Day 120, Year 8: Done, Done

by Judy Handley | Mar 3, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 | 0 comments

Day 120, Year 8: Done, Done
Date: Sunday March 3, 2013
Weather: Sunny, Windy, and Cool (High in the Upper 40’s F)
Location: Lightkeepers Marina in Coquina Harbor, Little River, SC

I’ll bet you can hear my shrieks of delight. I finished renaming all of the Year One photos and Mark finished refastening the teak deck. So, done and done. Mark still has to upload the last of the photos and get them attached to the appropriate logs. This is time consuming, but the hard part is done. Our next boat project is removing the main sail and its stack pack (cover) so Mark can restitch the stack pack. We had it made in Malaysia in 2009 and the thread is just not holding up. This is a big job because of the way we have to slide the very heavy mainsail and cover along the boom. I have to hold one end while Mark pushes the sail off the track. We’ve done it before so we know we can do it again. We’re just not looking forward to it. It is supposed to rain on Tuesday and Wednesday, so we will wait until after the rain to do that job. In the meantime, we will celebrate Joe’s birthday tomorrow and mine on Tuesday.

Day 361, Year 7: The Time Has Come…

by Judy Handley | Nov 3, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 | 0 comments

Day 361, Year 7: The Time Has Come…
Date: Saturday, November 3, 2012
Weather: Beautiful Day, Temp in the 50’s, Windy
Location: Great Harbor, Woods Hole, Massachusetts

The time has come to sail south. We spent the day with Heather, Jed, Sam, Jonah, and Oliver, completed our shopping, and are prepared to leave around 7 am or sooner. Tonight Daylight Time ends and we get to set our clocks back and get an extra hour of sleep. Once we leave, we will go as fast as we can to beat the ugly weather the next low pressure system will be sending up the east coast. It takes 48 hours to get to Cape May, New Jersey, where we will duck into the Delaware Bay and travel through the C&D Canal to Chesapeake City. Ideally we would like to get there by Tuesday night, spend the night, and then travel on to the Annapolis area the next day. Chesapeake City is expecting snow, yes, I said snow, on Wednesday. Can’t wait for that!

Today was such a beautiful day and we enjoyed going to see Sam play soccer early. We then went out to lunch with Heather and gang before going back to her house to finish cleaning up some of our things in the basement. When we left, we took Sam with us (Jonah was napping), did our grocery shopping, and got back to the boat in time for a 4:30 radio connection with Herb on South Bound II. We told him we were planning to leave in the AM and he agreed that we should have two good days to get to Cape May, New Jersey where we will head into the Delaware Bay and on the Chesapeake. We should be there on Tuesday morning if all goes well. Then on Tuesday night and Wednesday, the weather goes bonkers with high winds and cold temperatures all along the eastern seaboard. By ducking inland, we will miss the high winds, but we will still get the cold weather. Burr!

Heather, Jed, Jonah, and Oliver joined Sam, Mark and I on Windbird tonight for dinner. It was a bit chilly as we have no heat out here on the mooring and the wind was blowing strong. Yet it was a good to have them on Windbird for the final farewell. Mark and I have been with the boys almost every day for the past 16 months and it is going to be hard on all of us to be separated. I fixed their favorite meal, salmon cakes, which is a tradition in my family. And we had strawberry shortcake with whipped cream for dessert. That is a Sam and Jonah tradition. Sam doesn’t eat the strawberries, but he loves the shortcake and whipped cream. He got very sad when we talked about leaving in the morning as he is old enough to understand what it means. But we will be flying back here at the end of December and Heather and Jed and thinking about coming to the Bahamas in February. Then we’ll be back here in April. We will miss seeing Ollie take his first steps and speak his first words, but we’ll use Skype video to fill in the gaps and keep connected. I think the time will pass quickly for all of us. We are looking forward to a warmer winter than New England provides, but we are certainly looking forward to returning here to be with the kids in early spring. Heather and Jed, we want to thank you for allowing us move in and out of your lives. We love you so much and are going to miss those three beautiful little boys.

