This morning Arwen and I met up at Keller for a chilly swim in a lovely high tide.

Keller Beach is a small, pretty little beach in Point Richmond that is often busy on a weekend; families gathering for parties at the picnic areas, kids playing in the sand, teens laying in the sun. It’s popular with open water swimmers, too, and there are usually a handful of groups going out at different times during the day. But on this Sunday morning, it was extremely quiet; just Arwen and I and one woman walking her dog. 

The water was surprisingly cold (59 degrees versus the 63 of yesterday’s sunrise swim at the bulb), which is exactly how I like it. Cold and clear, the water felt lovely. I’ve only swum at Keller a handful of times and nearly all of them have involved unnerving seal encounters, so Arwen and I kept our heads up and scanned the water as we swam (collectively we are even bigger chickens than either of us are individually).

But there were no seals to scare us; just a beautiful morning on the bay with the sun burning through the fog, the grays and blues and greens of the energetic water scaling into the sky. Tankers on the horizon in front of the Richmond Bridge and beyond it all, Mountain Tamalpais reaching up into the sky.