Sleep was elusive last night. Perhaps because yoga had been particularly intense, holding positions foreeeever. Whatever the reason, I spent much of the night awake, alert to every quake, creak, and groan the Aqua RV made. Somewhere in the wee hours I heard the unmistakable sound of diesel engines, which here, can only mean one thing: boat - singular or plural. Boats moving in the night are not the norm so I got up to investigate.
The night was still, close, and steamy. If the temperature had dropped, it had not lowered by much. The docks were quiet, almost eerily so, except for the sound of the diesels. I stood motionless, waiting for my ears to locate the direction that the sound was coming from. When I realized it was not in a marina channel, I turned my attention to the big channel. At first I saw nothing but the blackness of the night, then a slowly moving red light, to my left, caught my attention. It meant I was looking at port side of a moving vessel. Suddenly, way off in my right peripheral vision, I saw the multiple lights of a large vessel and realized that the night visitor was a giant moving 'something', but I wasn't sure what. As my eyes adjusted to the dimness of the night, I was able to study the ghost-like, moving apparition and I realized that I was watching a very long barge being pushed by an equally large tugboat. Progressing slowly and almost silently, the two floating objects were propelled along, under the quiet yet powerful thrust of the diesels, creating little noise other than their unmistakable low, steady rumble that almost resembles a hum. I watched in fascination as the duo processed through the channel, on their way to the big lake and open water and who-knows-where. My visual sighting ended long before the sound of the diesels died away in the still of the night. Returning to bed, my curiosity satisfied, I finally cooled off in the comfort of the air conditioning and found my all-too-elusive sleep, where I dozed off wondering where the night vision's destination would be.
Ah, sleep. Vastly underrated.
Ancora imparo
