by Judy Handley | Oct 9, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 340, Year 8: Cranberry Harvest in the Bogs
Date: Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Weather: Still Sunny and Cool
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Cranberry bogs are like beaches on Cape Cod. You don’t have to travel far to find one. It all started about 18,000 years ago during when the glaciers in this area melted leaving a sandy substrate. It is almost as if all of Cape Cod is one big sand bar with lots of low spots that have developed as ponds. Heather and Jed live one block away from Mill Pond and the adjacent low spot that has been developed into a cranberry bog. Cranberries are an evergreen dwarf shrub that can be dry harvested (hand-picked) or wet-picked with machinery as they are in ‘our’ bogs. And today was harvesting day. We didn’t know this, but due to a wreck on the main road, Jed and Jonah had to take the back road to get to Woods Hole. This took them by the bog and all of the activity. Jed stopped and called home to give us the heads up, so Heather, Ollie, and I walked down to check it out. Heather, Jed, Sam, and Jonah have seen this before, but not Ollie and me. Heather had to leave to go to an appointment, so with Ollie in his stroller, we spent the next hour watching the process. The bogs are flooded with water, covering the plants with about 8 inches of water. Then water reel harvesters run through the bogs, removing the cranberries from the vines. The cranberries float to the surface and are gathered inside a floating plastic ring that can be moved through the water. The corralled cranberries are moved near the edge of the bog where big trucks can literally suck the cranberries from the water. After an hour of watching, Ollie was getting cold, so we headed home. Heather was not back yet, so we played and had just the best time. Ollie is so much fun to be around. He has this deep belly laugh that is absolutely contagious. So we played and laughed until momma got home.
While Ollie had a nap, Heather and I continued our house cleaning projects. Today we attacked the basement and the second floor closets. We made great progress and have one side of Heather’s living room covered with boxes of clothing and bedding to give away. Our only problem is that there is no place in Falmouth that is accepting give-aways right now. So we either have to drive the stuff to Hyannis or store it until the local thrift shop can take it. In the late afternoon, Heather had to leave with Ollie for his 18-month check-up. Jed got home with Jonah, picked up Sam, and headed back to the bogs so Sam could see the process. They were harvesting until 6 pm, and when Jed and the boys returned they had a bag of cranberries that they harvested from the berries that escaped the machines. When I left, Sam was using 2 colanders to try and separate the berries from the little leaves. They will keep the cranberries to use for Thanksgiving. Tomorrow I’m hoping to take time out of my day to return to the bogs and see if I can harvest some cranberries to take with me to Puerto Rico. I would love to have Christmas cranberry salad (Mark’s specialty) made from Cape Cod berries.
Tomorrow Mark and I have dedicated our day to working in our storage unit trying to find all of the things we want to take to Justin and Jo in Puerto Rico. Then we are dedicating the next four days (a long school vacation weekend here) to helping Heather and Jed with child-care and any other tasks they need us to do. Next Tuesday and Wednesday, we are in Boston and then on Thursday we could possibly be sailing away. But today the weather looks even worse than it did yesterday. We will wait until Monday to make a decision, but right now it looks like our departure date will be delayed until Sunday or Monday, October 20 or 21st. We just have to be ready and go when the weather dictates. And speaking of weather, after school today Sam found the first wooly worm of the season and Mark reported the landing of Canadian geese in Eel Pond as a stop-over on their way south. So I guess if you are going to head south, now is the time.
by Judy Handley | Oct 8, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 339, Year 8: Now You’re Warm, Now You’re Not
Date: Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Weather: Sunny Day with a Chill in the Air
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
What a drastic switch in temperature. Yesterday it was in the mid-70’s and felt like summer. Today in was in the lower to mid-60’s and it DOES NOT feel like summer. The 10-day forecast looks like more of the same—day time temps in the 60’s with nighttime temps in the 50’s. That’s not cold, but it definitely does not feel warm. So fall has finally decided to be assertive. The leaves are changing colors and are starting to fall . . . and there are pumpkins everywhere. And it is now time for us to start watching the weather closely. The first day we can depart for the trek south is next Thursday, October 17th, and right now it is not looking like a great time to leave. By Saturday night the winds are supposed to switch to the SW and that is not a good when you want to head SW. But we’ll keep checking and by Sunday we should have a better idea of what the weather really might be like.
I did tons of laundry today, canned marinara sauce for Heather and Jed, and made salmon cakes to put in our freezer. Last night I made meat loaf, so the freezer is starting to fill. Tomorrow is my last Wednesday to go to Heather’s and spend time with Ollie while Heather and I both work on house cleaning projects. I’m finding it hard to believe that we are just a week or so from sailing away.
