Setting Out Before Dawn

Santiago and Manolin walk through the dark to the skiff. They have coffee at an early-morning place that serves fishermen. The boy brings sardines and baits, and they launch the skiff into the water. Santiago rows out of the harbor alone, leaving the smell of the land behind. He heads far out into the Gulf Stream, determined to break his streak of bad luck. The old man thinks of the sea as la mar, a feminine entity that gives or withholds favors, and he feels a deep connection to the ocean and its creatures.