Day Off #1

The much anticipated day off has arrived. Had a morning surf out front at marker 63; clean waist high translucent wedges rolling in over shallow four foot sandbars. Water temperature roughly 75 degrees, are temp in the uppers 80’s with no wind and baking sunshine. Not a shark in sight; only the falcate dorsal fin of an Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin patrolling for a morning morsel beyond the breakers. The occasional plunge of a Lesser-crested Tern is all that disrupts the pristine beauford 0 glass of the seas mirrored surface. My hands bat tiny Ctenophores as I paddle into the lineup, ocean drifters superficially identical to Cnidarians (jelly fish) but morphologically separated into a phylum of their own. Currents have amassed them in the shallows; their sting delivered from the thousands of nematocysts on their tentacles produce only a mild burning sensation. My yellow board reflects the shimmer of the sun’s hot rays into my eyes, my yellow fin flashes like the flanks of a stimulated tuna slicing through the folding waves. Soon the weather will change. The pleasant North Westerly will shift to a strong cold South Easterly; bringing whitecaps, currents, and a confused sea. But for now, the ocean is brilliant; I plan to spend all day in it.