Silent

 At 4 AM, it was dead silent. At 6:30, it was about the same except for the crows. 

 

The first boat noise was the captain of the magnificent lobster boat to starboard buzzing by in a Carolina Skiff ladened with buckets of Mobil diesel oil. His wake slapped on the hull stirring Charlotte. 

 

Gradually noise settled in. Noisy tires on the road to our east began intermittently only to become a steady stream. Outboard motors buzzed, dogs barked, generators kicked on, and diesels started to rumble.

 

It was now the gulls turn to make a ruckus. I looked out the stern hatch to see an osprey glide over, but they are silent unless a chick is screeching for a bite of fish. 

 

There are several small islands south of Northeast Harbor and several equally small ferries that service them began their daily too and fro. Just as I watched the first of them come in, a bald eagle flew across the harbor and alighted high on a tree across from us. 

 

Of course, this got the crow’s attention and they picked up where they had started at 6:30. The worldly din began in earnest; quiet will have to wait for sunrise.