One tide-cycle of the open sea beyond the islands, ticked over on 2026-10-31, as seen from a deck. Nobody keeps an account out here; this is what a sailor might have told, had a sailor come in. The rest of the known world is this.
The chronicle
- Tide 1 · autumn · middling · storm — a storm, and the sea standing up.
- Tide 2 · autumn · middling · fresh — a raft of sea trees drifting west.
- Tide 3 · autumn · middling · fresh — a swell from the south, and nothing on it.
- Tide 4 · autumn · middling · calm — a swell from the south, and nothing on it.
- Tide 5 · autumn · middling · blowing — gulls far out, then none.
- Tide 6 · autumn · middling · fresh — nothing anyone would tell.
- Tide 7 · autumn · middling · fresh — the sea and the sky and the line between them.
- Tide 8 · autumn · springs · fresh — whales blowing to the south.
- Tide 9 · autumn · springs · calm — flat calm to the edge of the world.
- Tide 10 · autumn · springs · blowing — a long light on the water going west.
- Tide 11 · autumn · springs · blowing — nothing anyone would tell.
- Tide 12 · autumn · springs · blowing — gulls far out, then none.
- Tide 13 · autumn · springs · calm — gulls far out, then none.
- Tide 14 · autumn · springs · fresh — a raft of sea trees drifting west.
- Tide 15 · autumn · middling · blowing — gulls far out, then none.
- Tide 16 · autumn · middling · blowing — a calf among the whales.
- Tide 17 · autumn · middling · calm — a raft of sea trees drifting west.
- Tide 18 · autumn · middling · blowing — gulls far out, then none.
- Tide 19 · autumn · middling · fresh — spray over the bow all the tide.
- Tide 20 · autumn · middling · fresh — a raft of sea trees drifting west.
- Tide 21 · autumn · middling · fresh — chicks among the sea ostriches on the rafts.
- Tide 22 · autumn · neaps · fresh — a swell from the south, and nothing on it.
- Tide 23 · autumn · neaps · fresh — nothing anyone would tell.
- Tide 24 · autumn · neaps · blowing — spray over the bow all the tide.
- Tide 25 · autumn · neaps · blowing — the sea and the sky and the line between them.
- Tide 26 · autumn · neaps · blowing — flat calm to the edge of the world.
- Tide 27 · autumn · neaps · calm — nothing anyone would tell.
- Tide 28 · autumn · neaps · fresh — flat calm to the edge of the world.
After the cycle
- the open sea plankton 29 shoals 38666 dolphins 24 whales 7
- rafts of sea trees 8 sea ostriches 31
- the reef south of Fourth Island coral 3059 reef fish 777
Who does what
- grows — what everything else lives on: the plankton, the coral, the rafts of sea trees
- feeds — on what grows: shoals, whales, reef fish
- hunts — and keeps the feeders in check: dolphins, sea ostriches