Yesterday I swam a nice, gentle 3.16km in and around Sutivan. The waves were 1-2ft, so I didn’t try to fight the water, more like just enjoy the experience.

I went west initially into the waves & current (and sun). Figured I’d do all the work up front and then just cruise on home. Well, I know that I got assistance from the current on the way back. But it surely didn’t feel like that. When you’re on the front of the wave, you can feel a push, and if it syncs correctly, I’ll kick and pull harder when I’m on that side of the wave. But, there’s also that feeling that you get when you’re on the back end of the wave. The feeling that you’re actually going backwards. That’s the feeling I can’t get out of my head when I’m swimming.

This evening swim had other challenges. On the way west there was still enough light left that I could see the bottom, and I could actually see things on the sea floor passing me by. So despite swimming into current & waves, I knew that I was making progress. On the way back east, the sun was close to setting, and I could barely see the bottom. Yes, I know that I was making progress by seeing buildings pass me by, but still that feeling you get of going backwards when you’re on the back end of the wave was hard to shake. Thankfully, as I was not racing or in any kind of hurry, I just let the swim progress, and before long I made it back to where I wanted to get out.

Used the SaferSwimmer again. Love that thing. Love having all my crap with me wherever I get out of the water. During this swim, a wave came up behind me twice and kicked the dry bag up and over my stroking arm, locking it back, freaking me out. (Yes, I still have drowning nightmares from a couple of incidents in my life…can’t shake them.) I stopped, unwrapped my arm, and got back to work.

The swim was also great practice for navigation. I realized early on that the turn-around spot I was swimming to was directly west. It hurt the first time I tried to alligator-eyes sight. But then I discovered that I could see where the sun was in the sky by looking through the water. So I kept the sun “head’s up” in the water and pretty much went the right way for the first half of the swim. Easy peasy.

The weirdest thing about the swim occurred a couple hours later. I was sitting in bed and realized that the whole building was rocking to the waves, the same tempo I was rocking to a couple hours earlier! I hadn’t had that feeling in quite a while, probably mid-20’s, mid-recovery from a bad drunk.