by Judy Handley | Apr 16, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 106: Driven Inside by the Cold Weather
Date: Friday, April 16, 2021
Weather: Rain, Wind, Then Snow; High 44, Low, 34 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Our Dining-In group set today as our first afternoon dinner of 2021. Because of Covid and having to be outside, last summer and fall we met in the afternoon and outside. Today we gathered in Karen and Peter Baranowski’s garage which is so fancy it has been declared to be the Taj Garage or the Garage Mahal. When we set the date none of us had been vaccinated. But now the seven of us attending have had both vaccines and we were driven inside by the cold weather. It was rainy and windy and the temperature at 3:30 this afternoon was 34 degrees in East Falmouth. We all agreed it was safe enough, so we headed indoors. And just about that time, the rain turned to beautiful, big snowflakes. We need the rain, but I was not prepared for snow. It did not last long, and I do hope that is the last snow until next winter.
by Judy Handley | Apr 15, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 105: Meeting with My First Reader and Editor
Date: Thursday, April 15, 2021
Weather: Overcast, Windy, and Cool; High 49, Low, 41 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
This time last year, friend Christina Brodie and I were completing our Zoom Memoir Writing Class. We had been partnered to read each other’s writing and make suggestions for improvements. I had written the introduction and first two chapters of The Voyage of Windbird and as my partner, Christina had read them and given great feedback. She encouraged me to keep writing, but the class ended and I put the writing aside. In late January when I decided to start writing again, Christina offered to read my chapters and do a first edit. She was once a high school English teacher and her suggestions for my first eight chapters all brought great improvements to my writing. This morning Christina called to ask if she could stop by to drop off her editing suggestions for Chapters 9 and 10. Since we have both been vaccinated, she felt comfortable coming in to have tea and to talk about the writing. I was finally able to thank her face to face for all the work she is doing for me out of the kindness of her heart. She is a great editor, and I am so grateful that she is willing to continue to do that hard work. I sent her the next four chapters this afternoon. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Christina Brodie.
Today was a dreary day, but after Christina left, I took Shadow for his morning walk before launching into writing. Then I came inside and finished writing about the passage to American Samoa and on into the first few days there. American Samoa has been an unincorporated territory of the United States since 1899. The people who live there are US nationals, but not citizens. There are five islands and two atolls. Tutuila is the largest and most populated island and that is where Mark and I visited in 2006. Mark had lived there for two years in the late sixties and it was great fun for him to revisit the places where he lived and worked and share those places with me. Tutuila is a beautiful island. We enjoyed it so much, we stayed for an entire month. I will continue that writing tomorrow.
Last night late I talked with my good friend Lynne who has been in New Zealand during Covid. She flew there after Thanksgiving 2019 and has not been able to safely return home. She is living a totally normal life in New Zealand with no threat of Covid. As much as I would like to see her, I can think of no reason she would return to this country quite yet. And if things continue to go downhill, I’m not sure there would be a reason to ever return. She has been pet sitting for most of her year and a half there. Recently she was pet sitting for a dog named Maggie. Lynn was reading the book, A Gentleman in Moscow, and returned home one afternoon to find the book in shreds. Lynn loves nothing more than devouring books, but evidently Maggie like to devour them in a different way!
I can never let April 15 pass by without thinking about my parents. They were married on April 15 in 1924. My mother had just turned 16 and my father was 20. Before my mother turned 17, she had the first of her seven children. Only five of us survived and now only two of us are left. My sister will have her 88th birthday in July and I am not getting any younger! But on we go.
by Judy Handley | Apr 14, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 104: Out and About
Date: Wednesday, April 14, 2021
Weather: Beautiful Day; High 55, Low, 39 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I left home this morning at 9:30, returned at 11:00 for 11 minutes to take Shadow for a very short walk around the block, and then got home after 5:30 pm. Yes, I was out and about all day. And when I got home, I spent an hour outside with Shadow playing ball and walking. Then I got inside with just 12 minutes to spare before a 7 pm Zoom virtual conversation sponsored by the Woods Hole Historical Society called, “Influencing the Influencers: An Evolving Approach to Driving Climate Action.” The conversation was led by Dr. Philip Duffy and Dr. Heather Goldstone from the Woodwell Climate Research Center. Phil Duffy is the President and Executive Director of the Center and my amazing daughter Heather is the Chief Communications Officer. Influencing the influencers has to do with getting the information from the scientists doing the research to those in a position to make changes at the highest levels. I suppose that one thing those of us who care about this issue can do is to make financial commitments to organizations like Woodwell Climate Research Center. But every time I join one of these conversations, the question in my mind is, “What, other than financial contribution, can I do in terms of the way I live my life?” We hear so often that our individual choices don’t really make an impact on the larger problem. Then we hear that every choice we make makes a difference. It is hard to know what to do. I loved Phil Duffy’s enthusiasm for the young people who are leading the crusade to save the planet. But I still want to know, in very specific terms, what changes I need to make in my life that will contribute to that goal. Phil Duffy answered that question tonight by saying that those of us who care need to live exemplary lives as a model for others. But what, specifically, does that life look like? If I get an answer to that question, I’ll let you know.
