by Judy Handley | Aug 28, 2015 | Cape Cod, Sailing Logs Year 10 |
Day 322, Year 10: Friday with the Goldpebbles
Date: Friday, August 28, 2015
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Temp in the Upper 70’s F
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, MA
Today was Friday and I spent my day with the Goldpebbles. Mark drove me to Heather and Jed’s and then he returned to Windbird. I had the use of Heather and Jed’s van for today, so we were all mobile. I spent the day with the boys and Mark returned to Windbird to check out the dingy motor situation. We have been using Heather and Jed’s Mercury 4-stroke, but today Mark had time to put our old Yamaha on the dinghy to try it out and it does run. It is not perfect and it makes noises we have never heard before, but for now we will use it while we decide what new motor we want. I had a low-key day with the boys and met up with Heather, Jed, and Mark at John Stegeman’s home for a barbecue. John is the head of the lab that Jed works in at WHOI. We had a fun evening and tomorrow we will get ready for our few days of sailing with the Goldpebbles. Ollie is still on the fence as to whether he will be with us, but we are hoping we can convince him to tag along.
by Judy Handley | Aug 27, 2015 | Cape Cod, Sailing Logs Year 10 |
Day 321, Year 10: They’re Back . . .
Date: Thursday, August 27, 2015
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Temp in the Low 80’s F, Still Windy
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, MA
They’re back . . . the Goldstones have returned from Maine. So tomorrow Camp Oma will be back up and running. We made a quick stop to see them on our way home from Boston. Even though the weather wasn’t very cooperative for their visit with Grammy, all three boys were bursting with stories of how much they enjoyed the vacation. On their way to Maine, they stopped to do a little back-to-school shopping and each of the boys wanted to show off their new school shoes. Jonah got blue suede shoes, so bringing up a video of Elvis singing that song was fun to watch. I think the boys are starting to look forward to the return to school, but we have one more week of summer fun, so we’ll focus on that for now. I’m just not ready for this summer to end. Tomorrow the boys want to spend the day at home, but on Sunday we take off with Sam and Jonah, and maybe Ollie, for a three or four day sailing trip. The big boys are looking forward to the adventure, but Ollie is not convinced that he wants to leave mommy and daddy for that long. So we are trying to put together a trip where he can join us on at least two of the days.
Mark’s appointment in Boston today was at 3:30 pm, so we drove most of the way and then hopped on the T (public transportation) for the last 15 miles. That way we didn’t have to fight the worst of the traffic leaving the city at rush hour. The strategy worked, and even though there was some stop and go traffic, we were home earlier than expected. Mark is now ready for his first radiation treatment on Tuesday, September 8, so we don’t have to return to Boston until then. In the meantime, we’ll enjoy these last days of summer.
Heather had some very exciting news tonight. She has been accepted as one of 78 women in science that will be going on an expedition to Antarctica in December of next year (2016). Way to go, Heather! The boys are not as excited about this as the rest of us as they are not sure they can make it for a month without momma. But they will be fine and she will be home just in time for Christmas. That will be the best Christmas present ever.
