Transom Ward, Essaouira, Tide Slack

I found this skiff beached on the Atlantic side just after the fleet came in — the transom had been freshly repainted, two overlapping lozenges in oxide red and a band of raw white, the kind of mark a man makes quickly with whatever brush is to hand before the season turns. The geometry is blunt and unapologetic, the enamel still catching light unevenly where it pooled at the lower edge. I photographed it flat-on at the moment the wet sand gave the hull a perfect mirror strip along the waterline, so the warding marks read twice — once in paint, once in reflection.