Tricked by the Moonlight

It was some time ago, back in the days when I was living my life without the use of a time piece (a watch or clock).  I always had one around but tried not to use one while I was living in Baja until one morning I was tricked by the moonlight.  I lived by listening to my mind and bodies response to the rhythm of each day.  

I would naturally wake up around one or two hours before daylight, my favorite time to start the day. In the early hours of the morning is when Baja is at its best.  It's peaceful and quiet and when it's not overcast the stars are as brilliant as diamonds.  There are no lights nearby to drown out the brilliance of the stars and almost every morning in those early hours before daylight is when the sky is its most active with shooting stars.

So on this particular one morning I wake up and I was surprised at seeing it was already beginning to show signs of getting light out.  The evening before the surf was fun so I was anticipating a good early morning surf session.  So I got up and had a bite to eat, drank a good amount of water, put my wetsuit on, grabbed my board and headed down to the surf to wait until it got a little bit lighter to see. 

It was the kind of morning where the overcast had moved in so there were no stars to be seen.  It was just light enough to see where you were walking and barley make out the glow of white water where the waves were breaking.

When I finally got to the waters edge I sat down and began waxing my board.  I was waiting for the light to start my session, but while I sat there I noticed that the day was not getting lighter but that it actually seemed to be getting darker!  Then after about 15 minutes I knew what happened.  That night was a full moon night and with the overcast morning and not having looked at the clock it had appeared that I had slept in when in fact I had woken up early.

The light from the full moon was giving a glow in the overcast as though it was already getting light, but what was really happening was the full moon was just getting ready to set over the western horizon giving off a faint glow, making it feel as though morning was on its way.

As I sat by the ocean realizing what was taking place I had a good laugh at myself and the fact that not always did my wanting to live without looking at a time piece play out as it should.  So I picked up my board and walked back to my camp as it kept getting darker and darker as the light from the moon faded away.

When I got back to my camp I pulled out my watch that I had stashed out of sight and saw that I had another 4 hours before morning would come.  My watch was showing that I had in fact been tricked by the moonlight, it was 2am.  Time to head back to bad.