Sunday, August 21, 2011

Pulled Over by the Oceanside Harbor Police Boat on my Oceanside Pier Swim












Lots of interesting occurrences on my pier swim today.  I went too early-at 2 PM.  So, there were too many people at the beach with lots of activity-fast cars, people getting cited for alcoholic beverages in their coolers on the sand, and a homeless looking lady who told me twice "to smile" as I walked by her.  First I walked down to the beach and took my photos and then returned to my car.  I then walked back to the beach to swim.
The water looked choppy, and it was.  I swam north to south to check it out and I was swimming into the chop, which slowed me down.  There is a lot of glare on the water from the sun so sometimes a swimmer is not visible, especially in the chop.
OK.  Here it is:  I got pulled over by a guy in the Harbor Police boat out near the pier.  He gave me a friendly safety briefing and advised that I check in with the lifeguard station before I swim.  He said the lifeguard could radio a head's up to boaters in the area to keep an eye out for me.  (And today I even was wearing a yellow swim cap.)
The water was 68 and the visibility I think was the best that I recall-a good fifteen feet.  The waves were small-no good for surfers at all.  My swim was nice and my Timex watch said 43 minutes.  But we have to subtract my police issue time and also before I hit the sand on the way in I saw a bunch of sand dollars on the sandy, clean bottom.  I had to hang out and dive down a few times to collect some to bring home.  It was a swim rather different from my typical boring swims and I was annoyed first, but it all was for the best. 

No comments:

Post a Comment