by Judy Handley | Oct 4, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 348, Year 9: Soccer Saturday and Dinner with Friends
Date: Saturday, October 4, 2014
Weather: Warmer, but Still Overcast and Drizzly, High in the 60’s F
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, Massachusetts
Soccer dominates the Goldstone’s schedule on Saturday as Jonah plays at 9 am and Sam plays at either noon or 1:30 pm depending on the week. So Mark and I started our day on the soccer field at 9am, went to Heather and Jed’s between games to do some laundry and eat lunch, and then it was back to the soccer field to see Sam play. Both boys really enjoy their time on the soccer field and we enjoy watching them. Thankfully we had nothing more than drip drops of rain and we all enjoyed the warmer temperature. After Sam’s soccer it was back to Heather and Jed’s to help out with some projects. Mark sewed the patches on Sam’s new Boy Scout shirt and I helped Heather sort through boxes of clothes. With three growing boys, it seems like she is always putting away clothes they have outgrown and finding things the next size up. She keeps the plastic bins of clothing sorted by size in the basement. Jonah loves to ‘shopping’ down there, but Sam doesn’t have the advantage of having an older brother. He is growing so fast and needs new long pants. In fact, there are a few things each boy needs, so tomorrow we are hoping to go apple picking and then do a little outlet shopping at the nearby mall. Actually Mark and I will go to the apple orchard and then we are heading north to Portsmouth, New Hampshire to visit with family and friends. We’ll leave Heather and Jed to do the shopping. We are still hoping to leave next weekend, so we’re trying to squeeze in a little visiting with friends this week. Thus the trip north. And tonight we had dinner with friends Bruce and Jane Woodin. Jane had a bit of a health scare recently, but just yesterday she found out that everything is fine, so tonight was a dinner celebration.
by Judy Handley | Oct 3, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 347, Year 9: Progress . . . One Baby Step at a Time
Date: Friday, October 3, 2014
Weather: No Change–Overcast and Drizzly, High in the mid-50’s F
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, Massachusetts
Progress is being made . . . one baby step at a time. We are working to get Windbird ready to sail south but the weather is not going to allow us to head out until at least next Sunday. So we are happy to just get one little thing done each day. Today it was getting the Dorade boxes put back on the boat. This entailed cleaning the stainless cowl vents and getting them reattached to the wooden boxes. Once that was done, Mark screwed the Dorade boxes in place. So one job done. Mark spent a lot of time on the phone again today trying to arrange for his first chemo treatment. His Mass General oncologist, Dr. Kwak, called this afternoon and will arrange for the first treatment at Mass General next week and she is also working on finding a doctor in Myrtle Beach that will accept Mark as a patient and get him into chemo treatments the minute we arrive there. More work needs to be done on that, but one little step at a time, it will be done. Dr. Kwak reiterated to Mark today that she really wants him to be able to sail south this winter, no matter how difficult it is to find doctors who will go along with our traveling chemo plan. And we went back to our storage unit and threw out more things. We took boxes of things to the Swap Shop at the local dump and also threw bags of things away. It is an emotionally painful process, but we are getting the job done. At one point we left storage to come back to the boat to check in with Herb Hilgenberg on Southbound II on the Ham radio. Herb has been giving weather advice to sailors for many years, but to our surprise, he retired last June. We read in one place that someone has taken his place, but when we tuned into 12.359 at 1930 UTC (3:30 pm EDT), there was only static. So I guess we’ll get no weather advice there. We’ll just have to keep gathering info for ourselves and make our own decision about the best time to leave here for Norfolk.
Tonight we went to Heather and Jed’s for Heather’s birthday dinner. We picked up sushi and a birthday cake and Jed supplied the sake direct from Japan. He had gifts for everyone and after dinner we looked at some of Jed’s photos from his trip. Mark and I got a Japanese food for which none of us had a name. It is like a dumpling but the covering is slightly sweet and a bit squishy. Inside the dumpling is a red bean paste, again slightly sweet. Whatever it is called, it is good. Anyone out there know the name for these little delights?
by Judy Handley | Oct 2, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 346, Year 9: The Day After
Date: Thursday, October 2, 2014
Weather: Overcast and Drizzly, High in the mid-50’s F—Yucky Weather
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, Massachusetts
How do you proceed the day after getting devastating news as we did yesterday? Well, you put one foot in front of the other and keep walking. It’s not easy, but you just do it. Mark was on the phone most of the day trying to make arrangements to have a chemo treatment here on the Cape before we head south. In the end, the doctor here will not do it unless we agree to stay around for a few days after the chemo treatment. But if we do that, we’ll not get to South Carolina in time to have a second treatment within two weeks later. So now we have to wait to hear back from Mass General to see if he can get the treatment there on Monday. Mark’s oncologist and radiologist really want to see him sail south for the winter, but I don’t think they thought through all of the logistics. Other doctors don’t know Mark and they probably think this traveling chemo plan sounds crazy. It probably is, but we know we can make it work. We just have to be persistent and convince everyone else that we are not crazy. Mark also focused on gathering weather info and it now looks like we won’t be able to leave until Thursday and then have only a three day window to get to Norfolk. That’s all it takes under ideal circumstances, but we are going to have winds on the nose part of the time. The winds are supposed to be light, but we all know that “supposed to be” and what really happens are two different things. So Mark will continue to focus on these two issues tomorrow. I spent my morning answering lots of emails from family and friends who wrote to send messages of support. Thank you to all. And then in the afternoon we headed to our storage unit. Little by little we are sorting through things and hopefully by sometime next summer we will be able to move to a 10-foot by 10-foot unit. Today’s assault on the unit was to begin to gather the things that we will take with us when we sail south. We have decided to start by making Little River, South Carolina are first stop. We’ll stay there through November so Mark can have treatments and then we might head further south to Ft. Lauderdale. We think we have eliminated the idea of sailing off-shore to Puerto Rico for the winter, but we will keep that on the table for now. The important thing is that step-by-step, we are moving forward.
