A heavy thud, like distant cannon fire, wakes us from a sound sleep just after dawn. The whole house shakes. The bed vibrates slightly in a way I remember experiencing during a slight earthquake in Bermuda many years ago. But this is no earthquake. The tide is high, and the sound is the ocean beating against a forty-foot seawall that lies directly below our window.
High tide makes a great alarm clock.
The sun will soon be over the horizon. I hurry to a point of land just seaward of the Inn that allows me to look back toward the shore. My tripod is set up and ready as the best of the morning light makes the Inn and the waterline glow, bright enough that a fast shutter speed will stop the high surf in its tracks. No need for a polarizer here, as the sun is behind me, but an 81 B warming filter helps. Marblehead, the sailing center of Massachusetts, was already thriving when Sir Edward Cornwallis founded Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1749.