by Judy Handley | Aug 26, 2015 | Cape Cod, Sailing Logs Year 10 |
Day 320, Year 10: To Boston, To Boston
Date: Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Temp in the Low 80’s F, A Bit Windy
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, MA
We traveled to Boston today and, unexpectedly, we will travel to Boston again tomorrow. It’s a good thing we like Boston! Today was Mark’s appointment at Mass General with his oncologist, Dr. Kwak, and his radiation oncologist, Dr. Hong. They had reviewed the scan done last Friday and announced the plan for the next few months. Mark explained to Dr. Kwak that his oncologist on the Cape, Dr. Aviles, had him skip his last treatment due to all of the various side effects he was having. He reported that he was feeling much better, so at that point Dr. Kwak looked at Mark and said, “Then, Mark, I think you will be happy with what I have to tell you. The cancer has grown a bit.” Mark looked confused because the cancer growing is not a good thing. But then she explained that the next step will be five weeks of radiation and then NO cancer treatment for a few months. That is what she thought he would be happy about and he is. This means that we can travel this winter and not have to worry about getting somewhere every two weeks for a treatment. We will have to get scans done every two to three months, but that is not a problem. So once again, Mark is being given the gift of time to enjoy what he loves most . . . sailing. Mark has been living with this cancer for almost four years now. After the first operation and round of chemotherapy, the cancer returned. Mark read that most people in this situation would have three to four years to live. That was three years ago. Then after the second operation and the spread of the cancer to the liver last fall, Dr. Kwak explained to Mark that he could have another year or two. But then the biologic treatment was so successful that the tumor in the liver was no longer perceptible and things looked brighter. Now the biologic is no longer effective and the cancer is growing, so we’ll try radiation again. Dr. Hong is confident that the radiation will totally shrink the tumor in the liver but the swollen lymph nodes in the back of the abdominal area are a bigger problem. Mark asked Dr. Kwak what he can expect now. She explained to Mark that he is still healthy and that his body is putting up a good fight. The cancer is growing slowly and has not spread to other organs, which indicates that he still has some time. But she did add at this point that he should not ask what she means by “some time” as she doesn’t know. She just wants him to continue enjoying life and she’ll deal with issues as they arise. So starting on September 8th, Mark will be living in the AstraZeneca Hope Lodge Center in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston for the next five weeks. I will join him for at least a couple of days each week and he will come home to the Cape on the weekends. He’s done this once before and time passed very quickly. After the radiation treatments, they will wait a month before doing the next scan. During that month we will sail Windbird to South Carolina and fly home from there for the scan. After that we will either sail to Puerto Rico or to Florida and the Bahamas for the rest of the winter. We had eliminated going to the Bahamas because of the cost of flights to and from Florida for treatments, but now that we don’t have to worry about traveling to and fro for treatments, that possibility is once again on the plate. The final decision on where we will spend the winter might be made by the weather. So we’ll just take one step at a time and make decisions as we go. And the first step is returning to Boston tomorrow for a planning scan for the radiation treatment. We had hoped to be here when Heather, Jed, and gang return tomorrow afternoon, but we’ll just have to wait until Friday morning to see them.
by Judy Handley | Aug 25, 2015 | Cape Cod, Sailing Logs Year 10 |
Day 319, Year 10: An Easy Day
Date: Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Weather: Gorgeous Day, High Temp 80 degrees F
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, MA
The weather here is back to beautiful and we had an easy day. I had set this as my day to organize science and art supplies that we keep on shelves in Heather and Jed’s basement. And while I was at it, I planned to organize a few other things on the shelves. It has been a busy summer and things in the basement had gotten to be a bit of a mess. I worked on that and did a few other housekeeping things for H & J. We often use their refrigerator to store a lot of our things, so I decided it was time for a little pay back by cleaning the refrig. It was a perfect day for drying the shelves and drawers outside, so I took advantage of the sunshine and got that job done. Mark did some work on his computer and then I sent him to the garden to pick green beans for us to eat for dinner. He also picked enough cherry tomatoes to roast and freeze another pint. He was able to relax for a change and is feeling much better as a result. I think being away from the boat today was good for him. We ate dinner at Heather’s and decided to take advantage of modern technology and watch a little news on television. It was all about Trump tonight and it was interesting to watch him speak to a large crowd in Iowa. There is so much about him to dislike, but it is also easy to see why so many people are buying his message. It is going to be an interesting political season.
Tomorrow morning we head to Boston to meet with Mark’s oncologists at Mass General. Dr. Kwak and Dr. Hong will have reviewed the CT scan done last Friday and will be sharing the results with us. We have put off making plans for the winter until after tomorrow’s meeting, so this is a biggie.
