by Judy Handley | Oct 12, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 339, Year 7: Cooler Weather
Date: Friday, October 12, 2012
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Some Rain, Cool
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
The dominating theme today-the cooler weather. Tonight will be our coolest
night this fall with temps dipping into the upper 30’s. It is also very
windy, so will feel even chillier. We decided to stay over at Heather’s
again tonight as the morning starts early with a huge used children’s
clothing sale in downtown Falmouth, then soccer for Sam and swim lessons for
Jonah. It seemed silly to drive home tonight and come back early in the
morning. And since swim lesson and soccer are at the same time, there is no
way for Heather to be at both at one time. So a little help from Oma and
Granddad is needed. And this way we avoid the coolest night yet on the
boat. It is supposed to start warming up tomorrow and Sunday will be back
in the 60’s. When I look at the long range forecast, it looks like the
temperature is going to hover around 60, plus or minus a few degrees, for
the next couple of weeks. That sounds perfect, but it is definitely time
for wearing polar fleece.
by Judy Handley | Oct 11, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 338, Year 7: Smashing Success
Date: Thursday, October 11, 2012
Weather: Beautiful Day, High Temp Around 60 degrees F
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Mark met with Dr. Stephen at Mass General today for a post-op check-up. And
really all she had to say was that the parathyroid surgery was a “smashing
success.” It is always good to hear such a positive review from your
surgeon. Basically all Mark has to do as follow-up is take one Tums tablet
a day as a source of calcium. The appointment didn’t take long, so we had
an early lunch, did a little shopping, and headed home. We made it home in
time to go to the last Farmer’s Market of the summer and fall season and we
delivered a ten gallon stainless steel pot to Carrie of Peachtree Farms.
This is a pot that I once used to make cheese. It easily head eight gallons
of cow’s milk that resulted in an eight pound round of hard cheese. The
actual capacity of the pot is 38 and a half quarts. It is huge. I haven’t
used the pot since the early 80’s and in a conversation with Carrie a few
weeks ago, I discovered that she needed one. She runs a small organic farm
(all by herself with one helper) and sells her produce at the Farmer’s
Market each week. I was delighted to find a home for that pot and in return
Carrie is going to plant a 25-foot row of tomatoes for us next year. She is
sure it will yield more than a 100 pounds of tomatoes which is the amount we
estimate we need to make a year’s supply of tomato sauce for Heather and Jed
and for us. The stock pot can be bought for about $200 today, although the
list price is over $300. But then the price of organic tomatoes is $2-$3 a
pound. So it was a great trade for both of us.
Heather fixed a fantastic dinner for us this evening with scallops from the
local fish cooperative. She incorpated them in a Thai curry. Yummy! While
she did that, I picked tomatoes, basil, peppers, and green beans from the
garden. Heather had heard that it was going to frost tonight so I scurried
to get those tender crops picked. I just checked the weather, however, and
don’t see that it is going to cool down until tomorrow night, and even then
the temp is only forecasted to get down to 36 degrees. We didn’t have a
frost until much later last year, so I’m hoping tomorrow night is an
anomaly. But we are preparing for cooler weather by looking for a dock for
Windbird so that we can plug in and have heat while Justin and Jo are here.
We stopped at Fiddler’s Cove this afternoon to see if we could go back there
for a couple of weeks, and they do have room. We’d rather stay in Eel Pond,
however, so we will continue to explore the two possibilities there. One
way or another, we’ll hope to move the boat next Thursday. And two weeks
after that, we are planning to sail south. I just can’t believe the time is
passing so quickly.
by Judy Handley | Oct 10, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 337, Year 7: Sunshine on a Cloudy Day
Date: Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Weather: Overcast and Rainy, A Few Degrees Warmer (mid 60’s)
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
We love all of our grandchildren, but I must say that Oliver stole the show
today. At 8:30 am, Heather was heading to Woods Hole with Jonah and Mark
and I were putting Oliver in his stroller so that we could walk Sam to
school. Oliver had on a little shirt that made him look like a little
lumberjack and when we put him in the stroller, he was just sooooooo happy.
He ‘talked’ and giggled and smiled. I did my best to try and capture the
moment with my camera, but no picture is ever as cute as the real thing.
Anyway, he was our sunshine today.
Mark and I spent the rest of the day taking turns holding Oliver when he was
sleeping and playing with him when he was awake. Heather returned just
after noon to feed him and then we continued the Oliver watch while Heather
continued doing some work at home. Then just after 3 pm, Mark headed to
Woods Hole to take some things to the boat and then pick Jonah up from
school and Oliver and I headed out to walk and pick up Sam from school.
Heather does a great job with the boys when Jed is away and doesn’t really
have to have our help, but we hope being there gives her a little relief.
We help with dinner, bathtime, and storytime, and then tonight we headed
back to Windbird. Tomorrow morning we head to Boston for Mark’s follow-up
appointment with the parathyroid surgeon. We’ll go back to Heather’s when
we return and spend the night so we can help with getting Jonah to school in
Woods Hole on Friday morning. Mark has to go to work at West Marine, so
I’ll probably take him to work and then continue on to Woods Hole with
Jonah. If it is a sunny day, maybe I’ll have Heather pick Mark up from work
and come to the boat for dinner.
by Judy Handley | Oct 9, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 336, Year 7: Lazy Day
Date: Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Weather: Rain Overnight, Then Cloudy, Misty, Windy, and Cool
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
The weather dominated day and made us a bit lazy. When you live on the
water and it is rainy, windy, and cool, the best place to be is inside. So
after an early morning trip to town, we holed up until later in the
afternoon. I worked on organizing photos, a job I could do for the next ten
years and still not be done, and Mark had a nice long nap. He was the last
of us to get this virus, cold, whatever it is-and he is hoping extra rest
will ward it off.
