by Judy Handley | Aug 10, 2015 | Cape Cod, Sailing Logs Year 10 |
Day 304, Year 10: Work, Work, Work
Date: Monday, August 10, 2015
Weather: Sunny, Temp in the 70’s
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, MA
Today was definitely a work day. I was back with the Goldpebbles, Mark went to work at West Marine, and Scott, the man who will do the fiberglass repair work on the bottom of Windbird, returned from vacation and started working on the rudder early this morning. It was still weeping a bit of water, so he applied heat and tried to suck out as much moisture as possible with a powerful wet/dry vacuum. When we returned at the end of the day, all of the drying equipment was gone and Scott had sanded the areas that will need to be fiberglassed. Unfortunately, we found the rudder still weepy, so that could delay the work. We’ll try to talk to Scott in the morning before we leave and find out what he is thinking in terms of a time line for completing the work. Now that I have to start my sanding and varnishing job all over again, I need time on land to do that. Or at least being on land with access to electricity for the sander would be more convenient. It can be done when we are back in the water, but it would mean running the engine to get the power for sander. So we will see what Scott says in the morning and make plans accordingly. In the meantime, Heather has decided to have a yard sale this coming Saturday and I would love to get a lot of things out of storage to sell. I’m just not sure I’ll have time to do that. We shall see.
Heather and Jed have close friends from Canada in town this week and we will be having dinner with them tomorrow night. Jo and Heather were graduate students together. The first time I met Jo was at an MIT rugby game and she and Heather were participants—glad those days are over! Before Jo and her husband Drew left Woods Hole to return to Canada, they had two children, Galen and Raynham. I haven’t seen Galen since he was a toddler and he is now a teenager. Hard to believe the years pass by so quickly. So it will be fun to get together with them tomorrow night.
by Judy Handley | Aug 9, 2015 | Cape Cod, Sailing Logs Year 10 |
Day 303, Year 10: From Nyack to Cape Cod
Date: Sunday, August 9, 2015
Weather: Partly Sunny, 80’s in New York, Upper 60’s on the Cape
Location: Back Home on Windbird
Today we drove back to the Cape from visiting friends Ed and Lynne in Nyack, NY. It was a delightful weekend and we even enjoyed the drive the home. We had a little traffic at first due to a couple of accidents, but once we got to the Connecticut border, it was smooth sailing all the way home. We made a few stops, one to eat lunch, one to check out Yamaha outboard motors, and one to do a little food and clothing shopping. But we were still home just after 5 o’clock. The temperature in New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island was in the 80’s, but when we got out of the car to do food shopping on the Cape, the temp dropped about 20 degrees. The high here today was 69 degrees F, and by the time we stopped at the store it was only 63 degrees F. Brrrr! It felt chilly. But that’s the way of a Cape Cod summer. We have just had warmer than normal daytime temps and I had gotten used to that. Hopefully things will warm up again. I’m not ready for weather that feels like fall just yet.
Lynne and I got up before Ed and Mark, so we went for a nice walk down a tree-lined street with lovely old homes on either side. The homes on our right fronted onto the Hudson River and I’m sure each one had fantastic views from their backyards leading down to river bank. We probably walked a little over a mile and then had to turn around. But if we had gone on we would have made it to the park where Ed and Lynne love to walk. We hurried back because we wanted to see Ed’s grandson Frankie before he took off for a Yankee’s game in the city. He had friends in town this weekend and had been out and about and we hadn’t met him. When we arrived in his apartment, he had on his chef’s hat and apron and was fixing breakfast for his friends. His father, Frank and his two little ones, Sophia and Anthony, were also in Frankie’s apartment, so we got to see them again. And then everyone came to Ed and Lynne’s apartment to say goodbyes just before we left. Frank, Nicole, and little ones were headed to Pennsylvania to visit with Nicole’s parents, Frankie and his friends were headed into the city, and we were headed back to the Cape. After a photo session on the deck, we all headed in our different directions. I’m sure Ed and Lynne enjoyed a bit of peace and quiet today, but I know they feel blessed to be so close to children and grandchildren and will welcome the ‘chaos’ when they all return.
