Today I fly west again. This always feels blue. New York is not only home to The Bay of Imbalance, it is home to me. I live in California now, I love my beautiful wife and I am good at what I do. But California is not my home. Home to me is where my parents got along, when all my brothers were just downstairs, and how the distant sound of shallow waves massaging the shoreline lulled me to sleep at night.
I am not a Bayman but I grew up like one, on the same waters they did, just a short walk down the beaches that still connect our worlds today. Perhaps that’s why I am doing all this. I never told the Baymen but I bet I spent more time on the water as a kid than any of them. There’s a picture in my Mom’s house of our dog Jenny and me. We are peacefully adrift on a barely floating raft that I built from Styrofoam and wood, which I’d found washed ashore. No paddles, no seat, no food and no phone. Just a boy, his dog, and a fiberglass pole that I used to push off the bottom. I called these excursions “Adventures”. No plan, no reason, no timeline or destination. Something drew me to the water, and nothing kept me from it. From the hottest summer days spent drifting over a curious world of fish and crabs, to mid winter ice-breaking adventures – I didn’t just love the water, I was part of it.
Yes I am sure of it now. This is why I am doing this.
Today marks the end of my three-week adventure. No dog this time but plenty of rafts, plenty of water and this time plenty of goals. Goals are fascinating to me. Some you achieve, some you change and some you barely reach halfway. Our primary goal for this trip was to film a hydraulic dredge operating on the bottom of the harbor. This was the toughest of our goals and boy did we nail it. We didn’t pay for it yet of course but nobody got arrested, nobody got hurt and the footage is epic. In addition to getting this footage we got a lot of press, thanks to Billy Joel and his fine crew, which helped to rally more environmentalists to be a part of this film. We got some great interviews and we captured a few scenes that I had previously only dreamed about. So once again our Bay of Imbalance film has broken the tiny frame of it’s steadily growing heart, somewhat like the Grinch who gives Christmas its much-earned second shot.
In closing I want to acknowledge all of you for backing this film. I see the list of names, I know who most of you are, and I worry that you see our numbers failing to add up. I want you to remember the raft. Remember the reason. Remember the adventure.
Nothing will keep us from finishing this film,
Eric