It was another gray morning; fog swirling around as I arrived at the Albany Bulb. The air was chilly and the water uninviting as we reluctantly unlayered at the circle. Getting in was hard, too. The days of diving straight under the waves are over. Now I jump around in the shallows, slowly edging my… Read More More Seal Sightings (Day 281)
A big gang of us went back to Heart’s Desire Beach in Tomales Bay today. As always with this crowd of Albany Bulb Swimmers, it feels like a celebration whenever we gather in any kind of numbers. Last time I swam here, I struggled mightily with the Moon Jellies, but eventually made a kind of… Read More Moon Jelly Madness (Day 268)
By 4:30 a.m. I was wide awake and nervous. I ate a couple of protein-packed muffins I’d baked yesterday, drank my coffee, and worried. At one point Lulu woke up and wanted to go outside and when I opened the front door for her, I was blasted by the wind. Oh no, I thought. It’s… Read More Alcatraz! (Day 260)
I had a plan to swim over at the St. Francis Yacht Club midday today in order to suss out the waters there; it’s where we swim to from Alcatraz tomorrow. But, as 8:00 approached, I felt I couldn’t wait until midday and so I popped down to the Albany Bulb for a quick dip.… Read More Jenny Two Swims (Day 259)
This summer, Eliza bought herself a 1997 manual Rav 4. It needed some fixing up, so for a few weeks, it lived at her friend Ben’s house, where they tinkered with it. On our family road trip back up from Southern California in June, Eliza got word from Ben that the car was ready to… Read More Confidence (Day 258)
The waves beat me today. Kathleen and I took our usual early morning trek to the coast, this time with my Aunt Elaine. For today’s adventure, we went to Fletcher Cove in Solana Beach where there was a group meeting at 7. I wasn’t sure I wanted to swim with them because they looked a… Read More Fletcher Cove, Solana Beach (Day 168)
Today’s swim was exhilarating. I met up with a One With the Ocean group at La Jolla Shores for another coach-led swim, this time in the ocean. Again Kathleen drove me down there in the gray early hours and we arrived at the beach to find lots of swimmers already in the water as well… Read More La Jolla Shores (Day 165)
In retrospect, my close encounter with a shark yesterday did not fill me with the kind of fear I would have expected it to. As I’ve mentioned on this blog before, I’m a total wimp when it comes to wildlife encounters (at sea or elsewhere). Each time I see a seal at a distance my… Read More Getting Back In (Day 138)
Thump. We were a twenty-minute swim from shore in the Berkeley Marina when something solid rammed into the side of my leg. “What…?” I barely had time to register that something was amiss when I felt the firm, slick skin of something very alive and riled-up slither under my legs; then back again along my… Read More Shark! (Day 137)
I was very happy to swim with Angie again this morning after more than two weeks of swimming separately. I’ve missed our chatty swims; the way that bobbing along in the water seems to imbue our conversations with an extra layer of meaning. The water was smooth and silky; occasionally ruffling in the wind, but… Read More Seal Sighting (Day 116)