I hadn’t been in the ocean for a long time. It has been years since I have taken the opportunity to get in the water at a beach and experience the action of waves. I suppose that most of the reason for that is my getting older and older, and the fact that you lose some of your adventuresome experience you have as a younger person. I also know part of the reason was because the water is cold. Well, that is not the reason in the warm Caribbean waters of St. Marteen. We had the opportunity recently to visit the Orient Beach in French portion of St. Marteen. There was a danger we might see nude bathers there, but on this day that was not a problem.
However, the one thing I had forgotten about doing waves and the ocean is that when a wave hits you, that it is a wall of water of substantial force both because of the mass of the water hitting you, and because of the intense tug back and forth. The sand on that beach was also so fine that it literally washed away the sand underneath your feet. One time in particular it hit me so hard that it knocked me off of my feet and almost put my head under. I did get some salt water in my mouth, and yes, it is salty. I will never forget that wall of water throwing me right on my back.