Witnesses along a remote shoreline woke to an armada of stone vessels that look suspiciously like temples that set sail and never turned back. Each hull carries a porch and columns, all gently crusted with barnacles, and a tidy staircase that walks straight into the tide.
Teams cordoned off a tide-level mosaic that shows a compass rose, stylized swells, and a faint legend that appears to read “continue until satisfied.” The tesserae flash at sunset, as if the map approves of the lighting.
Inside the nearest vessel, surveyors recorded marble benches spaced like pews, plus mooring rings carved into the floor where hymnals might go. A stray gull has adopted the nave and insists on supervising.
Divers say the stone keels are hollow in places, with shelves that look like they once held amphorae or very confident choir robes. The water inside is calm even when the waves outside disagree, which is either excellent engineering or good manners.
Beachcombers keep returning curious items to the trench: a bronze cleat shaped like a laurel, a chipped pilot’s whistle, and a tile that reads as either “starboard” or “snack break” depending on the angle. Both options test well with the crew.
“It is either a traveling sanctuary or a very ambitious picnic,” said Dr. Callie Mire, curator of nautical mysteries. “Until the mosaic stops pointing at itself, we will call it navigation adjacent.”
At low tide the compass rose briefly aligns with a sailing dinghy on the horizon, then changes its mind and points toward a nicer patch of beach. The fleet does not move, but it does look pleased with its parking.
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