Sunday, October 11, 2009

The Curve of the Horizon


I was driving to the bagel store yesterday morning and as I drove along the edge of the harbor I was stunned to see this. I realized immediately what caused it. We had really strong winds for two days, and it was howling around here. Apparently what happened is that the mooring lines for this sailboat had broken with the strong winds and waves. It has happened before, when strong northwesterly winds blew across Long Island Sound and on other occasions, boats have been blown into Hempstead Harbor from across the sound. So OK, this is intended to be a photograph that is not obvious at first glance. What is it? This is a photograph of the bottom of a yacht that was blown on to the rocks. You can see where the keel is missing - that is a portion of the mainsail coming through the hole in the bottom. The bow of the boat is smashed and cracked as well, and there is another hole visible here in the bottom of the hull. This yacht has sailed its last, sad to say.

3 comments:

ken schwarz said...

This picture makes me sad! Sailboats are objects of beauty and are meant to be seen driving through seas under full sail or peacefully at rest anchored in a snug harbor. There really is no graceful end to a sailboat's life but it's especially difficult to see this poor boat on the rocks with damage well beyond repair.

Anonymous said...

Ouch.

Anonymous said...

The "Curve of the Horizon" says it all -- a nice way to notice the environment around us and then make something less than perfect into a work of art.