Frozen bay, frozen (ocean) beach... but the hunt goes on

Smith Point ocean beach on Fire Island, frozen this morning; baby waves rippling onto the sands where plates of sand-mixed-with-ice had floated and cracked. A strange and unusual sight.

How cold must it be for the ocean to freeze?

Seagulls standing on their reflections on the bay; deep ice in Pattersquash Creek this morning.

Cold, but not cold enough to deter us from going to the beach, nor to keep hunters-and-their-dog at home, nor preventing the guys in the rowboats from going with the ice floes at the end of Cranberry in Mastic Beach.

It's the sunshine that does it. Makes everthing possible, despite what brain/eyes/thermometer says.