My day started with a walk with Shadow and then into Falmouth for a dental cleaning appointment. Then I drove back to East Falmouth to do one more short walk with Shadow before picking up a friend and heading to Woods Hole. 
I took the friend to Woods Hole to do the scavenger hunt looking for bells and weathervanes. The friend was Olga Mitchell who is an amazing woman. I had not seen her since 2017, but she recently contacted me letting me know that her husband had passed away. And in the same email, she invited me to join her in the Woods Hole Library scavenger hunt. Olga is well into her eighties, has a PhD in Physics, and spent her life working in the Bell Laboratories in New Jersey. She is also a pilot and still flies. One of her planes resides in her extra wide garage attached to her home in the Airpark in East Falmouth. She is quite the adventuresome woman and I always enjoy spending time with her. When she let me know about the Woods Hole scavenger hunt, I did that with Ollie. So today I tried hard not to give away any of the locations. But we did find all of them, even the one weathervane that Ollie and I could not find. It took us two hours, but we did it. Then we headed back to downtown Falmouth to have lunch. It was a beautiful day. I dropped Olga at her home and then picked up Ollie and took him home. Then it was to the skatepark with Jonah before heading home. Another day in the life. Tomorrow it will be back to writing. I’m looking forward to arriving in American Samoa and writing about the month we spent there.
by Judy Handley | Apr 13, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 103: All About Books . . . and Richard Simmons
Date: Tuesday, April 13, 2021
Weather: Partly Cloudy, Still Windy; High 53, Low, 40 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Remember Richard Simmons? Evidently my children do. This afternoon I got very delayed birthday present from Justin and Jo. It was a Richard Simmons Chia Pet Planter. In the mid -1980’s when Heather was 10 or 11 and Justin was 8 or 9, Mark was diagnosed as having high cholesterol. The doctor told him to exercise more. My solution was to buy a couple of Richard Simmons exercise video tapes and get the whole family dancing and exercising. Heather, Justin, and I danced with Richard Simmons every day, but Mark never joined us. But the memory of those daily dance exercise sessions has caused more than a few laughs over the years. Thus, the Richard Simmons Chia Head. It was delivered to Heather’s, so I opened it when I took Ollie home from school. The boys didn’t appreciate the humor, but Heather and Jed both got a bigger laugh than I did. I sent an email to Justin and Jo telling them I have the greatest tacky gift party gift ever!
Now to the books. Last night after I sent my log, I did my every night bedtime reading. I am 487 pages into Barack Obama’s 700-page book, The Promised Land. Last night I was reading Chapter 21 that began like this: “At dinner one night, Malia asked me what I was going to do about tigers. “What do you mean, sweetie?” Malia replied, “Well, you know they’re my favorite animal, right?” And then Malia continued, “I did a report about tigers for school, and they‘re losing their habitat because people are cutting down the forests. And it’s getting worse, ‘cause the planet’s getting warmer from pollution.” She went on, but basically, she thought that because her dad was the President, he should try to save them. This introduction led into a great description about the role of the United States in the fight against climate change as seen through the eyes of the then President of the United States. The chapter ends when Obama returns from ten hours in Copenhagen in 2012 when the Copenhagen Protocol was signed. It extended the 1992 Kyoto Protocol which led to the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. But the way the Obama team got the world players to sign on to the 2012 agreement was a fascinating story. When he flew home to Washington and returned home to the White House, it was late at night and the girls were asleep. Michelle just looked at him and said, “Malia’s probably going to ask you at breakfast whether you saved the tigers.” Obama replied, “I’m working on it.”
I had my book club meeting today and after that I continued writing my book. I went from reading a book to talking about a book to writing a book. That was my day.
by Judy Handley | Apr 12, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 102: Finished Another Chapter
Date: Monday, April 12, 2021
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Misty Rain Off and On; High 48, Low, 39 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
For me, today was a repeat of yesterday. The north wind is still blowing making it feel colder than the temperature indicates. And like yesterday, there was one brief period when the sun tried to shine through the clouds, but that was quickly beaten back. I spent the day writing and finished another chapter. It was a shorter chapter than others and might have to be combined with another later on, but for now I am writing about each new island group in a separate chapter.
