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Picture
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Monday June 15, 2026 |
for tidewatchers of all kinds, a minus 4.6 foot low low is a noteworthy event. under normal circumstances, it would bring carloads of clamdiggers, but these are not normal times. instead of shellfish harvesters, a team of naturalists paced freshly exposed flat, setting markers and taking samples as if at a crime scene. nonetheless, the shoreline drew people to it. a korean couple with no english broke decorum when the wife grabbed me from behind as if to shove me in as i crouched by the water's edge, absorbed by infinitesimal minutiae. what a shock to have a stranger lay hands on me! but it was so touchingly human i laughed along with them. after they walked off, a bleached and bronzed pair putt-putted off the pages of a 1970s speedboat brochure, ghosts of a bygone northwest middle class. as with all the best restless spirits, they perseverated in thrall of unfinished business: looking for shrimp pots lost to the depths. i'm not much of a motivational speaker, but in this case i was able to share a personal anecdote of beating the odds that brought solace to these two souls, corporeal or not. "anything's possible. don't give up hope," i said. i might even have meant it. then Will, jesse, and i swam above dark blue abyss of the dropoff, imagining what must lurk at the bottom. adrift on the slack tide, we broke time, then all of a sudden we had to flee the inrushing sea. and that was just the start of our big day. |
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