Against the Current

Lots of people down at the beach/pier area enjoying the day.  The water is warm enough for jumping in, and some folks were enjoying it.  Not too many surfers because the waves weren't very big. Let me check surfline.com now:  62-65 degrees. Wow.  That's summer temperature.
I tried to figure out the current and looked at fishing lines, the direction of the surfers' boards, any movement of swimmers in the water after being washed over by a wave, etc.  The outside water looked like it was moving southward but the inside water had a definite northward movement, even when I went in on the south side of the pier, the water was flowing northward.
So, I swim out, expecting to be going with the current, and the farther out I get, the stronger the current is moving from north to south.  I had a heck of a time swimming against the current to reach the pier and get around and past it.  The folks watching from above must have been wondering if the swimmer would ever get around the pier, because I was wondering it myself.
I checked my watch at the pier--28 minutes to get there--that's a long time.  I hit the beach at 46 minutes.  I had to pull hard with my skinny arms.  There was also a lumpy, one-foot chop to the water.
So, all in all, it was a good workout, ending just before sunset.


"The first time you quit is the last time you try."