This afternoon, friend Jane Woodin stopped by for a visit and then I went to pick up Ollie. Things are starting to pick up in terms of sports activities, so Ollie had to hurry inside and get ready for his first soccer practice of the season. His knee is much better with the swelling way down. The doctor said he can go to soccer practice but should not participate in the thirty-minute scrimmage at the end. His next appointment is next week and then he has an appointment at Children’s Hospital in Boston for follow-up the first week of May. Jonah has soccer practice with two different teams starting this week, and Sam has soccer practice starting this week and adds rowing in two weeks. Games are on Saturdays, so Heather said Sundays in the next two months will definitely be days of rest.
Tomorrow I start writing about our passage from Rarotonga back north 700 miles to American Samoa. Tonight, I counted the days we were in American Samoa and it was thirty. We spent an entire month there and then twenty more days in the ‘other’ Samoa, sometimes called Western Samoa. Justin and my niece Lynn came to Samoa to visit with us, so it will probably take at least two or three weeks to write about our time in both Samoas. Then it is on to Tonga and finally to New Zealand which will end the first year of the Voyage of Windbird. Only five years to go!
by Judy Handley | Apr 11, 2021 | 2021 Life Logs |
2021 Life Logs, Day 101: More Writing
Date: Sunday, April 11, 2021
Weather: Overcast and Cooler, Winds from the NE; High 50, Low, 42 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It felt like winter on Cape Cod today, not spring. I had to put on my winter coat and hat to do my Morning Mile walk with Shadow. At least I did not have to wear gloves. Other people were out with winter hats but only a sweatshirt. I guess I’m just a wuss. Tomorrow and Tuesday look the same, but there might be some sunshine on Wednesday. So, I am going to continue writing tomorrow and Tuesday and take Wednesday off to do other things. Falmouth students are out of school for spring vacation next week and I figure the Goldpebbles might want to come launch the kayaks. So, I am also planning to take off most of next week. But the writing is going well and I will continue as I can.
I am now writing Chapter 14 about our time in the southern Cook Islands. Before leaving on the Voyage of Windbird, I had never heard of the Cook Islands. I had read about Penrhyn and Surarrow Islands in some books about sailing across the Pacific. They are in the northern Cook Islands, hundreds of miles north of the southern Cooks. But Rarotonga and Aitutaki. I had never heard of them. But our friends Michael and Linda Stuart and their thirteen-year-old son Garrett were flying to Rarotonga to be with us for a couple of weeks. So, we headed the 700 miles from Bora Bora to Rarotonga. The weather in Bora Bora had been horrible and totally unpredictable for the time of year. And the weather only got worse the further south and west. we went.
It is a good thing that I wrote logs each day of Windbird’s trip around the world. Otherwise, the book I am writing about that experience would not be correct. When people ask me if we had rough seas in the Pacific, I always say that we did not. It was in the Atlantic Ocean that we had rough seas. I have always said, and believed, that our travels in the Pacific were peaceful and passive as the name suggests. But now that I am going back and reading my logs, that was just not true. It was not as rough as the North Atlantic, but we had some very rough sailing conditions in parts of the Pacific. I’ll end this log with one instance from a sail from Rarotonga to Aitutaki in the southern Cooks when the Stuarts were with us. They had never been sailing before and, after that sail, they never wanted to sail again!
“We left Aitutaki just before sunrise hoping to get back to Rarotonga before the stationary front/trough/low (the weather forecasters were referring to it as all three) could be pushed east by a strong high to the south of us. That black wall that we went through on our way to Aitutaki was the front/trough/low and it had just been sitting there, waiting for us break back through it. That happened in the early hours of that morning when we definitely broke through something. Garrett and I had been below sleeping on the settees in the main cabin. When I got up, I decided to check to see if we had any weather information coming in as emails before going up to the cockpit. I was sitting at the navigation table down below when, all of a sudden, one of the folding cushions from the cockpit came flying down. I, along with the computer, went flying across the cabin. Garrett woke up with eyes as big as saucers as the boat kept heeling further to starboard. He was looking up into the cockpit and watching Mark being thrown across from port to starboard and onto the cockpit floor. I did not see that because I was looking out the starboard ports. I was not seeing the sky. I was seeing nothing but rushing water. Whoa! I knew we had been hit by a very strong gust, but we had never had such a hard hit before. This was the kind of sudden wind gust that could cause a real knock down. Afterwards, Michael, Linda, and Mark, who were in the cockpit, said they saw a black cloud coming our way, but before they could shorten sail, the gust of wind knocked us down. Somehow, I held onto that computer and did not hurt my already broken leg. I landed on my good foot with the computer, still in my hands, going into the kitchen sink. One food cabinet at floor level flew open and cans of food flew everywhere. Windbird righted herself and we all took a deep breath. We were more than a bit shaken, but thankfully everything was fine.”