When we talked with Herb on the radio this afternoon he told us that propagation has been really terrible. That means that it might be difficult to send and receive email via the HAM radio. So if there is no log for the next two days, don’t panic. If we can’t get out, we’ll send something as soon as we get close enough to land to have a cell signal on our phone. It is our internet hotspot so we don’t have to wait until we are plugged in on land. There are many of you who read our logs and we want you to know how much your friendship ‘through the air’ means to us. Thank you for being there. This will be the last log of Year 7 of the Voyage (and beyond) of Windbird. Sailing south tomorrow is the beginning of a new year of adventures.

121103 Cape Cod 165 – Saying Goodbye to HJJS&O

Day 360, Year 7: Not So Fast

by Judy Handley | Nov 2, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 | 0 comments

Day 360, Year 7: Not So Fast
Date: Friday, November 2, 2012
Weather: Overcast and Windy
Latitude: 41 31.443 N
Longitude: 070 40.603 W
Location: Great Harbor, Woods Hole, Massachusetts

Tonight Windbird is now on mooring outside Woods Hole in Great Harbor. The
bridge opened as promised and the parade of boats made their way out of the
pond. Bob Morris sailed away in Apogee taking her north for the winter.
Mitch from the Marine Biological Lab sailed his brand new Sabre, Helix,
north as well. A couple of us took moorings in Great Bay. All of the
workmen who hand-cranked the bridge open, as well as some city officials,
were on the dock as we went under the bridge so we were able to thank them.
When we go through there are just a few feet on each side of us. It is
cozy. Heather and Oliver were in Woods Hole having lunch with Jed and
Oliver and she was on the shore to get a photo of us going through. Once we
were secured on the mooring, Mark went up the mast to put cable clamps on
the stays underneath the top spreaders to keep them from ‘drooping.’ We
have the lazy jacks that hold up our main sail cover attached to the ends of
the spreaders, and over time, they have pulled them down a bit. Now the
cable clamps will keep the spreaders nice and straight.

I spent the rest of the afternoon getting ready for the passage by doing
some meal preparations and Mark worked on the weather. At 4:30 pm we made
radio contact with Herb Hilgenberg of South Bound II to get his
recommendation for our departure date. He nixed leaving tomorrow and
suggested that we plan to leave on Sunday but check-in tomorrow for further
recommendations. After much consternation, we have decided to take his
advice. So NOT SO FAST. We are going to have to hang out here for another
day. Unless something else changes, we will leave here Sunday morning and
head directly for the Delaware Bay instead of Norfolk. The Nor’easter
arriving early on Wednesday morning looks ugly so we won’t try to make it to
Norfolk. We’ll duck inside and make our way to the Chesapeake Bay and down
to Norfolk inside. It will take a little longer, but it will be much safer.
That’s the important thing. We should still get to our first destination of
Little River, South Carolina, in plenty of time for Thanksgiving and we
might even get to go to my friend’s wedding reception gala in Washington,
DC. So this looks like a win-win situation. Let’s just hope there is not
another weather update tomorrow that changes everything again!

We had a lovely farewell dinner with the Heather, Jed, and boys tonight. We
had sushi, our favorite, and spent time just enjoying time together. Sam
declared that he is 101 per cent sad about our leaving and wouldn’t talk
about it beyond that. I’m not sure Jonah knows what it means that we are
leaving and certainly Oliver doesn’t. But I’m like Sam. I am 101 per cent
sad to be leaving. At the same time, I am looking forward to spending time
in the Carolinas with my sister and then traveling on to the Bahamas in
January after a short visit back here. Before we know it, we will be back
here in April. So I have to temper my sadness about leaving with the
excitement of exploring new places and the fact that we will be returning.
But I’m still going to miss those three little guys
soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much.

Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco landed safely in Albuquerque at 1 pm their time
this afternoon and were driving north to Santa Fe the last time we had
contact with them. We are so glad their flight home was uneventful. Jo
wrote and said both Ziggy and Coco were amazing flyers today-no tears and no
complaints. Justin has to do a quick turn around to get ready to give his
TedX talk tomorrow, but hopefully he can relax with Jo, Ziggy, and Coco on
Sunday and then launch back into the work week on Monday. We are certainly
going to miss them as well, but the fact that we haven’t spent time with
them on a daily basis for over a year makes it a little easier But not
much.

