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March 01, 2005
Ahhhhh...
october past...
After helping a friend out at a boat show, I had one of the best 1/2 hours of the year. After sitting on a $250,000 boat all day and surrounded by $500,000 boats, I was alone, driving my small boat home. My boat is worth about $500. I was a little envious, but, hey it runs. I started heading down the channel, a perfect sunset at my back. I mean really perfect. I had to keep turning around. The water surface was a mirror, not a ripple. The low warm light that photagraphers love, made the marsh glow. It was a deep, rich green with a bit of yellow gold to it, and it was speckled with the bright pure white of the many flocks of seabirds. Egrets by the dozens. At 14 I stopped counting the herons I saw. (Usually, a single one is a nice visual treat.) The orange, red, purple, pink and yellow of the sky was perfectly mirrored on the water I rode along on. I turned into a narrow cut in the marsh, a curvey, hidden, shallow passageway with an exagerated "S" shape. The water and sky became almost indistinguishable, with just up and down and some protrusions of marsh providing reference. It was exhillerating, I felt like James Bond cooking through there. Coming out of the cut, I entered the inner bay. The water was crystal clear and shallow, so I slowed the boat to about 20 mph and could still see large blue-claw crabs crawling and swimming in the eel grass on the bottom. The light was fading a bit, but you could still see all this. For a while I kept focused on the water in front of me, until it dawned on me to look back at the sun, which had set by now. The water and sky were blood red. I mean just about my whole damn field of vision was lit up deep red. I kinda felt like..."Oh...wow...wait a second here!". I turned down the throttle, and killed the engine. The eastern sky was purple and dark pink. Not much of this whole boat ride looked real. I had just had one of the best 1/2 hours of boating all summer, alone, in a $500 boat. It was kind of like a passive flow ..no thoughts, just observing, appreciating. I was back in the moment. I was where I wanted to be at that moment.(Anyway it got darker, and cooler and as I headed across the bay, I rested my right shoulder against the windshield. The refreshing wind almost felt like putting ice on an injury, but the magic of the moment kept the cold out. Still it felt good as my arm is in a sling due to a torn rotator cuff and separated shoulder. But hey, I guess its better than having your ass in a sling. Then again, as I write, I feel a bowel movement coming on, and I'm right handed. Ouch.)
Posted by Ocean at March 1, 2005 01:00 AM