Baba was then driven to the beach, while the others walked or drove there separately. He called Charles Purdom to sit beside him in the car as they waited for the gate to the beach to be opened. As Charles got into the car, Kitty, in her haste to get out of the car to open the gate, unwittingly shut the door on Charles' left thumb. Baba immediately sent Kitty for ice.
Meanwhile, the group crowded around the car, and Baba remarked, "Because of Charles, you all have more than five minutes of my presence."
(The previous day he had stated he might come to the beach for five minutes.) Later, Purdom said (perhaps jokingly) that he felt it was always dangerous to be in Baba's physical presence, and the accident was an indication of that.
Max described: "Then Baba got carried on the lift-chair on the beach through the water where Baba got out of the water and stood on the sea. It was an incredible impression of biblical dimensions. It reminded me strongly of the film The Ten Commandments when the Jews left Egypt led by Moses towards the Red Sea. But it reminded me too of the processions in the Catholic Church in school I participated in as a boy. Baba in a way revives the ancient ceremonies, not as a ceremony, but as a natural event — no rosary prayer, no ceremony. It was joy and deep confirmation of the Ancient One who has the authority to put the deep-seated truths in a new life. [It is] not tradition, but a metamorphosis of tradition."
Baba was carried in his lift-chair by the men to the ocean water's edge, where he removed his sandals. He urged the men carrying him to walk farther and farther into the ocean, until they were waist deep in the water, so that he could dip his feet into the Atlantic. Observing this, Nariman remarked to one person, "Your shores are sanctified. Now they are safe."
Baba signaled for his chair to be put down on the beach and his lovers crowded around him. Because Baba had instructed Leatrice Shaw to stick close to him, she did not leave his side for a moment. Knowing that they would be going to the beach, she had worn a dress that had a top to it that undid. She removed the top and offered it so that Baba's feet could be wiped dry. Helen Alvarado took off her sweater also and used it to dry his feet. Baba's chair was lifted and carried across the wet sand again.