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When we hear the helicopters and sirens on the weekend, we know that someone has ignored the signs on the cliffs which say NO HIKING OR CLIMBING. We can usually tell whether the sirens are headed for Devil's Slide, where someone has driven too fast, or to Three Bells, where the old folks sometimes pass away, or to the ocean where no local would dare to swim.
Yesterday the helicopters were flying low and the sirens were in the beach area. Since it was a weekday, we thought maybe they were having a rescue practice. But when the evening news came on, we learned that a mother and her five-year-old daughter had been caught in the rip tide at the beach and drowned.
I vividly remembered arguing with my grandson, who wanted to walk too far out into the water a few years ago. He did not believe in rip tides and sleeper waves. I remembered getting caught by a sleeper wave in one of the shallow caves on the south part of the beach. Fortunately, the children with me and I only got wet and were able to scramble out over the rocks as soon as the water receded.
The ocean is beautiful and mysterious, but here on the northern California coast, you cannot trust it to be pacific.
(Watercolor of Montara Beach by CEC)
1 comment:
Oh, how very sad. On the west coast of the island people get taken by waves at least one or two a year. Usually they are out walking on the beach and ignore the signs. Last time it was a young boy and his father when he tried to save his son. Elemental forces, and we so very small.
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