2019 Life Logs, Day 189: Monday at Menauhant Beach
Date: Monday, July 8, 2019
Weather: Most Overcast AM, Partly Sunny PM; High 79, Low 63 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Menauhant Beach is our home beach, two miles from my cottage and two miles from Heather and Jed’s. And it is where the Goldpebbles are having swim lessons this summer. This is one of only two weeks when all three boys are available for swim lessons as they are also signed up for other various camps throughout the summer. So even though everyone was in slow motion due to a busy weekend with late nights and the fact that it was overcast, we headed to the beach. Jonah’s class is at 10 am and there is one class before his. We try to arrive a few minutes early so he can play beach games with friends at the end of the first class. But this morning when Jonah ran out onto the beach, he came right back to the car where Sam, Ollie, and I were still putting on sunscreen and getting organized. Jonah said, “This is really weird. There is absolutely no one on the beach except the lifeguards.” On an overcast and much cooler day like this last week, there were loads of people on the beach. I guess everyone had too much activity over the weekend and decided to sit this one out. But the boys wanted to stay. Jonah had a private lesson while Sam played on the beach and Ollie played in the water. Ollie found a couple of ghost crabs and came running with excitement with each discovery. Ollie then had one little buddy for his class and they got to take the rescue kayak out to the buoy and back which was a special treat. After Ollie’s class, a harbor seal swam into the swim area. This also happened last week and is a new occurrence this year. It puts the lifeguards on full alert, as where there are seals, there is the possibility that they are being chased by Great White Sharks. Not a creature you want to take lightly. The Great Whites used to stay close to the the Outer Cape shores, but this year there have been many sightings in the Cape Cod Bay to the north. So far this year, there have been no sightings here on the south shore, but you don’t want to be the first one to have an encounter. The seal finally swam back east, and Sam’s class was allowed to go on. Since he was in a photography class last week, this was his first lesson. He is in the Junior Life Saving class and the other kids two to three years older than him. But he was not intimidated by that. In fact, he seemed to really enjoy it. Today the class ran the length of the beach and then swam back. That is about twice as far as Sam has ever attempted to swim, but he did it. Then they practiced lifesaving. One member of the class goes out and fakes floundering in the water while another takes the life preserver out to rescue and then swims back with the victim. Jonah was watching and thought this looked very hard, but Sam reported that it wasn’t hard for him. He has always been resistant to swim classes, but at least for this first class, he was totally enthusiastic. Sure hope this lasts.
