Harbor Waves

The coast is again flowing with the evening tide, taking the tapestry of the sea and moving it across the globe like a child playing with her paints. You recognize the voice of the deep, its shallow beaches beckoning you to advance and enter, but you know that this trick would only lead to your ascending to the next plane of existence before you are ready, so you scoff and snicker and she waves at you. A harbor is a place where ships, boats, and barges can seek shelter from stormy weather, or else are stored for future use. Harbors can be natural or artificial. An artificial harbor has deliberately-constructed breakwaters, sea walls, or jetties, or otherwise, they could have been constructed by dredging, and these require maintenance by further periodic dredging. An example of the former kind is at Long Beach Harbor, California, and an example of the latter kind is San Diego Harbor, California, which was, under natural conditions, too shallow for modern merchant ships and warships. In contrast, a natural harbor is surrounded on several sides by prominences of land. An example of this kind of harbor is San Francisco Bay, California. Harbors and ports are often confused with each other. A port is a facility for loading and unloading vessels; ports are usually located in harbors. For harbors near the North and South Poles, being ice-free is an important advantage. The world's southmost harbor, located at Antarctica's Winter Quarters Bay (77° 50′ South), is potentially ice-free, depending on the summertime pack ice conditions.