Rock Harbor, Orleans.

Most evenings we try to get to Rock Harbor on the bay side of Orleans, home to charter and commercial fishing boats that use the channel pictured here. Every year they sink trees into concrete and place them in the sand as markers; the boats have to come and go based on the tides.

It's also the home of spectacular sunsets, and every night, depending on the day of the week and the time of the year, somewhere between ten and two hundred people gather to watch the sun go down, sometimes applauding as the last rays disappear. We go to people-watch as well, especially the windblown, sunburned, and sometimes queasy passengers and crew on returning charters. We lean over the rail and spy as the first beers are snapped open, the first landlubbers leap off the backs of the boats and kneel to kiss solid ground, and the first lies are told.