Duck Weather
Last Sunday, Father’s Day, was forecast to be a wet one, and it certainly was with heavy downpours interspersed with light showers. Recently, I’ve been having trouble with my mooring cover collecting as opposed to dispelling rain, so I felt compelled to get on board to sort through potential solutions in spite of the airborne moisture.
As you can imagine, there wasn’t a lot of harbor activity, but that proved to be a blessing as I was able to focus without distractions. After developing a feasible idea for a promising new set-up, I debated on whether to fold up the balance of the rain-soaked cover and take a boat ride, or to cut my losses and head for shore. Now it was raining pretty hard and many folks would have started paddling for shore, but I’m a diehard boater, and the full foul-weather suit was proving pretty effective, so I opted for weighing anchor and heading out and I’m glad I did.
The water was calm and there was only a wisp of a breeze which kept the edge of the fog bank to the harbor’s entrance. Small waves lapped the mid-tide shoreline. Snails and mussels were exposed among green seaweed strands hanging from rocks, pilings, and docks. Wildlife, both fish and fowl, accustomed to keeping a low profile, mid-day, moved freely about, demonstrating a simple beauty of motion, emulated, but not duplicated, by man. It was a moist, but refreshing, engagement with the natural world and a reminder of the variety of experiences available to all those that chose to head out on the water.
