I suppose that it's like the long-distance runner who doesn't feel quite right unless he hits the road and gets his miles in. I have days, not all days by a long-shot, when the water calls to me, drawing me in to its chill and choppiness. I also have the days when the ocean is flat, smooth, and glassy, and attracts me in a different way; it offers a slow, relaxing, almost swimming pool-like swim.
Yesterday, my neck was driving me crazy but I got into the water. I decided to try something different. Just several days ago, sadly, a Marine drowned in the Del Mar boat basin area on Camp Pendleton when an amphibious vehicle conducting training sank. Five Marines escaped unhurt, but the instructor was unable to escape, and lost his life: another hero gone unnoticed by the general public and the media. I imagine him, a twenty-seven-year-old Sergeant, rushing his Marines out to escape, fresh air, and life, while he offered himself up saving his brother Marines.
Well, I swam in the boat basin and headed out the channel that leads out to sea, passing the Oceanside harbor channel and merging with it. The water was calm until the merge of the two jetty channels met the breakwater of the open ocean. Then, I realized that my painful neck was in for a workout. The chop was a foot or two, but the problem was the tide.
In my foolishness to swim a new area unprepared, I neglected to check the tides, or even to give the tides a thought at all, that is until I swam into a very strong incoming tide. My objective had been to take a risk and swim out to the end of the rock jetty on Camp Pendleton, round it, and swim in to the sand of the Camp Pendleton beach.
I swam and swam against the tide, keeping an eye out for sailboats and motorboats coming in to the channel back to their harbor homes. I gave a relaxed wave with my hand, offering a "Hello, I'm fine" greeting to boats passing nearby, so as not to worry them that I was in any danger, for I was not. Thankfully, I am quite relaxed in such situations.
About an hour into my swim against the tide, I realized that I couldn't freestyle anymore, so I switched to kicking on my back, still hoping and expecting to round that jetty and swim in to the beach. Twenty minutes more and I realized that it wasn't going to happen. I turned around and freestyled back into the channel. About fifteen minutes of this and I had not gone far; now it felt like I was still swimming against the tide while heading back in. The tide was still against me, making it unrealistic for me to swim back in down the channel from where I had originated.
So, failure it was for me. I swam to the side and climbed up the rocks of the Del Mar Jetty on the Marine Corps Base side. I walked across the rocks, feet hurting from tiny stones and debris, back to the sand and safety. It was an interesting little adventure for me: a mixture of success and failure, but well worth the while.
Lesson learned: "One can't swim against the tide."
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