Riptide Incident at Ft. DeSoto Beach...

I'm a fairly strong swimmer, my primary source of exercise is to swim laps in the city pool, especially during the summer months. I can swim a mile with ease, it takes about 45 minutes. Recently I've developed an allergic reaction to chlorine, so I've had to cut my swim time down to 30 minutes to lessen the afternoon symptoms of sneezing and runny nose. Someone suggested I swim in the ocean.......

Last weekend my husband and I were entertaining his son and wife, Nathan and

Amy, at Ft. DeSoto beach. it was Amy's birthday vacation week. I had my goggles and swim cap and decided to try out the idea of ocean swimming. I chose a point about a mile down the beach and set out to swim to it. I thought that the beach curved up to the point, however, I was wrong. The beach ended and the point was across a deep channel.......

My face was in the water, I was swimming free-style, I had a nice rhythm and everything was swell. I checked my bearings every now and then. I was getting closer and was in fairly shallow water. Suddenly the water seemed very shallow, so I decided to put my feet down to see if I could touch. My foot sunk into the sand up to my knee, I quickly pulled it out and swam further, I tried it again and realized that I was swimming over some kind of sand-bar / quick-sand phenomena and I became frightened.. I checked my bearings again and saw that I was getting closer, almost there, but since I was freaked out about the quick sand deal, I didn't notice that the beach ended and I was swimming into a channel. I swam on... until I started getting knocked around by the waves.......

I still didn't realize I was in trouble yet. I decided that I was getting tired, the waves were so strong I was having trouble with my rhythm and I was swallowing a lot of water. So I gave up and turned around, deciding to head back. I remember having a feeling of failure, I didn't reach my point. I put my face back into the water and began my stroke. I kept thinking that if I wasn't freaked out by the quick-sand and by the crazy waves, I could have made it, I didn't even feel fatigued. The force of the waves increased and I pulled my face out of the water to check my bearings again and that is when i noticed that I was in a riptide that was pulling me away from the beach and through the channel into the bay!!!.......

Ok, so I panicked! I put my face back into the water and swam harder. I looked up again and saw that I was even further away! the realization washed over me that I might drown, I thought of my husband and family on shore and felt embarrassment for having to drown and ruin Amy's birthday. I thought of my parents away on a cruise and grieved for their loss. I thought of my daughter in jail and wondered how she would manage, I'm all she has left... i thought of my friend and son who recently moved here to live close to me and now I would be leaving. I was fatigued and out of breath. I ripped my goggles off, trying to decide what to do, I looked around for a boat to call out to... nothing. I was completely alone!.......

Suddenly a calmness embraced me. I saw a man fishing off the beach and I focused on him... unwilling to take my eyes off the fisherman and risk loosing sight of the shore, I opted for the breast stroke. My mind automatically shifted to my favorite mantra "I am healed, whole and healthy, I've got love surrounding me". I said it with every stroke. I was swept past the fisherman, but I kept on stroking and chanting. I believed that he saw me and knew that I was in trouble. i didn't want to call out to him and risk putting him in danger too, so I was content to believe that he was watching me and it gave me the hope and courage I needed to keep going. The current swept me around the island somewhat, but the fisherman was still in sight! Eventually I reached the shore and knew I was safe.......

I was shaking with the effort of my swim as I began my walk back. Nathan and Amy were standing at our umbrella, looking down the beach for me. A sigh of relief and a wave of the hand and off to the sea they ran... I sat down heavily next to my husband and said "I almost drowned out there".......

That night when I went to bed I remembered the dream of the night before... perhaps it was a premonition (warning) dream, it was a drowning dream. I was in a school bus with my nephews, Christopher & Joseph, and some others. It was storming outside when a giant tidal wave hit us and the bus was washed away with us on board, we were in the middle of a large body of water, rocking harshly against the waves, about to tip over, we were sinking... Suddenly, this feeling washed over me with such force of emotion that it woke me up and left me to contemplate it... It was a sudden realization that we were going to die. It was a mixture of fear and curiosity. I wasn't afraid of my own death, it was just that I couldn't stand the thought of having to experience my nephews drowning... it was shock and grief.......