Good luck to Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco. They are preparing to leave New Mexico with their 3 dogs, 2 cats, 4 suitcases, a stroller, and luggage, and are headed for Culebra. They’ll get there tomorrow. We will not arrive there for two months, but we do look forward to seeing them in their new island home sometime in December. Here’s hoping their trip there is as calm as it can be with kids and animals. Happy landing!
by Judy Handley | Oct 7, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 338, Year 8: Warm and Breezy
Date: Monday, October 7, 2013
Weather: Rain Early, Then Partly Sunny with Intermittent Sprinkles
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
What a beautiful, warm fall day we had today. It started out with rain and is supposed to end with heavy rain, but in-between, we had some sunny times and a very warm south wind. The temp got up to the mid-70’s and it felt great. We drove into Falmouth to do a few things early on, went to storage to deliver a few things, and then stopped by Heather and Jed’s on our way Hyannis. Monday is Jed’s day at home with Ollie and Jonah. He was busy making more marinara sauce to can for the winter, so Mark and I spent a little time in the backyard playing with Ollie and Jonah. But couldn’t stay long because our goal was to get back to Woods Hole by early afternoon so Heather would have a car to drive home from work. There were 40 knot gusts predicted for this afternoon, so we also wanted to be on the boat just to watch things. Since we are tied to the dock now, and we’re just not sure how heavy winds will affect the boat. But we didn’t get any gusts over 25 and things were just fine. The main reason for the trip to Hyannis was to buy polar fleece for making new fender covers. We went last week for the same reason, but ended up not buying anything because color choice and quality were not just quite what we were looking for. But when we got home, we realized that we really don’t have a choice, thus the return trip to purchase. We also did some provisioning for the trip south. It was a productive day, but now we (Mark) need to sew the fender covers and cook and freeze some of the food that we bought for the trip south. This is my job.
by Judy Handley | Oct 6, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 337, Year 8: Soggy Sunday
Date: Sunday, October 6, 2013
Weather: Overcast with Rain All Day, High Temp in the 60’s
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Today was just a slow, soggy Sunday—quite a change of pace from our normal frenetic activities. We had a late morning breakfast at The Fishmonger with Susie and Jim, took a leisurely walk around the pond with them, and then saw them off at the 1:30 pm bridge opening. It rained during the night and drizzled all day, but it didn’t rain hard enough to keep us inside. At the same time, I’m sure the sail back across Buzzard’s Bay was not much fun for Jim and Susie. But we certainly enjoyed the time we had with them.
Mark and I spent the afternoon doing little jobs. I sorted through our array of spices, made a list of what I need to buy, and filled the seven spice containers I reserve for Windbird’s own curry powder mix (2 TBS cumin seeds, 2 TBS turmeric, 2 TBS mustard seeds, ½ tsp ground coriander, ½ tsp cayenne pepper, and 1 tsp salt)—makes a great veggie curry. Then I got out the FoodSaver vacuum packer and packed up some of the granola we made last week as well as other odds and ends that had been waiting for a time when we were hooked up to shore power to be processed. I can use the vacuum packer when we are on the mooring, but it takes a lot of power. So I save those jobs for when we are ‘plugged in.’ Mark spent a great deal of his afternoon staring at his computer screen learning more about Polar Navy chart navigation software. He paid $49 for this and he is finding it quite satisfactory. It includes access to the ActiveCaptain cruising guidebook online that has a wealth of up-to-date information on anchorages, marinas, and navigational hazards. It doesn’t do everything MaxSea has done for us for the past seven years, but once he found out that the new MaxSea requires buying all new charts, that option became way too expensive. We have charts of the whole world already, but they have made sure that you can’t use the old ones with the new software. Then Mark and I worked together to go through the two file boxes we keep on Windbird. They are supposedly filled with very important financial and health information, but what we found is that half of the stuff was old and no longer needed. So now we have one full file box and one empty one ready to be filled. Next we will have to start going through the two file drawers that are dedicated to boat information. But that is for another day. After the file clean-out, I called my sister Patsy to check-in while Mark sent out a batch of emails for his consulting job. So even though it was a s-l-o-o-o-w day for us, we still got a lot of little jobs done.
Tomorrow and Tuesday could be more of the same soggy weather, but by Wednesday the rain should subside. We are supposed to have some fairly heavy NE winds this week, but at this point next weekend looks clear. It is a four-day weekend for school children, so nice weather would be welcomed by all.
