by Judy Handley | Jun 23, 2015 | Cape Cod, Sailing Logs Year 10 |
Day 256, Year 10: Striding (then dragging) into Summer
Date: Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Weather: Partly Sunny Day, Really Stormy Evening
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, MA
Those of you further south are in mid-summer, but here in the North Country summer is just arriving. Today I had a PT appointment at the hospital and the bike path is close-by. So I dropped Mark and Ollie off for a bike path adventure while I did went for my physical therapy appointment. Ollie was on his strider (like a bike with no pedals) and gave Mark a run for his money for about a mile and half. My appointment was for 30 minutes, and by the time I caught up with them they were sitting on a rock having lunch. So slowly we are striding into summer.
As I write this log we are having quite a thunder and lightning show outside. I just checked Weather Underground and saw that severe thunderstorms are triggering tornado warnings though the Northeast. “The threat of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes will continue well into the evening, along with large hail, strong winds, and heavy rain.”
Well, I had literally just finished writing the above when all hell broke loose. Sometime between 9:15 and 9:30 the wind started howling. Mark turned on the instruments and we watched the wind go from 20 to 25 to 30 to 35 to 40 to 45 to 50 to 55 to 70 and then the instruments started reading all zeros. So we have no idea how windy it really was. Mark saw that we were at an odd angle to the boat that is closest to us and by the time he got the engine started we had drug our mooring into a shallow part of the harbor. I totally lost it when it started sounding like a freight train was roaring through the boat and things started flying. It was obvious that we were dragging through rocks, not soft sand, but finally the wind slowed down enough to give us a chance to think. What to do? The depth gauge was reading just under 5 feet and we draw over 6 feet. Obviously we were aground but we had no idea if there was serious damage. I wanted to call TowBoat US and expected that the number was posted at the nav station, but no such luck. I went through Mark’s wallet, and there was no TowBoat US card. By this time I was screaming at him, and at the world, and decided to call Jed and ask him to call for me. I was just not acting like a rationale adult. Thankfully Jed answered the phone and said he would call TowBoat US for me. He then called back to tell me that he reached them and that they would be on their way soon and would call us with an ETA. They also told him they would call the Coast Guard due to the fact that we were obviously in rocks. The fear is that we would start taking on water. Mark had me check the bilge and I could see no water coming in, so I turned on the VHF radio and called the Coast Guard to let them know that TowBoat US was coming and that we weren’t sinking. They wanted to know the color of the boat. Then they wanted to know if the boat was federally documented. Yes. But they wanted to know the documentation number. That is in the folder with all of our important boat information, but I had to ask them to wait until I could find it. They wanted to know if all persons on board were wearing life jackets. I could honestly answer yes to this as Mark had made sure we put on life jackets when we started dragging. I had adjusted mine to let Sam wear it a week or so ago and couldn’t get it buckled or even think how to loosen it. Add to this the fact that I could barely hear the Coast Guard due to horrible static on the radio. They had good copy on me, but I had to ask them to repeat everything a couple of times and then piece words together to guess at what they were saying. The first TowBoat US boat arrived within 45 minutes and the Coast Guard was right behind them. It was obvious that we were in a very tenuous position, so a second TowBoat US boat was called in. While we waited, the first boat helped us get our dinghy turned right-side up. Somewhere along the line, it had flipped over, motor and all. Rick and Weatherly Dorris own the Quissett Boatyard and somehow Rick found out we were in trouble and he arrived in his tender as well. Rick was in a very serious, life-threatening car accident last week and just got out of the hospital. He is definitely not supposed to be out on the water, but if he heard the Coast Guard “pon pon” calls re Windbird aground in Quissett Harbor, it probably scared him as much as it did me. By 11:15 the two tow boats were ready to try and drag us into deeper water. We dropped our mooring line and one boat pulled us and the other stayed tied to our starboard side to keep us stabilized as the other pulled. We scraped and bumped over rocks, but we made it back into deeper water and were pulled to another mooring. The Coast Guard boat then approached us to check to make sure were not taking on water. We are so appreciative of the fast responses by both the Coast Guard and TowBoat US. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Tomorrow we will have to start assessing the damages, but for tonight we are just thankful that we are afloat. Never expected this kind of drama in Quissett Harbor, but as always, we are so thankful that Windbird is so tough. As the last TowBoat US boat was leaving he stopped to say that we should be grateful that our boat is well built. We couldn’t agree more.
