You can tell how long an object has been in the sea by the size of the little shells that move in, and by how dense their colony becomes. By those measures, this chair spent a very long time below the surface, yet today it washed onto our shore with its structure completely intact. Most things that wash up are battered and broken, but this was clearly made from seriously sturdy plastic. I have to admit, I was glad to see that.
The little shells have no idea they settled on what we call rubbish, on the random aftermath of a plastic chair falling into the sea… To them, this is prime real estate. We see them on every material and object that has floated and wandered for a long time. I think they settle on surfaces turned away from the sun, which would explain why the top of this chair is untouched. I have noticed the same thing in other cases. They point south the way moss on land points north. Kidding.
Now that we know how the chair lay while it was submerged, we can play detective. The imagination kicks in: where was it for so long? Which wind, which wave finally pushed it ashore? Did it tumble from the terrace of some Albanian hotel? And what on earth do we do with it now?
