the glass began to fall at the eleven o'clock crossing and did not stop. by two the storm warning came over the radio in the long flat voice that means it has already begun. cancelled the three and the five. eleven passengers stranded on the wrong side of the water, six on this side.

walked them up to the tea house in the rain. wind gusting forty-plus through the cleats. the boat was sound but the crossing would not have been honest. some days the right thing to do is nothing. the lighthouse agreed, and stayed lit through the afternoon.

— check the bow lashings before dawn. the weather is not done.