Excitement Today. Dolphin Encounter.

Today I had big plans for my swim.  I wanted to do a long swim, but I didn't get it done.  The ocean was like a washing machine on "medium agitate."  Conversely, the day was beautiful.  We cooled off to the upper 70's outside temperature.  Light clouds--the puffy, pillowy kind-- were scattered around the sky, along with wispy, light, paint-brush-stroke clouds across parts of the sky.   
But the water was kind of a mess.  The one-foot chop was difficult to swim in.  Visibility was five feet and that five feet view was cloudy.  Water temperature was 69 degrees.  Lots of bits of broken-up kelp were dispersed in the water and tumbling on the sandy bottom in close. 
So, I'm building up to bit of excitement.  Picture me swimming slowly off the end of the pier, having difficulty breathing in the chop, and I look down and what looks like a big fish (think shark) slowly appears about 2-3 feet below me from behind and swims from below my feet to below my head.    I have an instant "Holy crap, there's a big shark right under me" moment before I see the tail and realize that I am looking at TWO small dolphins, side by side, about 3-4 feet long, now swimming ahead of me and disappearing from my view.
That was neat!  It really was.  Then I start looking around on the surface for a few minutes because I expect them to surface--but nothing. 
So I round the pier about fifty yards past the end of it and I get brushed and tugged at.  Holy crap again!  I think bad stuff until I realize that I am tangled up in a guy's fishing line.  Now, I don't know what giant kind of fish this guy thought he was going to catch, but this fishing line was THICK.  It was like twine.  And he must have had a heavy weight on it which accounted for the tugging I felt.  Oh, boy.  This was great stuff today.  I get the crap scared out of me twice on one swim.  But the thrill of the close dolphins really was amazing (after I knew a big shark wasn't below me). 


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