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cursed light. Suddenly the westerlywind died, leaving the sea flat andglassy except for the northerly swell.This change of conditions wouldhave been enough to alert any attentiveskipper to the proximity of land.I continued on, however, glassyeyedand drunk with fatigue, whilethe crew slept below. Suddenly therewas a blast of wind from the westthat nearly laid us flat, then calmagain. Twenty minutes later thesame thing happened again. Overthe next two hours, we were hit by afew more fierce blasts of wind, followedby dead calm. I was completelyoblivious to its significance.Only the presence of land could createthat kind of turbulence. I wastired but enjoying the now-smoothsea. I was daydreaming and reminiscing— I recalled with great claritymy first day at school. Theteacher had given me a box of adozen, yellow, Dixon Ticonderoga,No. 2 pencils to sharpen, a greatresponsibility when you are 6 yearsold. I recalled the pleasant fragranceof the cedar wood pencil shavings.When the sun came up, everythingabout the sea was wrong. Thesea was a dirty green, not the blueblackof deep water. The waves wereshort and steep, not the expectedocean rollers. They were aligned, perfectlyparallel, clearly feeling the bottomas well coming from the wrongdirection, west. The rising sunrevealed mountain tops to the south,where there should be no mountains.Clearly we were not where we wantedto be. I put about immediately andreversed course, toward deeper water.During the night we had movedmuch faster than anticipated andbecame dangerously embayed off thenotorious and aptly named WreckBeach, while I was looking for thelighthouse instead of the island itself.The lighthouse was irrelevant. Theisland had announced its presence inat least six different ways.First: The zone of agitated waterthree to seven miles off the northend of Cedros (caused by windagainst the charted counter-currentand waves reflected off the cliffs)What’s your color?Now offering a selectionof 450 marine colors.New from Epifanes: Our famous two-part polyester saturated,aliphatic urethane formula is now available in 450 distinctivenautical colors. Brushed, rolled, or sprayed, Epifanes Polyurethaneis as simple as always to prep andeasy to apply for an incrediblyhard, mirror finish that will shinefor years to come. What’s yourcolor? We’ve got it!AALSMEER, HOLLAND ■ THOMASTON, MAINE ■ SHEUNG WAN, HONG KONG1-800-269-0961 ■ www.epifanes.comwww.oceannavigator.comSEPTEMBER 2010 OCEAN NAVIGATOR 21