The Discarded

Walking the beach, I spied a boat on the edge of the marsh. I’ve owned boats both wood and fiberglass and have strong opinions on them. The care for a wooden boat is without end, and can be a chore or labor of love, but fiberglass boat does not hold a place in my heart.

This sad vessel has clearly been abandoned for some time.

Once she was new, shiny smooth and clean. Glistening deck rails, brightly colored sails filled with the strength of the wind, tacking and turning, helmsman at the stern.

She’s been undone now by storm, be it mother nature or financial. It’s rather sad, but also frustrating. I don’t find fiberglass boats pretty, be they new, used or wrecked. I have no pity for the derelict vessels. Their skins are white, soulless inorganic matter. Fiberglass boats are the RV’s of the sea. Once past their lifespan owners seem content to discard them, as litter on the shore.

The death of a wooden boat eventually returns her to the earth. A sea grave or the shifting sands of the shore undo what man has made. She may come again, her timbers rising to surface with the pounding tides. Her old bones and ribs still tell of her once graceful lines. She reminds us of her demise, only to vanish again.