by Judy Handley | Oct 5, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 336, Year 8: Move to the Dock
Date: Saturday, October 5, 2013
Weather: Rain Early, Then Partly Cloudy
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Today was our ‘move to the dock’ day and we thought we were going to incorporate a trip outside Eel Pond to do the sea trials necessary to get the new auto pilot heading sensor set up. But it was also soccer day for Jonah and Sam and Jed had to work in the lab most of the day, so we decided to skip the sea trials and just do that task once we leave here to head south. Our center fuel tank is also empty and we were going to fill that, but if we had to we could motor all the way to South Carolina using the other two fuel tanks, so we’ll just fill up somewhere further south. What we did do was go to Falmouth to watch Jonah play soccer and then we brought the three boys back here to the boat for lunch while Jed went to lab and Heather stayed home to try and catch up on some sleep. As soon as we got to the boat with the boys, Jonah and Sam disappeared into the v-berth to play submarine. They were taking their submarine to the bottom of the Mariana Trench to catch some gulper eels. They weren’t going to Challenger Deep (more than six miles down), but just about two miles down to get these eels. The things they remember about the ocean constantly amazes me and their imaginary play always makes me smile! While the big boys were playing and I was getting lunch, Ollie hung out with Granddad. The two of them are best buddies. After lunch, it was back to Falmouth for Sam’s soccer game where both Heather and Jed joined us. After the game, we all headed back to Woods Hole. Jed went back to the lab, Sam went to play with a friend who lives in Woods Hole, and Heather, Jonah, and Ollie helped us with our move from the mooring ball to the dock. Heather and Jonah took the dinghy to the dock and waited there to catch our lines while Ollie stayed onboard to help steer Windbird. At 5:30 pm bridge opening, our friends Susie and Jim came into Eel Pond. We had a lovely evening together aboard Windbird. It is always wonderful to get together with friends.
by Judy Handley | Oct 4, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 335, Year 8: C & S—Cleaning and Shopping
Date: Friday, October 4, 2013
Weather: Partly Cloudy, Daytime Temp 70 degrees F
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Yesterday was a C & S day–cooking and searching. And today was another C & S day, but this time it was–cleaning and shopping. All of this C & S ‘stuff’ is in preparation for our departure in two weeks. I have been in denial, refusing to think about really leaving for the winter, but the time has come. The leaves are starting to turn and the nights are getting chillier. It is just too hard to think about leaving the Goldstones—big and little. I feel like we are abandoning them by coming here for the summer months and then slipping away once the weather starts to turn. Sam has been asking us lately just why we have to leave. He would love to have all of his family—Grammy, Papa, Uncle Ben, Uncle Toby, Oma, Granddad, Uncle Justin, Auntie Jo, Cousins Ziggy and Coco, and mommy and daddy—living here together. But the reality is that life has changed and families no longer all live in the same little town or village. We are spread all over the place. When we head south this year, we will actually be able to visit with Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco who are right now in the process of moving to Puerto Rico. And we so look forward to seeing them. So I’m just going to have to take a deep breath, enjoy the last two weeks we have here, get this boat ready for another cruising season, and look forward to the winter in Puerto Rico.
If things go as planned, we will not be cruising alone this year. Our friends Lynda and Lee Kaufman from South Carolina are planning to head to Puerto Rico at the same time. They bought their Island Packet Estero, Grace II now renamed Sea Turtle, just after they helped Mark sail Windbird from South Carolina to Cape Cod this spring, and they are now fitting her out and getting her ready for an off-shore adventure. They have never been off-shore, so it will be helpful to them to have us within VHF range. We often buddy boated with Paul and Marie Miller of Ranger (an Island Packet) in Fiji and Vanuatu, and our boats were fairly even matched. So we figure we will be able to keep close enough to Sea Turtle to keep in communication range. And if not, we both have single side-band radios and we can always make contact that way. As Lee and Lynda are making their preparations, we realize just how much easier it is for us. We have been home from our circumnavigation for two years now, but Windbird is always ready to go. I still have food aboard from Malaysia, Thailand, and South Africa. So we are not going to starve even if I get no shopping done. But that won’t happen. And we keep enough fuel in the tanks to certainly get us to the next fuel stop. But still, there are preparations.
Today Mark and I worked together to clean the topsides (from the waterline up to the deck level) and then Mark applied AwlCare to the port side. AwlCare is like a protective wax. He hopes to get the starboard side done tomorrow. While he did that, I continued my clean-out of cabinets. Then we stopped the cleaning and went to town to do some shopping. We had to go in by bus because Heather was so busy she hadn’t had a chance to come to the car and unlock it. And when we were ready to go into town, she was somewhere on the WHOI campus teaching a class. But the bus is a great alternative. It only costs $1 each way for seniors. We got off at West Marine to pick up some steamer clams from Mark’s co-worker Sue and then we walked to the Falmouth Mall. This is not really a mall—just four stores—but it is the best Falmouth has to offer. We needed to pick up some items at Walmart and then we went to the supermarket. Sailing friends, Jim Hammitt and Susie Klein, will be coming to Eel Pond tomorrow night and we will have dinner together aboard Windbird. They keep their boat in Padenarum in Rhode Island so they won’t arrive here until late afternoon. They came across to visit just about this time last year so we’ll have a full year of activities to review. And before all of this, we will be taking Windbird out of Eel Pond to sea trials with the new auto pilot heading sensor. When we return to the pond, we will be going to a dock for the remainder of this season.