And speaking of grandchildren and ‘chaos’, we are looking forward to seeing the Goldpebbles in the morning. We have another week and a half of Camp Oma before Heather, Jed, and boys head to Maine for a week. When they return, Mark and I are planning a sailing trip with the boys. When we return from that, we will have just a few days before school starts. Summer 2015 will be over before we know it.
by Judy Handley | Aug 9, 2015 | Cape Cod, Sailing Logs Year 10 |
Day 302, Year 10: Lovely Day with the Kirwins
Date: Saturday, August 8, 2015
Weather: Partly Cloudy and Warm
Location: At Home with Ed and Lynne Kirwin, Nyack, NY
It was a lovely day here in Nyack with the Kirwins—all of them. Well, at least we met all but one by the end of the evening. The day started with Lynne and I going out on a shopping trip for B, B, and B—baguettes, beer, and bananas—plus a few other things. Ed’s two sons, Ed Jr. and Frank, and their families were coming for dinner, so we picked up a couple of chicken alfredo ready-made casseroles at Costco. Then we went to a grocery store to buy beer and bananas, and finally to the World Food Market to get baguettes. While at Costco, I was able to buy oats and nuts for my next batch of granola, so it was a very productive shopping trip for me. When we returned, we had lunch and then went down to the pool to read and relax the afternoon away. The pool is right on the edge of the Hudson River and the views are fantastic. Then it was time for dinner and the families gathered. Ed’s youngest son, Ed Jr., his wife Gigi, and their three children aged 19 to 25, live in Scarsdale which is about 30 minutes from here. They arrived with a fantastic salad and tons of dessert options. Ed’s oldest son, Frank, his wife Nicole, and their children live here at the apartment complex, but we were actually gathering in the town house occupied for the summer by their oldest daughter Alissa and oldest son Frankie. Anthony (5) and Sofia (7) came with mommy and daddy. It was delightful to finally meet everyone that we have heard so much about over the years. Frank’s oldest son, Frankie, was absent, but he will be here in the morning for breakfast, so we will meet him then.
Shortly after breakfast, we will start the trek back to Cape Cod. We want to get back across the Tappanzee Bridge before the traffic gets too heavy. Hopefully we’ll be as lucky with traffic on the way home as we were on the way here.
by Judy Handley | Aug 7, 2015 | Cape Cod, Sailing Logs Year 10 |
Day 301, Year 10: From Cape Cod to the West Bank of the Hudson River
Date: Friday, August 7, 2015
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny Day—Cooler on Cape Cod, Warmer in NY
Location: At Home with Ed and Lynne Kirwin, Nyack, NY
Today we drove from Cape Cod to the west bank of the Hudson River in Nyack, New York. This is where our friends Ed and Lynne Kirwin are currently living in the West Shore Towers. There are loads of sailboats anchored and moored just offshore, so when we arrived we decided that we should have sailed here. But we drove and the important thing is that we are here to spend time with our good friends. Ed is undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer and he and Mark spent time discussing life while undergoing chemo treatment. This is certainly not a topic that we ever thought we would be discussing when we met in Malaysia in December of 2009. But here we are with both Mark and Ed battling cancer. We do have wonderful memories of our sail to India together and then south and west across the Indian Ocean to Madagascar and on to South Africa. So we’ll weave discussions of that time together along with our discussions of living with cancer. FYI—We had a great trip here today with very little traffic until just before the Tappenzee Bridge. It was a good day.
