A Santa Ana Surprise!

Here in San Diego, we have this lovely weather phenomenon called a Santa Ana wind, which is an unusually hot, dry offshore wind, that whips everything into a whirling dervish.  Leaves still left on the trees magically swept up into nice, neat little piles two miles away in someone else's yard to clean up (of course you have theirs, so all is fair).  Ah, but the wind does blow, and howl and churn and, well you get the picture.  Did I mention it has the same effect on the water?  Ah...yep!  Dropping the ocean surface temperatures (upwelling) and cranking up the nutrients closer to the surface.

This morning, I got up, had some tea and checked out the surf reports, news headlines, email, facebook...and found this nice post from Barbara (her pod swims at the crack of dawn and have great photos).  Glad for the visual, as I was meeting Laura for a splash...let's just say, Barbara's beautiful, though misleading video of the conditions at the Cove early this morning had lulled me into a false sense of security about just exactly what we were in for.  LOL  It's funny, one can read the conditions in black and white and not truly appreciate the force of reality until it slaps you in the face...repeatedly, it seems!  This is what I saw...56-58F, 15kt cross winds coming WNW, 4-6ft waves with 17sec intervals, moderate surge, low tide at 5:10am and high tide at 11:03.  Not a worry!  Just ride the roller coaster a bit and clean sailing...NOT!

The first clue?  I didn't see the same familiar faces of the 9AM crowd this morning.  They were most likely at the Shores (their self-preservation and survival instincts working nicely).  LG Mike gave me a wave and one of those looks, like..."Are you really thinking of doing this?  You are one crazy lady!"  If the fin fits I guess.  Laura N. and I headed down, followed by Cy, Tom, and another fellow.  No wasted time.  Just go for it...and fast, before another set comes through!  We fought the current out to the 'A' and '1/2', arching our route.  On the return, we did the same and rode the current back (this was an 'E' ticket ride for sure).  It literally took us 1/3 the time to get back as it did going out!  Now, for the exit strategy...run away!  No, not quite, though avoidance of the many large bodies of naturally formed aggregate mineral matter constituting a significant part of the earth's crust is highly advised!  While waiting for the perfect opportunity to swim ashore, we saw the boys coming in also (Dream segment: The Boys Are Back by Thin Lizzy just went traipsing through my head...for some reason LOL).  Being just a tad bit Near-sited, I was not quite blissfully unaware that our "friendly and courteous" (and kinda sexy if you like that tanned, built, adventure-seeking, confident, hero-type-a-guy) life guards were motioning Laura and I to go out or come in, head's up, tail's up, or something or other regarding the surf and it's proximity to us.  Though, I never saw any of this (shshsh).  We were glad of the assistance (we do swim accepting the personal responsibility for our 'pleasure cruises').  Always happy to experience 'Victory At Sea' but equally pleased to be on our feet and on Terra firma, unscathed, once again.

1.0mi (should get extra credit for vertical mileage today!)