The swimmer

The fearless swimmer 

Once upon a time a five year boy learned to swim, both in fresh and saltwater.

Over the years, The choices of swimming venues in order of preference were: slippery rock located in the northern Catskill mountains, the great South Bay, fed by the Atlantic ocean thru the fire island inlet, located on the south side of.Long Island, the Atlantic Ocean off  the coast Cocoa beach, Florida, the gulf  of Mexico off the coast of Florida, the swimming pool and the least of all in the Atlantic Ocean ocean off of long Island.

Diving into a Jones beach swimming pool nearly caused me to change my voice to soprano.

There were a number of exciting swimming challenges.

The first really interesting one happened on cocoa beach at Patrick Air Force base. The eastern part of the base  bordered the Atlantic Ocean and I enjoyed swimming there at night. One fateful night I talked to a lone fisherman fishing off a nearby pier. He had noticed me swimming at night  a couple of times but never told me he fished for sharks at night since there was an in your- face- sign warning not to swim because of the sharks!

Later, when I could hitch a ride, I swam off of Satellite Beach, which was five or so miles north of the base.

The second time I swam there , I found myself alone in the ocean. Looking towards the shore I noticed people pointing at me and yelling. I looked around me and realized I was alone in the water. Without a thought I knew I was destined to become  shark bait. I swam with all my strength and I believe I might have been walking and running  on water, also. When I collapsed on the sand exhausted, I looked where I had been swimming and I saw at least three shark fins circling in the warm water.

The incident was a no-brainer; I would never swim off the coast of Florida again.

However, I did enjoy swimming in the ocean at night; the water was usually calm and warmer than the air.

 We (my wife , my preteen daughter and I) were on a week’s vacation during the months of August. We had a barbecue and were watching a television program in our motel room at the East Deck motel located on the beach near the village of Montauk, Long Island. It was dark outside. With the excuse of going outside to smoke, I decided to go for a swim since I had my bathing suit on.

The fact that the lifeguard had left when it started to get dark didn’t concern me.

I jumped into the ocean and started swimming. Thank God I was close to shore, since a strong current forced me in an easterly direction, pushing me towards Montauk point. The current pushed me no further than a quarter of a mile where I found myself in shallow water. I walked in shallow water back to the little beach next to the motel!

That episode unequivocally made me a land lover; I never swam in any body of water or polluted one since. 

However, now that I am retired and living with my family, I might try to wade in a pool or venture into a hot tub, escorted.