A couple of people commented on a photo I posted last night. It showed Mark in the dinghy with a 4 hp Mercury motor. That motor belongs to Heather and Jed and we are using it until we decide what we are going to buy for a new dinghy motor. If we get bad news tomorrow and are not going to be sailing this winter, we’ll not buy anything. But if we are going to be cruising for the winter, we will either use our old Yamaha which has been repaired once again, or we will buy a new motor. We haven’t even had a chance to try out the old Yamaha, so we’ll keep you posted on that one.
by Judy Handley | Aug 24, 2015 | Cape Cod, Sailing Logs Year 10 |
Day 318, Year 10: Old Neighborhood, New Neighbors
Date: Monday, August 24, 2015
Weather: Cloudy AM, Gorgeous PM, Temp Upper 70’s, Wind SW 8
Location: Back in Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, MA
Two months and one day after the “Big Blow” that sent us flying into shallow water with a rocky bottom, we are back in Quissett’s outer harbor just a couple of moorings from the one that we drug. So we are back in the old neighborhood with a repaired bottom that looks as good as new. When we arrived this afternoon and picked up the mooring, we saw that we have a new boat in the neighborhood.
We are right next to Rhodora, Bob and Beth Lux’s Bermuda 40. The last time we saw Rhodora was sometime in the 1990’s when they had her stored in their front yard. Bob and Beth did a six-year circumnavigation in the 1980’s and have since then sailed across the Atlantic making sure they visited the chilly waters of Greenland and Iceland. This summer they went to Bermuda and back just because they had never done that! So it feels great to have such wonderful neighbors. In a few days we might be moving back into the inner harbor, but we won’t be far away. We’ll look forward to visiting with Bob and Beth when they come down from Bow, New Hampshire on the weekends.
Early this morning, Windbird was cradled in the slings of the travel-lift so that bottom paint could be applied where the blocks and supports had been. Around 1 pm she was put in the water and Mark drove her around to the fuel dock. We gathered our dinghy and kayak with the help of marina personnel and got them attached to Windbird. Then we filled the fuel and water tanks and pumped out the holding tank. One minute before 3 pm, we pulled away from the dock and were on our way back home to Quissett Harbor. We want to thank the staff at Fiddler’s Cove for doing such a great job on the repairs. And they all do their work with a smile and a friendly helping hand which makes life on the hard so much more pleasant. Our insurance company, Blue Water, also came through. We got the money for the towing costs, the repairs, and for a new dinghy motor a couple of days ago. I still can’t believe how much the TowBoat US costs were for towing, but thankfully they were there when we needed them. Now we just have to hope that this is a quiet hurricane year. I’m not sure I have the nerve to go through any more ‘windy’ adventures this season!
by Judy Handley | Aug 23, 2015 | Cape Cod, Sailing Logs Year 10 |
Day 317, Year 10: Connecting with Friends
Date: Sunday, August 23, 2015
Weather: Overcast with Periods of Rain, Temp Around 80 degrees F
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, MA
Today was all about connecting with friends. We spent the early morning hours doing a little boat cleaning (inside this time) to get ready for our sail from here to Quissett tomorrow. We then drove two cars to Quissett Harbor and left Heather’s car for us to use when we arrive by sailboat tomorrow. While there, we picked up our friends Bob and Beth Lux from the Concord Yacht Club. They sailed their boat down this past week and needed a ride to Enterprise to pick up a rental car to drive home. They will be leaving their boat here until mid-October and we hope to connect with them on other weekends when they come down for a sail. They invited us to go have coffee, so we did and really enjoyed reconnecting with them. Then we were off to Heather’s to can the chicken mineral broth I made yesterday and do a little prep for dinner. By 5:30 pm we were back at Fiddlers Cove Marina to have dinner in the clubhouse with Bruce and Jane Woodin. Mark did a fantastic job of grilling the filet mignons. They were delicious and we had a great time catching up on the happenings in both our lives. It was a wonderful day connecting with friends.