by Judy Handley | Jun 22, 2015 | Cape Cod, Sailing Logs Year 10 |
Day 255, Year 10: Beach Morning; Granola-making Afternoon
Date: Monday, June 22, 2015
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Temp in the Upper 70’s F
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, MA
It finally felt like summer today, so I guess the advent of summer solstice yesterday made its impression. And today was the first official day of Camp Oma for Ollie as his school ended on Friday. I had planned to take him to the library this morning, but he didn’t want anything to do with that idea. Going to the beach much more suited his mood. Granddad had to go for labs in North Falmouth at 11 am, so Ollie and I had Granddad drop us off at the beach near the hematology lab and we played until Mark returned. We collected jingle shells and slipper shells and played with the snails. We found only one periwinkle, but loads of whelks and lots of Codium fragile which is an invasive sea weed commonly called green sea fingers. It is also called sponge seaweed, green sponge, and green fleece. These names do a good job of describing this spongy feeling of the many fingers of this seaweed and Ollie loved collecting it. Once Granddad returned, he took Ollie over to the dock to watch the launch of a small motorboat on the boat ramp. It took the two men launching the boat forever to figure out how to release the boat from the trailer, but that was fine with Ollie as it gave him more time to watch. I think he could have watched all afternoon. I had packed a picnic lunch for him, so we sat on the rocks near the boat ramp to eat and watch boats in Megansett Harbor.
Ollie fell asleep on the way home from the beach, so while he napped, Mark and I made granola. I made enough last December to last until now, but it was definitely time to make a batch of this staple in our diet. And this is a very special batch as I used honey from Heather’s hives. Yummy!
by Judy Handley | Jun 21, 2015 | Cape Cod, Sailing Logs Year 10 |
Day 254, Year 10: Happy, Happy, Happy
Date: Sunday, June 21, 2015
Weather: Summer is Here—Rain, Sunshine, Fog, Warming Up
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, MA
Happy Father’s Day . . . Happy Birthday to our Daughter-in-Law Jo . . . and Happy First Day of Summer. I first want to wish a very Happy Father’s Day to all of my favorite fathers, especially to Mark, to our son Justin, and to our son-in-law Jed. Mark had the special treat of having his daughter here for breakfast this morning, and later in the day, he had a great video Skype call with Justin and gang in Puerto Rico. They were actually on the beach when we called but that didn’t keep us from having a great connection. Modern technology is amazing. Talking to Justin brings me to the second ‘happy’—wishing Jo a happy birthday. Happy Birthday, Jo!! And finally to the third ‘happy’—Happy Summer!!! Although the days will begin shortening a bit, the temperature here on the Cape should warm up a bit now that it is officially summer. Today was typical of Cape Cod summer weather. We started out with rain. The rain eventually dissolved into an hour of sunshine and then it got cloudy again. Mark and I went to shore for a walk and by the time we got in the dinghy to return to Windbird, the fog was rolling in. Then in the late evening, the fog cleared and we had an hour or so of beautiful sunshine. It was way too humid this morning, but by evening the humidity let up a bit and it was just a delightful 70+ degrees.
Tomorrow is the first day of Camp Oma. For the first part of the week, I have Ollie, but once school is out for the big boys on Wednesday, I will have them as well. Grammy Goldstone is arriving on Friday to be here for Jonah’s birthday party on Saturday, so that will be the big event this week. After that, I think the boys are looking for a relaxed summer with lots of time on the beach and on the boat so they can kayak around Quissett Harbor. I have a few special days planned, but for the most part, we are just going to kick back and enjoy summer on Cape Cod.
