Just another item of marine salvage--the stern deck cleat gleaned from "El Viento"--the 30-foot wooden Tahiti ketch I lived on in the early 80s. She sank, and this bit of nautical salvage did not surrender it's post easily. I ruined a saw chain surgically removing this bit of bronze, and if I hadn't been demolishing the sunken boat, it would have been impossible to remove this hardware, it was so permanently bound to the deck of the boat. It was covered in beige paint, and not so compelling. Look on the side, and you'll see a few nicks where the saw teeth made their mark. But now, with a bit of cleaning and shining, the cleat stands in all her glory. It reminds me of a "Torii" the gate you see at a Shinto shrine. The "torii" marks the transition from the profane to the sacred, and may be built as an expression of gratitude for success, a tribute to industry and good fortune. This one is large, (wider than my laptop and heavier than a gallon of water). It will be placed as a cleat, to follow a function, not for it's symbolism as "torii". But likely the result will be the same--stationed at a portal, the first contact when docking, and the last touched when casting off. I always through-bolt my cleats with a hard wood backing beneath the dock, and bedding on a sheet of copper above. And the cleat is always a telltale of the seamanship of any crewmate--"making fast" to a cleat is a simple looping wrap, leaving two lines married together and secured with a single wrap across--resulting in a an easily released "knot" with the cleat inside of it. Simply doing figure eights around the ears of a cleat won't do the job, at least not for very long. Similarly, obsessive multiple knot-tying ensures no added measure of security and results in a "hatchet knot" (that can only be untied with a sharp tool). And the cleat is a reminder of wakefulness and awareness as well. Get pre-occupied, stumbling about in your flip-flops, and it will bring you back to reality with a painful toe-stubbing! making fast to a cleat

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