Sheila and I met at the Bulb at 6:30 for an early, sunrise swim. It was beautiful when we arrived; silvery and blue with a clear view of the city and bridge, dramatic clouds and calm water. 

We were cold getting in and, though the temperature was the same as yesterday (51), it felt colder. Colder at the start and colder all the way through our swim. It even took me longer to warm up. That crisp cold air that made the views so spectacular must have also threaded another layer of cold through us. Or maybe it was something we did or didn’t eat or how we slept. The thing about cold water immersion is that it’s so changeable; there are so many separate factors that contribute to how warm or cold the water feels on any given day. 

As the days brightened without any signs of pinks or reds on the eastern sky, we realized it wasn’t going to be a colorful sunrise; “it’s a blue and gray sunrise,” Sheila said. 

Then, right at the end, some wisps of pink appeared below the Golden Gate and beside Mt. Tam. The colors deepened as we were leaving, splashing golden peach over the East Bay hills.