EMERGENCE
Cape Blanco
Once again...
I find myself back at the Cape, one of the windiest places in North America, and a punching bag for the Pacific. At 124.5 degrees West, it is the second-most westerly point in the contiguous 48 states and a surprising 400 miles (or so) west of Los Angeles. Even with the ever-present wind, the sea is capable of many different moods. Here's one of them...
It is hard to tell... The wind always blows here, and is especially strong on the headland. But the sea is angry, unsettled. Something feels just a little off.... Nevertheless, the descent is on...
emergence?
The clouds now tell a different story. parallel bands sweep past. There is still plenty of sky, but the sea's unease amplifies, deepens, the volume increasing, some wave trains reaching my sanctuary.
Emerging
The sky becomes a reflection of the sea, angry as well. The waves in crescendo, seething.... My sanctuary of moments ago now feeling exposed. My unease is increasing, it is an act of will to remain here.
Building
The wind is singing(?), the sound one of...anguish?...
Open hostility is now the Face of the Deep.
I've retreated as high on the shingle as I can; any further will require an ascent up the headland.
Building...
The Deep is coming.
The light is leaving.
The air is rumbling.
The shingle is vibrating.
lost light
The light is lost., a monochrome twilight now settling on my world, which is furious, violent, and with an air of dread, malevolence. No one else is here (wise of my fellow humans), the totality around me overwhelming...
the gathering dark
On the headland, a falling wind, and a light falling rain, my eye drawn to a small burst of color in the wet, monochrome world temporarily inhabited. The sea has calmed; however the gray sky is still difficult to read.
monochrome counter
The late afternoon pushing on toward sunset. The wind has dropped, and thus the storm's crescendo. The sea is still unsettled, uncertain. My return to the water's edge likewise ambivalent, wavering, hesitant. I will remain, the only thing resolved of...
interlude
A moment.
The sunset is putting on a show, the glow reflecting on the troughs and flats of the wave trains. A moment's peace upon my solitary world.
Interlude?...
The wind is returning. Felt on my face, seen in the re-energized sea and on the dark, scudding clouds coming in from the west. The power of the world's largest ocean is back...
the return
Against the backdrop of the setting sun, the Pacific hurls its might against the finger rock of the headland.
I find myself once again retreating to the upper reaches of the beach, moving toward the one footpath up-and-out that I know best. Nightfall is coming.
deepening dark
The storm re-animated, empowered, the energy around me electric. The canvas available to the world's largest ocean is vast, the palate of options equally so. It is awful, wonderful... but the light is almost gone and I must regain the headland...