parktrotter

Here is one more view of the wrecked fishing boat in Inverness, Marin County, California.

Looking at the boat again reminds me how remarkably destructive the elements are in this part of the world. Not rapidly destructive, although that surely can happen here. What strikes me is the capacity of the air itself to obliterate nearly anything artificial it touches.

The secret ingredient, of course, is salt. When we first starting coming to this part of the coast, I noted–I could hardly miss it–how any piece of exposed steel, like a hinge on a gate or a steel door on a public restroom, would inevitably be rusted to the point that it was crumbling like abused toast. I noted how every automobile, past a certain age, began to look like the embarrassing cars to which Lightning McQueen sells Rusteez Medicated Bumper Ointment in the Pixar movie Cars–they were on the verge of flat-out disintegration from massive rust damage, that is. I thought it was the ocean fog that was doing this, but I realize now that the process goes on 24 hours a day. It is the essence of the Northern California coast.

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