About 15 minutes into the swim this morning, I encountered a huge sea lion. I say huge, but I never actually saw it. I have about a 34 inch reach and I hit the sea lion at the top of my stroke and pulled down its back, all the way through my stroke, to my hip in the shape of an "S." My hand never lost contact with the sea lion, so it felt really big.
I've touched sea lions before while swimming and my reaction is always the same.
The first thing I did was 'jump' over the swimmer next to me, which happened to be Rebecca. I babbled some sea lion stuff when she popped up wide-eyed. Then I swam, basically in her armpit, shielding myself from the beast. My heart was racing and my breathing was fast and shallow.
As I calmed down, I marveled at the warmth of the seal lion. When I bump into another swimmer in the water, they feel cold. A seal lion actually feels warm. As I got back into my stroke, I noticed the fingers on my right hand still felt warm. I embraced the magic of the encounter.
Then, as I made my final turn back to the beach, the magic was gone. Long gone. My fingers were cold again and I prayed to god the sea lion moved on. "Swim fast, swim quietly(?), hope he doesn't come back." He didn't.
