December 14, 2002. Drenched is the best description for me after this video. And, a ruined waterlogged camera that will only work for a little longer and take only a few more videos. It's December, cold, and stormy. The night before I'd been at the winter celebrations in Newburyport, Massachuestts. Every year the first two Fridays of December, Newburyport stays open. The stores have munchies out, wassail, cider, munchies, chocolate thingies, popcorn, chips and dip. People walking down the street singing Christmas Carols. It is festive. I go there every year. At one store I hear someone talking about a shipwreck on Plum Island. Plum Island is an actual island connected to Newbury/Newburyport by a bridge. I'm given very vague directions. Somewhere on the beach. As it turns out my directions are a couple of miles off, but at least they gave me the correct directions down the beach so I will be walking in the right direction for those miles. Even if it is in a storm. What do you do the next day? It has gotten colder and stormier. Do you stay in a warm home? Nope. Hop in that car, drive to Plum Island, and with excellent directions ("Oh, it's somewhere on the beach) walk the miles down the beach to the shipwreck. Start videoing. Tide coming in. Every wave that bursts over the shipwreck sends spray that lands on me. Tide still coming in and I'll have to back up. It's cold. It's mighty windy. It's cold. I'm being battered by the ocean. Finally, it is lonely and desolate. The shipwreck, the wind, the ocean, the lonely beach. The waves pounding. The lowing sky. A very timeless feeling. Those waves have been crashing on this beach for eons. This time there's something in their way. Most often they just crash. There's been other storms, other ships that have wrecked. No loss of life in this one, though. But, is it ever cold. Eventually, it'll be bright, the shipwreck will be gone, the sand will be smoothed out, and there will be no sign there ever was a shipwreck here.
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