"...Go To Creakers!"

The route to the Creakers - waves crashing on the breakwater. Conditions were milder today...

TL;DR:    Katie and I enjoyed a chill morning in both ways: a totally relaxing swim at Aquatic Park AND invigorating winter-like water. We did the outside-inside route. Powerful flood on the inside of the Creakers and in the cove.

The Real Story

The flood was today’s story. As we sniveled on the beach watching the Irish Pod ever so slowly approach the opening on their way to Coghlan, we knew this flood would be a doozy. Generally speaking, the Irish swim swiftly and powerfully. Yet, their advance to the opening seemed inhibited as they appeared to swim in place approaching the Wedding Cake. In my mind, I could hear Barry encouraging everyone to dig deeper and reach for their next powerful gear to overcome the current. 

 Sea Salutation! 📸 Miguel

At this point, I looked at Katie and said “it’s flooding.” She likely replied with more details, but I only heard her say “...we should go to Creakers.” Maybe Katie said, “I definitely want to go to Creakers”, or it could have been “there’s no f’ng way I’m going to Creakers because if those guys are going so slowly, only a half-brained idiot would suggest trying to swim back against that crazy flood.” 

With what I thought was Katie’s consent, I said, “you’ll be fine.” So with a final sea salutation and mindful deep breath, we launched and headed toward the wedding cake, making good progress. Good progress turned out to be westward, not northward. The flood had taken hold of our line and before we knew it, we had been pushed east of the Jacuzzi. I thought to check-in with Katie on her progress, but chivalry be damned, I kept on swimming and fought to recover my line to the center of the opening. I had learned Katie’s inner and outer strength more than equip her for tough challenges. 

The Creakers: eastern end of the barnacle-covered seawall

We regrouped at the opening and swiftly swam to the Creakers. While treading water in an eddy, we discussed ad nauseam the strategy for our return along the inside of the sea wall. “Stay close to the wall, “don’t get too close or the barnacles will cut you to shreds,” and “try not to kick me in the teeth if I get too close to your kicking feet.” The conversation went on and on while the eddy held us in place. 

With all stalling tactics exhausted, it was time to put our faces back in the water and power our way into the flood. And power our way into the flood we did. Katie swam tight to the wall while I swam a few feet to her left. To the best of my knowledge, she didn’t stop for the entire 400-yard return. I, however, kept watch for sea stars and other marine life as well as swimmers approaching from our rear flank

And for the most part, I’m glad I did, because, I saw nothing except for Marc G’s arms approaching from behind. After calculating his speed, and the unlikelihood of his closing the gap and swimming over the top of us, we made the turn towards the Jacuzzi. There was nothing else to see until we were about to pass the Jacuzzi and Katie said “is that a bird?” Not being one to argue, and having spent the better part of the last 30 years having learned the hard way that one NEVER argues with an attorney, I replied “it’s a bird.” A response may have been offered, but I had already put my head down and we headed into the Jacuzzi. 

The fightback to the beach was real. The optical illusion of thinking we made solid progress west was brought into hard reality when we only closed the distance to the club vs. the museum. But flood be damned, we made it back and had a nice swim. We saved our socializing for an 8:00 a.m. breakfast where we had a fun conversation and warmed in the sun.

44 minutes, 51F