We heard yesterday from cruising friends from France that we met in South
Africa. They arrived in their boat in New York City a few days before Sandy
hit and we were very worried about them and their boat, KEA. Amazingly, the
boat the Doms (Dominique and Dominque) are just fine. They were invited to
spend the night in the home of a local boater and they think New Yorkers are
the friendliest people on earth. We are so happy to hear that they are fine
and that we might get to rendezvous with them in the Bahamas this winter.
We have also heard from another cruising couple, Dave and Pam Gwinn. They
lived aboard their boat Jubilee at Shipyard Quarters in Charleston when we
lived there on Windbird prior to our trip around the world. Dave and Pam
now spend their summer in the Chesapeake and their winters in the Bahamas.
Dave has spent the last week holed up in the Dismal Swamp in the
Intracoastal Waterway with a friend who is helping him get their boat,
Jublilee, to the Bahamas. Pam, Dave’s wife, stayed at home in the
Chesapeake and will fly to the Bahamas once Dave has arrived. Their home is
on the water in the southern Chesapeake, and Pam had a few moments of terror
when Sandy hit and the water was licking at the foundation of their home.
We talked to her tonight and found that all is well. So we are very
grateful tonight that both KEA and Jubliee are just fine.

121102 Day 360 Cape Cod, USA– Leaving Eel Pond

Day 359, Year 7: High Tailin’ It Out of Dodge

by Judy Handley | Nov 1, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 | 0 comments

Day 359, Year 7: High Tailin’ It Out of Dodge
Date: Thursday, November 1, 2012
Weather: Partly Sunny
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts

The Falmouth city officials have agreed that there will be one bridge
opening tomorrow between 1 and 3 pm. Hallelujah!!! Our friend from the
Coast Guard called today and said to tell anyone who asks that he is our
uncle as I think he used the ‘family connection’ to persuade his superiors
to make a plea for us. Thanks to Dick Wiklund once again for making
connections for us that helped to get the job done. When we talked to the
bridge tender this morning, he told us that there was no chance of any
opening today, but that there had been so many phone calls to the city that
he thought there was a chance of an opening on Friday. We put our name and
phone number on his list and asked that he notify us as soon as he knew
anything. Since there was no chance of any opening today, Mark decided to
go with me to take Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco to Boston. So that was nice.
Then mid-day we got a call from the bridge tender announcing the Friday
opening. We were ecstatic. Our friend from the Coast Guard also called to
let us know that he was pretty sure it was going to happen. It was a bit
tense there for a bit thinking that we might not get out of here for two
weeks or more, but all is well that ends well. Now we just have to decide
WHEN to leave. Sunday night looks like it might be the first frost of the
season and with the wind chill the predicted temp is 23F. Very chilly. So
getting out before then sounds good. And by mid-week there is now a
prediction of 30 to 40 knot winds here. So this weekend sounds like the
time to high tail out of New England, aka Dodge. Unfortunately, the night
time temperatures are in the 30’s next week from here to Annapolis in
Chesapeake Bay. Things don’t warm up a bit until you get as far south as
Norfolk. So our decision now is whether to leave on Saturday morning when
we are not quite ready and head straight for Norfolk. Or whether to spend
more time getting ready and leave on Sunday knowing we will have to duck in
at Cape May, New Jersey, and make our way through the C&D Canal to the
Chesapeake Bay. High winds are expected on Wednesday so we have either have
to be in Norfolk on Tuesday or have ducked into the Delaware Bay and be on
our to the Chesapeake. Right this minute, our thought is that we need to go
sooner rather than later. So unless something changes, we will probably be
sailing south on Saturday morning. Tomorrow could be a very busy day.

