emerald green

And now there came both mist and snow,
And it grew wondrous cold :
And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
As green as emerald.
rime of the ancient mariner – coleridge

it was pretty cold at the berkeley marina, but once i sailed past the breakwater (solo again today), the sun was shining and things warmed up enough to take off the jacket, pull out the guitar and do some serious multi-tasking, steering with my legs and entertaining the seabirds. when i raised the jib, the shackle broke at the tack of the sail, so i went forward and improvised with another shackle.
around 4, i found myself at the northeastern opening of raccoon strait and i knew that if i didn’t chase the sun out of the shadow of angel island on the way back to berkeley, my life was going to be VERY cold for the next couple hours. i was joined near the immigration station by a group of seals out for dinner (the currents there were strong and strange). luckily i was dressed warmly, with a down jacket over my favorite moth-tattered irish knit sweater, and sheepskin gloves, because when the sun finally did set, i could vivdlly imagine that wind from the north flowing over the mariner’s emerald green ice on its way to me and the boate. i got in well after dark. more pictures are here.