POSTCARDS TO HOME

Monday afternoon: I am dwadling along between the shooshing low tide and Moxy Mayhem, mighty excavator of scrambling small crabs. Is that a boat being tossed out of the churning waves before Carmens North end? Again! No! It is a whale, a great huge one with blunt nose jumping full out of the water! And again! “Whoa!” I say to nobody. The afternoon spectacle soon has several more witnesses and we sit on a log whooing and wowing with each unlikely projectile shooting up then splashing down hard, creating giant fireworks of light against their dark sillouettes. Humpback whales, we think. 

Tuesday Morning: It is paisleys of compressed jellyfish layered like bubblewrap below the skin of the morning sea.   They slide under my paddleboard and against my bare face, arms and legs as I snorkel through the gelish bloom, no stings….innocuous, colorless, outlined delicately by the silvery sunlight. Not creepy or unfamiliar…they feel exactly like the frog eggs we used to mine, cradling with two dripping hands, from the lively Julia street swamp.”

Wednesday morning: I am drawn out to visible faraway fountains and audible bellyflop splashes on the horizon. Is it Pelicans diving for fish? They are pretty loud, but I just can’t see them yet. I paddle farther out into the channel than I ever have. There is no wind, the sun is shining low in the skyand the sea is tranquil. Ah! There they are, cavorting like confused and drowning kites lifted inexpertly on a string by a child in a meager wind. Manta Rays flying out of the water! They flap their submarine wings in the air, skinny tails flowing out behind. You’d think they should be wagging those tails, so silly is their sport. My favorite explanation is that they are courting. Reminds me somehow of the little hummingbirds that ascend so high then dive down with a buzz to impress the girls.

Today the krill lie in rounded rows upon the beach. tiny husks of creatures, like rice thrown at a wedding, then raked up in a neat line for the dustpan.

Tomorrow I hike up to “Jack in the Beanstock” and I will try to get you a real photograph!