Transom view
Sunday, June 18th, 2006Some ambient music, “Plasma,” to accompany this ambience.
Rising into the cockpit from down below, being careful not to bang my head on the top of the companionway (a spatial miscalculation with which I am all too familiar), I look up with eyes attempting a rapidly adjustment to bright sunlight.
I am not even out at sea. My sailboat is still tied up to the dock. And this is an astonishing sight to take in.
Our slip is in a very special place in the Santa Barbara harbor, and one has to turn one’s head to the left to see the other boats down neighboring fingers. There is not a moment aboard when I don’t celebrate this open-ended view across the breakwater.
Our first slip here was more the norm, slotted tightly in between other vessels and most definitely part of a slightly claustrophobic but cozy lineup of masts, rigging, and jutting anchors. It was wonderful, of course, but when this current slip became available last year, I jumped at the chance to call it home.
Ahhhhhh.