— Chapter XII of XIII —

Jamaica

Three evening frames over three years on the island. The sun on the horizon at twenty past six. A cove just before dark, two years earlier. And a Red Stripe at the end of a wooden dock at exactly the moment everything got quiet. Jamaica, the way it ends every day.

The Caribbean · 3 Photographs · 3 Sunsets
A telephoto frame of the sun touching the Caribbean horizon — flattened hourglass shape from atmospheric refraction, deep orange sky
No. 01 · Chapter XII · Jamaica

The Sun

From the porch · Ivy's Cove · Whitehouse · 18:23

Six twenty-three in the evening, from the porch of Ivy's Cove — my own house on the south coast of Jamaica, in Whitehouse, Saint Elizabeth Parish, looking due west across the Caribbean. The hourglass shape on the sun — broader at the top, flattened at the base — is real, not a lens artifact: it is atmospheric refraction, the disc's image bending through the thicker layer of warm air at the horizon. From the moment the bottom of the disc touches the water, you have exactly fifty-four seconds of sun left. After that, the Earth has rotated past it. The porch is open to the south, so this happens every evening of the year, at slightly different angles, and we sit out for it every time.— Photographer's Note

"The sun is shining, the weather is sweet."

— Bob Marley · Sun Is Shining · 1971

Mon 15 Apr 2024 · 18:23  ·  Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max  ·  Telephoto Camera  ·  15.66mm  ·  f/2.8  ·  1/567s  ·  ISO 50

Ivy's Cove · Whitehouse · Saint Elizabeth · Jamaica 18.0539° N · 77.8550° W
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A wide view of a Jamaican cove at sunset — a small islet to the left, gentle bay, the sun lowering toward the sea with reflection on the water
No. 02 · Chapter XII · Jamaica

The Cove

Negril Harbour · Westmoreland · 17:28 · 4 January 2022

Five-thirty in the afternoon on the fourth day of the year, looking due west across Negril Harbour from the western tip of Jamaica. Negril is the westernmost point on the island, which means the sun sets cleanly into the water here, with nothing in the way — sailors used to navigate the south coast by it. The small islet to the left, no more than thirty metres across, is uninhabited and unnamed. The two white umbrellas at the seawall are the entire foreground that matters; everything beyond them is the Caribbean and the year arriving.— Photographer's Note

"The sea is history."

— Derek Walcott · Nobel Prize · 1992

Tue 4 Jan 2022 · 17:28  ·  Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max  ·  Main Camera  ·  5.1mm  ·  f/1.6  ·  1/5618s  ·  ISO 32

Negril Harbour · Westmoreland · Jamaica 18.3186° N · 78.3559° W
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A bottle of Red Stripe beer standing on a weathered wooden dock at sunset over the Caribbean
No. 03 · Chapter XII · Jamaica

Red Stripe

Floyd's Pelican Bar · Parottee Bay · 18:25 · 29 July 2023

The dock is the deck of Floyd's Pelican Bar — a one-room driftwood-and-bamboo shack built on stilts on a shallow sandbar three-quarters of a mile off the south coast of Jamaica. Floyd Forbes built the first version in 2001 with whatever the tide brought in; Hurricane Ivan took it down in 2004; Floyd rebuilt it, slightly higher. You get here only by boat from Parottee Bay or Black River. They serve Red Stripe and whatever the fishermen caught that morning. The bottle — squat, designed to fit the hand of a man working a sugar field and to sit upright on uneven ground — has been brewed in Kingston by Desnoes & Geddes since 1928. The sandbar has been here longer.— Photographer's Note

"Don't worry about a thing, 'cause every little thing gonna be alright."

— Bob Marley · Three Little Birds · 1977

Sat 29 Jul 2023 · 18:25  ·  Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max  ·  Ultrawide Camera  ·  1.57mm  ·  f/1.8  ·  1/415s  ·  ISO 32

Floyd's Pelican Bar · off Parottee Bay · Saint Elizabeth 17.8919° N · 77.7561° W
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