It's springtime on the island and the fishermen have their boats up on stays above the water. During high tide, they can drive their boats onto the stay and tie it down. As the tide goes out, the boat is left on the stay, exposing the bottom of the boat for cleaning. As they scrape off the fuzzy green winter coat that has grown on the bottom, the old red paint underneath it comes off too, staining the sea blood-red. This is how it has always been, a colorful sea rainbow of cleansing, vitality and environmental hazard.
But no matter, there is work to be done: scrape, sand, paint. Just repeat those words over and over for weeks at a time, throw in a few zinc blocks, propeller repairs, and an oil change and that pretty much sums up springtime on a small working island in the Seto Inland Sea.
With our boat maintenance finished too, we headed out to sea. Not to fish, of course, but to take a short trip to some of the other islands.