by Judy Handley | Oct 1, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 345, Year 9: The Heavens are Crying
Date: Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Weather: Serious Rain ALL Day, Winds from the NE, High in the Upper 50’s F
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, Massachusetts
The rain has been coming down all day long and after we got the news from Mark’s CT scan, I knew that it really wasn’t rain. The heavens are crying, and so am I. The news we got was not what we expected. In fact, it was as far from what we expected as it could possibly be. Mark’s cancer has metastasized to his liver and is also advancing in the abdominal cavity. It is aggressive and moving quickly. So he needs to start chemo again as soon as possible. But the really hard to take news is that there is no longer any chance for a cure. He will be on chemo for the duration and the length of that duration is even harder news to take. Dr. Kwak told us that the average person in this situation might have from one to three years to live and there is no way to know where Mark fits into that timeline. I can write this but I cannot talk about it without completely losing it. I guess I should have faced this before now, but I was just so sure that Mark was going to beat the odds. Never once in the past three years have I ever thought of life without Mark. In fact, not in the past 40 years have I ever had that thought. Dreams go on forever. Right? I guess not. So I will continue to write and not speak about this until I come to some sort of agreement with myself as to how life should continue on from here. Basically, Mark needs to make that decision and we’ll do whatever he wants. His oncologist and radiologist at Mass General desperately want him to be able to sail south this winter. Our whole conversation with them today was about how he might be able to get chemo treatments in various places as we sail. Mark and I are just not sure how this might work, so we need time to figure it out. In the meantime, he’s hoping to start chemo treatments here ASAP.
There are so many of you that have been hoping and praying for Mark and we so appreciate all of the positive energy you have sent his way. So now, just keep it coming. Mark truly feels like he has lived his dreams and he is at peace with whatever happens. His only hope now is to not stop ‘living’ his dreams as long as he can. He doesn’t just want to sit comfortably and get chemo treatments. ‘Living’ to him means sailing. So I did chuckle once today when I told him that I was sure there really is life after sailing . . . but I don’t think he heard me. And if he did, I’m sure he didn’t believe me. Both of us want to keep living aboard Windbird, so we’ll just see how this goes.
by Judy Handley | Sep 30, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 344, Year 9: Happy Birthday to Our First Born
Date: Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Weather: Overcast and Rainy, Getting Cooler
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, Massachusetts
Happy birthday to our first born! Heather told the boys this morning that this is her ‘almost old’ birthday. We were here early this morning as she had to go to Boston for the entire day and evening. She should be on her way home now, but I don’t think she had much time to think about birthdays today! We took the boys to school, went to Windbird to take her to the dock to fill up with water, picked the boys up from school, and had a good evening with them. We’ll spend the night here as we have to leave for Boston before 9 am. Going out to the boat in the rain tonight and coming back to shore in the rain in the morning sounds like no fun at all. Tomorrow night Jed returns home from Japan and tomorrow in Boston we find out about Mark’s CT scan. Wish us luck.
by Judy Handley | Sep 29, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 343, Year 9: Mark to Boston for CT Scan
Date: Monday, September 29, 2014
Weather: Mostly Cloudy but Very Warm
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, Massachusetts
Mark went to Boston this morning for his CT scan. We will both return to Boston on Wednesday to get the results. Our plans to sail south for the winter depend on getting a clean bill of health. So stay tuned for that.
Mark dropped me off at Heather’s on his way out of town so I could sand and varnish the Dorade boxes one more time. This was only varnish coat number six, but it is the final coat for now. We have rain in the forecast off and on for the next few days, so I’m calling it quits and will put more coats on in the spring. Mark got home from Boston early and we all (Heather, Sam, Jonah, Ollie, and next door children Molly and Joey) went for a walk down to the cranberry bogs. I heard machinery noises all day and thought maybe they were harvesting cranberries early. That wasn’t the case, but we still had a great walk. Unfortunately we had a couple of accidents that resulted in bruises and scrapes and wet shoes, but all in all it was still fun. Mark and I stayed at Heather’s for dinner as she had to take Sam to a Scout meeting and then kept Ollie and Jonah while she was gone. We had a delightful evening. After dinner, Ollie and Jonah went into the living room to play with Legos. They played together for 45 minutes without one call for help. So Mark and I sat the dinner table and ate and talked. Normally the boys love bath time, but this evening they were so into their Lego play that we almost had to pry them away. Tomorrow Heather has to leave early for Boston and won’t be home until almost 11 pm. So we’re on super Oma and Granddad duty for the day and evening. Tomorrow is Heather’s birthday, but unfortunately she is not going to have any time to celebrate. She’s planning to celebrate on Friday evening once Jed is home, but Sam and Jonah decided to give her their gifts tonight. All three boys made cards for her and Sam made her a book and Jonah made a wooden birthday card that he varnished. He did all of the writing (Happy Birthday to Mommy from Jonah, 2014) and drawing and was so proud that he knew how to spell ‘to’ without help from Oma. They also wanted to give momma mums as they have for the past couple of years, so Granddad stopped at Home Depot on the way home today and bought those for the boys to give her. So even though it was a day early, I think Heather really appreciated the thoughtfulness of her boys.
We’re starting to watch the weather for our trip south and unfortunately, the time to leave is right now, not this coming weekend when we can be ready to leave. The winds are from the north right now and stay that way through Friday, but then they turn to come from the south for at least the weekend and the first three days of next week. It’s looking like we might not make it to Annapolis for the boat show, but you never know with the weather. Things could change. We’ll just have to patient and wait and see.
