This is a view from our plot of land in Carboneras, where Susana and I are about to build. I took this shot last week (18 January), at 8:25 a.m. Daybreak comes late over the Mediterranean coast this time of year. The sea looks tranquil here, but just days earlier, at the nearby Playa de los Muertos, it was bursting with energy and swallowed three veteran fishermen -- the motor had died in their little boat just like the one in the photo, and the great waves, blindly and exuberantly, rolled it over. One of the men we knew and had spoken with. Lorenzo, who was nearly 80, so loved the sea that, long after he had given up his own boat, he would go down to the port and offer his service to anyone going out -- in the case, Antonio Cayuela and his son, other well-known vecinos of Carboneras. Lorenzo knew the sea was treacherous, but it is easy to see why it is also seductive.
