Sittin’ on the Fantail

Aaahh …
My favorite spot!
Extreme aft end of the ship
Beam wide with small decks and nooks
Thirty feet above the water
Just below the flight deck

Sitting on a two foot round, three foot high cylindrical post
(a “chock”) welded to the deck floor
To which shore lines are secured

Looking out to the sea
Salt sea air
Fine mist blanketing my face now and then

Four gigantic props (‘screws”)
Each two-three stories or more in diameter (30 feet or so, I’d guess)
below us
Unseen
Powering us through the sea at twenty five- thirty knots
Creating six-seven foot wake on either side of us

Churning the water into several shades of fluorescent blue
and white froth

This is the place to think about nothing
To think about everything
To ponder one’s life

Looking out at the horizon
Ocean, just ocean

(I am in heaven!)