by Judy Handley | Aug 6, 2015 | Cape Cod, Sailing Logs Year 10 |
Day 300, Year 10: Sam’s Last Day of Class at CSS
Date: Thursday, August 6, 2015
Weather: Temp in the Upper 70’s, Mostly Sunny
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, MA
It just seems like yesterday that Sam and Jonah got of school for the summer, but evidently the summer is moving along because today was Sam’s last day of class at the Children’s School of Science. So before we know it, summer will be over and the boys will be back in school. And to punctuate the nearing of the end of summer fun, the weather turned cooler today. It was still in the 70’s, but when Jonah, Ollie, and I went to the beach, the boys got out of the water after only a couple of minutes. Ollie declared that he was freezing, so we spent the rest of our time on the beach and on the jetty fishing for crabs. Before the beach, we spent the earlier morning hours at Fiddler’s Cove. The boys really wanted to play pool in the club house, so we did that and played other games as well. Ollie found an ‘Old MacDonald’s Farm’ game that played the song when you made the right move. When the song played, he put on quite a show dancing to the music. After playing games in the club house, we went down to the boardwalk to eat lunch. There is an oyster nursery on one of the docks, and we arrived while the baby oysters were being packaged up to be moved further out into the bay to grow even bigger. The baby oysters were about as big as the end of my thumb. But it was the baby scallops that were so amazing. They were no bigger than the end of Ollie’s pinky finger and there were thousands of them that had been growing in a container the size of a kiddie pool. It was a fascinating luncheon show. Then we were off to Woods Hole to take Sam to class and to play at the beach while waiting for him.
Mark and I had a couple of disappointments today. The good news was that there was no dew overnight and I was able to put the first coat of varnish on the cap rail. I was trying to cheat and only varnish a couple of sections. But the disappointing news is that after the coat of varnish dried, it became evident that the patch job is not going to work. Next week, I will again start the sanding project and do the entire cap rail. I should have known better than to try the short-cut. The other disappointment was that Mark’s white blood cell count has dipped just below the normal range. He found this out when he went in for his chemo treatment today. This happened before when he started his first chemo treatments in the spring of 2012, but we were able to get the count back up by adding things to his diet. One of those things was Magic Mineral Broth. I haven’t made any for months, so I have to get back in the groove. The broth is just chicken broth with tons of veggies added to it and it seems to do the job. So next week will be healthy food week!
In the meantime, we are headed to New York tomorrow. We are really looking forward to our visit with Ed and Lynne. We hope to arrive mid-afternoon tomorrow and head home on Sunday morning. We’re hoping our early morning travels will avoid the major weekend traffic.
by Judy Handley | Aug 5, 2015 | Cape Cod, Sailing Logs Year 10 |
Day 299, Year 10: Bright, Shiny Windbird
Date: Wednesday, August 5, 2015
Weather: Temp in the 80’s; Partly Cloudy, Windy Evening
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, MA
While I was out and about with the grandkids today, Mark, Heather, and Jed washed and polished Windbird so that she is once again bright and shiny. We still need to polish the cabin top, but the jobs that are so hard to do when she is in the water are done. Thank you, thank you, to Heather and Jed. At the end of the work day, we all went to Woods Hole for an Open House at the School of Science. Tomorrow is Sam’s last day of classes. It is a wonderful opportunity for him, but we are all looking forward to a few summer days when we don’t have to be on such a tight time schedule. After the Open House we went to the Captain Kidd for dinner. Dinner was great, but even more than dinner, I’m sure the boys enjoyed feeding the ducks and striped bass from the restaurant dock. Then we walked to Waterfront Park and hugged the Rachel Carson sculpture as the sun went down.
Back to boat work . . . Mark also got the SailRite sewing machine working properly this morning and he got two of the seven cockpit plastic curtains resewn. I didn’t get the first coat of varnish on the cockpit cap rail, but I will have to find a way to work that into tomorrow’s schedule. Mark has a chemo treatment tomorrow morning going into the early afternoon, but once he is done, he can watch the boys while I varnish. One coat will have to hold it until next week as we take off on Friday morning for Nyack, New York, to visit with our good friends, Ed and Lynne Kirwin of Constance. Shortly after returning from the Bahamas this winter, they found out that Ed has late-stage pancreatic cancer. Ed and Mark have been commiserating on the phone, but it is definitely time for a face-to-face visit. Any additional work on Windbird will just have to wait until next week.
