OntheWilderSide

October 6, 2007, 5 pm. Photo of bathers and frolickers at Robert Moses Beach, on the Atlantic Ocean. Photo by Kimberly Wilder.

Yesterday evening, Ian and I decided that a visit to the water would be healing. A friend of ours passed away this week, and we have both been thinking about her a lot. We were taking a drive around dinner time. Since it is fall and school has started, we didn’t plan to go in the sand. We thought we would head over the Robert Moses bridge and maybe just take a walk along the boardwalk to the Fire Island Lighthouse.

When we arrived, we were surprised to find the Field 5 parking lot was full of cars, and full of children and grown-ups in bathing suits.Turns out–as my mother-in-law later reported to us–that an announcement was made that due to the beautiful, hot weather, the beach would be opened. What no one expected though, was that at the end of this wonderful, warm day, a thick fog would suddenly descend upon the scene. We had noticed the fog on the bridge, crossing the Great South Bay. That was another reason we couldn’t believe that there were people swimming. While we were walking out to the beach, we overheard a woman say, “That’s what they mean by the fog rolling in.” Many people were caught chilled, and racing back to their cars. But, amazingly, some people stayed there, in the cold, and in the dense fog, swimming and riding the waves.

When I have a moment, I will have to write the perfect haiku for this day of strange feelings and strange weather. Our grief, our surprise, the healing of the waves, the absurdity of people playing in the water in October in the fog.

I had to have photos of this strange day at the beach.

 

 

 

Filed under: Environment, local Tagged: | Atlantic Ocean, Beach, Environment, Fall, Field 5, Fire Island, Fog, Great South Bay, long island, Photos, Robert Moses Bridge, Uncategorized, Weather