Meditations X

X . . . no xebecs sail the sixth boro, and my 2100-page dictionary has only 2 and a quarter pages devoted to words starting with “x.”  Yet, when X lives  in a word, it intensifies.  Consider the difference between the mundane “tacks” and the pulse-quickening “tax.”   I’ll get back to this deck barge in a moment.

From math we learn that X is the unknown.  Of all the steel beyond the eastbound tug Norwegian Sea, backlighting “x’s” out all the details except silhouette.  From AIS, I know the ships are tankers Tanja Jacob and Kinaros (member of the elite AMVER group), and beyond them MS Explorer of the Seas.

X . . . experimental, except Twin Tube is not a sailing prototype; rather, it’s half of the Reynolds lightering fleet.

Dutch replica vessels like Onrust and Half Moon often sport XXX somewhere, which some attribute to the laissez-faire of Amsterdam, but in fact,

the letters are crosses and arranged vertically.

Xcentric . . . might be an exhilarated adjective for this twin-telephone booth truckable tug.

X marks the spot . . . the X generating much more excitement than A or B or C  . . . marks the spot.

I haven’t seen Treasure Coast in a spell.  Check this link for a great high and dry foto of  Treasure Coast‘s hull.

Yeah . . . how could I not go here.  You knew it too, right?

X . . . the ecstatic letter;  English really could function as well with “eks,” but the energy level, the fuel that drives ambition, would be diminished.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.