The last several days' flurry of e-mails reflected our anxiety and apprehension about this morning's planned
Halloween open-water swim. Despite the summer-like temperatures of the past week, the thermometer had suddenly plummeted, and the forecast was for much colder weather. With colder weather comes
colder water, and the fingers and toes of some of us were still tingling from last weekend's bone-chilling immersion. Friends' and family's uncomprehending comments and dire warnings added to our apprehensions -- as did my own laser thermometer readings from both the dock and the water's edge...The water was definitely getting colder,
and a Halloween swim began to seem more and more scary....
So when we arrived at the beach at noon today in brilliant sunshine (having pushed back the start time to take advantage of the day's warming temperatures) and were met by a howling northwest wind and an endless vista of surging white-capped waves, it was enough to make us change our minds and head back home to wait for trick-or-treaters. All of us, that is, except Rob Martell, who, mindful of the day, stepped out of his Honda Element-
cum phone booth clad in his red and black wetsuit, blue swim cap, and long red cape flapping wildly behind him in the wind, looking like the superhero we all know him to be!
Of course, the rest of us couldn't resist (well, Gae could -- after dipping her toes in and bleating like a slaughtered lamb -- she stayed on the beach shooting most of the photos and videos you see here). So
Rob Martell, Bonnie Millen, Rob Todd, Nancy Aboff (here to earn her Pod swim cap!) and I threw ourselves into the onrushing waves -- which promptly tried to throw us back again. It was
rough swimming into the wind and against the incoming tide (even the seagulls were flying backwards, beating their wings uselessly against the wind [
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNg9T5ErkEM]), so we paid a hurried visit to the dock and then turned back to body surf our way back to the beach where our cheerleaders
(Gae Polisner, Joan Valerio, Joye Brown, Evelyn Cruise, Bonnie's friend Jo, and HUMS blogographer Mike Engel) were waiting. (See Mike's report and photos at
http://hums.blogspot.com/2010/10/open-water-halloween-swim-west-neck.html and Joan's video complete with howling wind sounds at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTlnAqBxqsk.)
On the way, Rob Todd smashed head-on into a barnacle encrusted mooring ball, cutting his scalp through two swim caps --
but what's Halloween without a little blood and gore?
We emerged from the water exhilarated and smiling, and making plans to do it again -- in November!
See you in the Salt!
No icy fingers reached up to grab our unsuspecting ankles and drag us soundlessly down to Davy Jones' locker... no bloated corpses leered up at us from the murky depths below...no sea monsters from the deep swallowed us whole...and we were not churned to mincemeat by the outboard motors of a deranged boat captain bent on mayhem....In fact, this morning's pre-dawn Halloween swim was pretty benign, and the five of us who suited up in the early morning darkness -- Carole Wickham, Joye Brown, Jimmy Kwong, Tony Alizzi and I -- had an eerily nice time! Unlike the hair-raising swims of last week, this morning there was absolutely no wind, the water was, well, dead calm, the air temperature was a practically balmy 50 degrees, and the water, back up to 52-53 degrees, did not invoke the usual ear-splitting shrieks as it crept into our wetsuits...In honor of the occasion we wore bright orange Halloween caps, and Joye handed out glowsticks that made our floaty-bags glow like jack-o'-lanterns as we swam to the yellow sign and back. It was even warm enough to shower on the beach afterwards -- yes, the showers are still on! -- and then...our last open-water swim of October 2013 was over....! 
