This is a walk-to cache, if you park here you risk getting towed. Parking coordinates are for the closest Beach Access about 1/4 mile away. Ample parking available there. Walk along the sidewalk, or take a hike up the beach. If you decide to go into the water, be alert for rip currents because they are dangerous.
A rip current, commonly referred to simply as a rip, or by the misnomer rip tide, is a strong channel of water flowing seaward from near the shore, typically through the surf line. You can expect a typical flow to be 1–2 feet per second, and can be as fast as 8 feet per second, faster than an Olympic swimmer can sprint. They can move to different locations on a beach break, up to several hundred feet a day.
A rip current can occur at any beach with breaking waves, including oceans, seas, and large lakes. As waves travel from deep to shallow water, they break near the shoreline. When waves break strongly in some locations and weakly in others, this can cause circulation cells which are seen as rip currents. Wind and waves push water toward the shore, that water is forced sideways by the oncoming waves. This water streams along the shoreline until it finds an exit back to the sea or open lake water. The resulting rip current is usually narrow and located in a trench between sandbars, under piers or along jetties. This strong surface flow tends to dampen incoming waves, leading to the illusion of a particularly calm part of the sea, which may possibly lure some swimmers into the area.
Rip currents are stronger during times of rough surf such as during high onshore winds, or when a strong hurricane is far offshore, or could occur when the tide is low. However, rip currents can flow quickly even on days when the surf is not large. Many rescues and drowning deaths occur on what seems like a beautiful day for swimming. On these days, more people enter the water unaware that rip currents are present.
A common misconception is that ordinary undertow or even rip currents are strong enough to pull someone under the surface of the water. Studies have confirmed that rip currents do not pull people under water causing them to drown. Actually, the current is strongest at the surface where it simply takes a person away from the beach, often eventually back into the wave zone.
It is the dragging of swimmers away from the beach that make rip currents extremely dangerous for people in ocean surf. Death by drowning comes following exhaustion while fighting the outward ocean current flow. Rip currents cause more than 100 deaths annually in the United States and account for 80% of rescue calls to beach lifeguards.
Although rare, rip currents can be deadly for non-swimmers as well by pulling a person standing waist deep in water out into deeper waters where if unable to swim and are not wearing a flotation device they can drown.
Escaping A Rip Current
A swimmer caught in a rip current should not attempt to swim directly back to shore against the rip. This increases the risk of exhaustion and drowning. A rip does not pull a swimmer under water; it carries the swimmer away from the shore in a narrow channel of water. The rip is like a treadmill which the swimmer needs to step off. The swimmer should remain calm and swim parallel to the shore until he or she is outside of the current. Then, locations to aim for are places where waves are breaking. In these areas, floating objects are generally transported towards the shore.
A swimmer in a strong rip, who is unable to swim away from it, should relax and calmly float or tread water to conserve energy. Eventually the rip will lose strength, and the swimmer can swim at a leisurely pace, in a diagonal direction, away from the rip but back to shore. Coastal swimmers should understand the danger of rip currents, learn how to recognize them and how to escape from them, and swim in areas where lifeguards are operating, whenever possible.
The greatest safety precaution that can be taken is to recognize the danger of rip currents and always swim at beaches with lifeguards.
Once you've read all this you should know how to recognize Rip Currents, how to avoid them, and keeping calm be able to escape them and return to shore because you already know where to find the cache container that was placed there with permission.