The Lost Fleet of Carmel Point

Into the red-brown sunset sea a host of eucalyptus leaves set sail, all curled like sultans' shoes and bearing thick gold loads of pollen dust. Beneath their brittle stems a horde of minnows swam, like schools of porpoise past a crowd of green sampans. Beyond the point, beyond the old pavilion, ripples raced in grinning circles from the other shore, shaking the fleet, dumping untallied cargoes into unmarked deeps, scattering the empty hulls into a dozen criss-cross courses.