While driving with my husband to Sonoma recently, I saw an old boat sitting alone in the middle of a field off the highway.  The boat was far from the water and not close to a road.  Intrigued by this odd sight, we turned off the highway, parked the car on a frontage road, walked through a field of ice plants, and then came upon the boat, which bore the name “Edith-E” near her bow.

         There was something about Edith-E that captured my imagination as I gazed upon her.  I sensed she had meant a lot to the person who skippered her and who named her after an important woman in his life many years ago.  I imagined she had been a hard-working fishing boat that plied San Francisco Bay.  After years of service, she became outdated as newer vessels came along.  Most boats like her would have been destined for the scrapyard, but somehow Edith-E made her final journey to this field north of the Bay. 

          However she got there and whatever her story was, I loved the sight of Edith-E, a slowly decaying but still proud blue and white boat resting in a field of grass and flowering ice plants as her final port of call.

          You can find Edith-E in my California Series.