We took Justin, Jo, and little ones to Boston this afternoon and left them
at a Comfort Inn near the airport. Saying goodbye to my children and
grandchildren is not one of my strengths. I’m always on the verge of tears
and can therefore say very little. But Ziggy was happy as a clam to be in a
hotel and Coco was smiling, so that made things a little easier. We won’t
rest easy until we hear from Justin or Jo in the morning letting us know
that they are actually on the plane headed home. But both Justin and Jo
were saying this afternoon that the delay in getting home was really good
for Ziggy. It gave him a chance to really get to know Sam and Jonah. Ziggy
is an exuberant, beautiful child and he has decided that he is going to be
diver. He loved visiting the aquarium here in Woods Hole and in Boston and
yesterday Jo brought him to Woods Hole in the afternoon to go to the WHOI
Exhibit Center to learn all about Alvin and other research vessels and then
Jed took them out on the WHOI dock to see Atlantis, one of the large
research vessels. Ziggy loved it. Then this morning, Ziggy and Jonah were
playing ‘diver’ and Jonah decided to make this realistic. Heather heard
water running upstairs, so I went up to see what was going on. Jonah was
filling his water bottle repeatedly and pouring the water onto the floor so
he and Ziggy could swim and dive. It was just too precious, but we couldn’t
let Jonah know that. Jonah was stark naked ‘swimming’ in the water. When
Ziggy realized that Jonah was in a bit of trouble for pouring all that water
on the floor, he reacted by trying to lick the water up from floor! He
would have had to do a lot of licking, but a washer load of towels did the
job.

I’ll end with a note to Justin and Jo-Thank you so much for flying out to
see us. You have two beautiful children and you have carved out a wonderful
life for yourselves in New Mexico. We wish we were closer and could see you
more often, but we have beautiful memories from your visit here to carry us
through until we are together again. Here’s hoping you have an uneventful
and safe trip home. We love you so much.

121101 Cape Cod 163 – Saying Goodbye to JJZ&C

Day 358, Year 7: Trick not Treat

by Judy Handley | Oct 31, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 | 0 comments

Day 358, Year 7: Trick not Treat
Date: Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Weather: Overcast with Periods of Misty Rain
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts

On this Halloween, we got tricked, not treated. Just as we were about to
finish putting Windbird back together after the hurricane, Bob Morris came
down to visit and let us know that he had just found out that the Woods Hole
bridge is closed until further notice. At first we were in disbelief, but
as we listened to Bob’s story it became evidently that we might not be able
to get out of here for a couple of weeks or more. We spent the rest of the
afternoon making contacts to try and give us some leverage for opening the
bridge, just once, to let those of us in here who need to get out do so.
Bob had driven down from Scituate (near Boston) to move his boat Apogee out
of the pond and head north to Scituate while the winds are still from the
south. Bob and Mark did a walkabout in Woods Hole trying to gather
information and were basically told that the Department of Public Works had
made this decision and posted signs all over town stating that the bridge is
closed until further notice. We called our friend Dick Wiklund to try and
get a phone number for a fellow HAM radio operator who is also Response
Department Head for the local Coast Guard Sector. Dick contacted him for us
and he called almost immediately saying he would have his commanding officer
check into the problem for us. The Coast Guard has no authority over the
Department of Public Works (DPW), but he thought he could at least find out
the actual reason for the closure. Later in the evening he called back and
said that the city had been told by an engineer to close the bridge. He and
his superiors are going to continue to work on this, but since they really
don’t have jurisdiction all they can do is help plead our case. The inner
workings of the bridge were flooded during the hurricane and the DPW is
going to accept bids for the work to fix it. This does not sound like a
fast fix, so we are doing everything possible to exert a little pressure on
the DPW to open the bridge at least once so those of us trapped inside can
get out.

Mark and I needed to be spending all of our energy on getting ready for the
passage south, but now we need to spend that energy on trying to get out of
here. Our friend at the Coast Guard Station asked how much prior notice we
would need to get out of the pond, and we said we could move on moment’s
notice. So now we have to be ready to do that. We would just move to
mooring outside in Great Harbor and wait there until we depart for the sail
south. Bob Morris made his contacts and he believes we might get a bridge
opening, but not until next week. Yet one of us is going to have to be on
the boat during the day just in case. We had both hoped to drive Justin,
Jo, Ziggy, and Coco to Boston tomorrow and then go on to Concord for a
Concord Yacht Club Meeting tomorrow night. But now Mark will stay here and
I will drive them and return home. This is one problem we just didn’t
anticipate. Due to the timing of Mark’s medical appointments, we knew we
were already pushing our luck on getting a good weather window for heading
south. Waiting another two weeks or more is really going to push our luck.
We’ve always said that being flexible is an absolute necessity for sailors,
but somehow I’m having trouble accepting this little ‘trick’ in our plans.
Maybe a good night’s sleep will give me more flexibility!

Despite all of this, we still had Halloween fun with the grandkids.

121031 Day 358 Cape Cod, USA–Happy Halloween