. I walk down the stairs and stare at the water. The buoy temp data really hasn’t changed so I pretty much know what the water is going to feel like. It’s going to feel cold - just cold - not freezing which translates in my head to warm. Who doesn’t like warm?

It’s a mid tide - probably close to two feet. There is a bigger step to get from the concrete ramp to the sand but also an accumulation of sand near the rocks where I lay my backpack that hides the lower layers of boulders that make up the base of the bluff.

I head out into the water and it is super clear and I’m looking for large rocks on the floor which are scattered here and there but there is a wide sandy path if you can find it. The sand rises and falls. I’m shin deep, then waist deep, then belly and then knee deep again. Waves are pretty small stuff but definitely present. This last set of waves passes and now it feels so quiet and peaceful and there is nothing left to do but start swimming.

I’m off and heading south. It’s warm enough where north is an option but I just feel like going south today. The water does indeed feel just like Monday - nice - maybe 60 degrees. We made it! Things can easily change for the better or for the worse like the stock market but right now I have no reason to complain.

The water is a beautiful light sky blue and pretty darn clear. There is kelp dancing about everywhere. It’s a great place to be. I’m immersed, literally immersed, in a completely different world right here. There is no way to properly explain it to someone walking on the beach. The best I can do is use my words but they all fall short.

I get to the south end of the beach and come to my stopping point and then see a surfer paddle past me as we say hi to one another and he stops and sits as if waiting for a wave. I say “as if” because based on where he is at, I don’t know what wave he is waiting for. He seems content enough though. I know I am. I take in the view of the entire northern cliff of the headlands and it is beautiful and the water below is perfectly smooth. I pause here for a couple minutes and then turn around to head back up the coast.

It’s a great swim. I can feel the cold water but it is super manageable. Everything seems so quiet here. It is hard to believe that there could be any surf breaking anywhere. I see kelp all around me. I pass through an outcropping and into a clearing and then I spy a shadow up ahead that slowly transforms and coalesces into another tree and the cycle begins anew.

I don’t pause at all until I get to my northern turnaround point at the opposite end of the beach. I stop there and lift the camera and what I see looks really strange. I’m trying to figure out what I am looking at through the view finder and I realize that the display is upside down and I can’t seem to right it. This totally annoys me but I figure the picture will likely come out right side up and even if it doesn’t, that’s why we have computers. So I just point the damn thing and figure it will capture what ever my eyes are seeing. And guess what? It does!

I see two Cormorants not too far offshore from where I am but too far to get a decent photo of. Still, they are nice to look like. They remind me of some kind of miniature swan. Just to the south of them I see a small flock of small birds on the water. At least that is what I think I see. I start to swim further out to see if I can get closer but my motivation fades and I don’t want to scare them off.

I turn back around and in just 10 minutes or so the swim is over. I walk back up the stairs and when I get up top I look out to the horizon and now there are large expanses of cloudless blue sky in the distance. They are too far to make this day feel sunny yet but that will change in time.