It was just past 11'o'clock at night. I'd driven for the two hours it took to get from Mite cove to past Lost cove and behind Esther island, just shy of open water. We were supposed to be at Imperial the next morning at 8'o'clock so this was the perfect staging position. Only a two hour run when we decided to wake. We were all thankful to be done before midnight. Sometimes even just 5 hours of sleep can become a blessing. The only thing between us and sleep was anchoring. Not a horrible task to accomplish. Definitely not like the time we had to scrub the head until one in the morning. Max and I headed up to the bow to drop the anchor while Amber negotiated the anchorage from the wheelhouse. Max went down through the freezer deck and switched the hydraulics over to anchor on the way. I left via the galley, following the rail around the upper deck, stepping over the ladder that could take me down, and springing lightly from double stack (of totes) to single to deck before falling in behind Max. Both of us taking the outside route on the port side, dodging around the straps securing the totes on deck. I didn't really need to be there, but I was anyways because I couldn't just leave Max out there alone. Max mentioned that the mist in the sodium lights looked like snow, but I insisted it was just the funny way sodium lights seem to shine. The first anchor attempt failed. Simply because we ended up too close to the Hardy behind us. We wouldn't want to drag anchor and end up rubbing another boat. So we had to try a second time. Amber took us away from the Hardy. I had my hands in my pocket, fingering some spare change, as we moved about for another spot to anchor. Normally I don't keep change, but I'd been the one to go get the whisky for the boat earlier that day while we were filling up water in Pelican. My fingers rubbed two pennies together as the rest of me tried to ignore the cold. I pulled 'em out. 'Hey Max, you wanna make a wish?' Max and I both flipped pennies into the dark water. I brought out a dime next and asked him whether it counted as 10 wishes and he said of course it did. Down it went, flashing golden as it passed through the sodium light. It had been a pretty nice day so far. It hadn't rained on us yet and we only had five more minutes work before we could be done and head into a nice warm bed to sleep hard. We started letting the anchor out, watching as the flukes sunk down into the cold water. The mist suddenly turned to a drizzle and we shared a knowing look. This was about to turn shitty, and it did. Just as we heard Amber say 'sorry about the weather' over the intercom it let loose pouring. I shoved my dreads under my hood and Max flipped his collar up, being unfortunate enough to not have a hoodie on. His back was to the rain and I kind of turned my shoulder into it to shield me as best I could. It didn't matter though. I was getting soaked. But when I turned away from the rain I was looking right off the bow where the sodium was pointed and the rain going through that light was crazy. The light had a way of making the rain shine like molten gold and it made each droplet trace through the air. It looked incredible with a thousand golden streaks pelting through the sodium to make tiny splashes on the ocean below. And then it was over as suddenly as it started. We laughed about our misfortune on our way to get some well deserved shut eye.
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