by Judy Handley | Jun 20, 2015 | Cape Cod, Sailing Logs Year 10 |
Day 253, Year 10: Father’s Day Sail
Date: Saturday, June 20, 2015
Weather: Sunny AM, Mostly Cloudy PM, Wind E 18-20, Temp 60’s F
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, MA
We had our Father’s Day sail this afternoon and we certainly had enough wind to sail. Unfortunately the afternoon was mostly cloudy and a bit on the chilly side, but we were fine in the cockpit with the plastic side panels in place to protect us from the chilly wind. Heather, Jed, and boys joined us and good thing they were along. The auto pilot would just not engage today, so we had to hand steer. I say ‘we’, but I mean Mark, Heather, and Jed. I stayed below with the boys most of the day building pillow forts, so that left the steering to others. And with Mark’s shoulder problem, Heather and Jed were really left with the steering. When we got back at the end of the day, Sam and Jonah took off in the kayak. They went to shore and collected what they thought were blue mussels for dinner. They were so excited when they returned to Windbird with their bucket of mussels, but unfortunately they were not really the kind of blue mussels that taste good. Heather had to break the news and Sam was devastated. But she took him to the dock to show him the difference between the mussels and he will try again on another day to forage for our dinner.
We had dinner aboard Windbird, sans blue mussels, and all of the little ones are asleep now. Late tomorrow morning we have an almost 100 per cent chance of rain, so we’ll probably try to get to shore before the rain begins. The weather forecast for tomorrow is certainly not perfect for Father’s Day or for the first day of summer, but we will try to make the best of it.
by Judy Handley | Jun 19, 2015 | Cape Cod, Sailing Logs Year 10 |
Day 252, Year 10: Congrats to Patsy and Joe
Date: Friday, June 19, 2015
Weather: Partly Cloudy, Temp in the 70’s F
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, MA
After a crazy week that included totaling one of their cars, my sister Patsy and brother-in-law Joe will be spending the first night in their new home in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, tonight. They closed on the sale of their house in Calabash, NC, last Friday, and on the recommendation of a neighbor, spent the night in a motel instead of driving across the state to Charlotte as planned. The next morning they barely got started when they had an accident in which their Ford Edge, packed to the brim with their things, was totaled. Thankfully no one was hurt and thankfully one of my nephews who lives in Charlotte (4 hours away) was in the area. My brother’s oldest son, Tommy, picked them up with all of their ‘stuff’ and drove them to Charlotte where their oldest daughter lives. They regrouped, rented a car, and headed on to Tennessee on Monday, arriving in time to close on the new house there. Furniture was delivered on Tuesday and they have worked all week just trying to get things ready to spend their first night in their new home. I talked to Patsy last night and she said that neighbors have been dropping by to introduce themselves and to invite Patsy and Joe to join in some of the activities. They obviously have friendly neighbors and are only a couple of miles from their youngest daughter Janet. So they are in a good place. Moving is right up there as one of the most stressful of life’s events, but I think Patsy and Joe have weathered the storm and are on the up-side of the event. So congratulations, Patsy and Joe! We are thinking of you and hoping that things are easier from here on out.
Our day was another ‘go to’ sort of day—go to physical therapy at the hospital (for Mark’s partially separated rotator cuff), go to storage (again), to CVS (again), go to the grocery store (again), and go to pick Ollie up from school. This was his last day of preschool until September, so we celebrated by stopping at Peterson Farm to see the lambs. They are now almost as big as their mothers and most of them have horns. Ollie is convinced that sheep don’t have horns but that goats do. So he calls the lambs with horns ‘goat sheep’. I think we should all adopt the same terminology.
Tomorrow is supposed to be nice day, so we are planning to go out for our Father’s Day sail with Heather, Jed, and boys. The forecast for Sunday is still rain, rain, rain, so we’ll have our fun tomorrow while the sun shines.
by Judy Handley | Jun 18, 2015 | Cape Cod, Sailing Logs Year 10 |
Day 251, Year 10: ‘Go To’ Day
Date: Thursday, June 18, 2015
Weather: Partly Sunny, Temp in the Upper 60’s F
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, MA
This was one of those ‘go to’ days—go to shore, go to West Marine to drop Mark off for work, go to Walmart, go to CVS, go to storage, go to the grocery store, go to the boat to drop off groceries, go to the Beach Administration Office to get a summer beach parking permit, go to West Marine to pick Mark up, go to the dermatologist, go to the boat. That just about sums up the day, so now I guess it is time to go to bed! Maybe tomorrow will be a more interesting day. I sure hope so.
