Night swimming

Last night Anna, Pete, Paul, and myself drove up the coast highway looking for the red tide glow. We saw a bit at Torrey Pines but wanted a stronger glow, so we kept heading north. We were almost to Solano Beach when we passed over the little dog beach, sort of near the inlet. It had a lot of waves, and a lot of glow. It was unreal. I have seen red tide many times, but never this bright. Keiko (Pete & Paul’s dog) would run through the low surf barking. It looked like he was skating on lightning. After we did the usual stomps and kicks to watch the pixie dust, we headed up to watch it break on the rocks and the cliff. This was also quite bright. Waves would break, lighting up the side of the cliff. Then you would see little glowing rivers flowing back down to the water through the cracks of the rock. It looked like a green lava flow.

Pete jumped in to play and convinced the rest of us to go swimming. We stripped down to our skivvies and jumped in the water. What a fantastic experience. It was as if your whole body was on blue-green fire. I have never seen it that bright. You could see fish swimming around under the water because they left phosphorescent trails. It was really amazing to see waves breaking over you, or to move your hand underwater to ghostly effect.

I had been planning to bring my camera, but I had it in the underwater case getting ready to go snorkeling. I didn’t want to bother with taking it out of the case or trying to put it on a tripod. Damn me. I sure wished I had just brought it with me. Some things are probably better kept as a memory anyway.