Jed was feeling fine today after his bout with asthma last night, but had
another very stressful evening trying to get to Boston to the airport. This
time he made, but with only 20 minutes to spare for an international flight.
For once, he was thankful that the plane was late arriving, but he had gone
through more than three hours of stress getting to the airport. Heather and
boys took him to Sagamore to catch the 4 o’clock bus. It should have been
in Boston by 5:30, but Jed called about then and reported that they were not
even half-way there. He didn’t know why, but he was getting worried that he
would get to the airport in time to catch his 8 pm flight to London. He
called a couple of more times reporting continued slow progress. Finally at
7 pm the bus had made it to South Station in Boston, but it still had to go
through the tunnel to Logan Airport. He arrived at the airport at 7:40 pm,
surely not two hours before an international flight, but that’s when he
found out the plane was late. Whew! Getting an airline to forgive you for
not making it on one flight due to a medical emergency is hard enough, but
to then call the next night saying the bus didn’t make it on time would just
be too much. Hopefully the rest of his trip will be a bit calmer.
We are spending the night at Heather’s tonight so that we can walk Sam to
school and then spend the morning with Ollie at home. Heather will leave
early to take Jonah to school in Woods Hole and then she will go to work for
the morning. She will return home to feed Ollie by noon. It is the same
routine as on Mondays and Fridays and Ollie has been cooperating with the
plan so far. He had a ‘first’ tonight. He sat in his high chair during
dinner and chewed on pizza crust and pieces of sweet potato. He didn’t
really eat anything, but he had a wonderful time playing with the food. I
took photos, but forgot to bring the cord to connect the camera to the
computer. I’ll have to wait until we are back on the boat tomorrow night to
post those.
by Judy Handley | Oct 8, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 335, Year 7: The Unexpected
Date: Monday, October 8, 2012
Weather: Partly Sunny Morning, Turning Cloudy; Temp in the 50’s
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Picture this. It is late afternoon and Mark is standing on a ladder on the
back deck trying to connect the new Ham radio antenna wire to the backstay.
I look up to see how he is doing and he’s talking on the phone! Then I hear
him say, “We’ll meet you at the hospital emergency room as soon as we can
get there.” All I could imagine was that one of the kids had done something
crazy and broken a bone or gotten a bad cut. But it was Jed, not the kids.
We had seen him an hour earlier when we went over to borrow the ladder Mark
was using and Jed was getting ready to drive up to the Sagamore Bridge to
catch a bus to Logan Airport in Boston. He was supposed to be flying to
England tonight. But as he was driving north to the bridge, he had what
appeared to be an asthma attack and had to stop the car and call 911 to have
an ambulance come and get him. He was having difficulty breathing. This is
not what I expected. Jed has never had an ashma attack. He is terribly
allergic to solvents, epoxy, and a few other things and has had to go to the
emergency room when exposed to those. But that was not the case today. The
short story is that by 10 pm he was back home and doing fine and he will fly
to England tomorrow. The longer story is that earlier in the day he had
worked on the exhaust system of Heather’s old Honda. He thought he had it
patched up good enough to drive it to Sagamore to catch the bus. He was
going to just leave it there so he would have a way home next Sunday when he
returns. As he started driving, he realized that the patch didn’t hold and
he had to open all the windows as there was exhaust coming into the car from
under the floor. Then he started having the breathing problems and had to
stop and call 911. When we got to the hospital, Heather was already there
with the three boys. Jonah was wearing boxer shorts and frog rain boots.
Sam was in shorts and rain boots. I should have taken a picture. The boots
were by the door and since Heather was in a bit of a hurry and the boots
were handy, she just told them to put them on and get in the van. At least
Jonah had a pair of jeans with him, so we got him dressed and took the boys
to get something to eat. They had already seen their dad and didn’t really
want to leave him, but they did need to eat. We tried the hospital
cafeteria but they were offering only two entrees, neither of which either
boy would eat. But they really didn’t want to leave the hospital, so Sam
said he would eat noodles and cooked carrots. Jonah, however, just couldn’t
do that. So Sam suggested we go to nearby Cape Cod Bagels and have
breakfast for dinner. We tried that, but they were closed. Jonah was very
upset and was sure that if we drove any further, I would get lost and not be
able to get them back to the hospital. Sam assured him that we could find
our way back, so we decided to go to McDonald’s to get chicken nuggets and
French fries-not a healthy dinner, but one I knew they would eat. We got
back to the hospital around 7 pm and Heather told the boys that we were all
going home and that daddy would be able to come home later in the evening.
The doctor was checking all systems to try and figure out what had happened,
but in the end the doctor thinks the incident was related to the RSV
(respiratory syncytial virus) that we all have. Either the cool air or the
exhaust triggered the coughing, and things went from there. Heather drove
the boys home and Mark and I drove to the car that had been left on the side
of the road and got Jed’s luggage and backpack with his brand new, very
expensive work computer. He surely didn’t want that left in the car
overnight. When we got back to Heather’s, we helped get the boys to bed and
then around 9:30 pm Jed called and said he had been released and could go
home. I went to pick him up. The events of the evening were all
unexpected, but thankfully everything turned out fine.
I spent my morning sanding and varnishing the Dorade boxes one more time and
I also decided to put another coat of varnish on part of the cockpit cap
rail. That might have been a mistake as there is supposed to be rain
tonight and there is no way to protect the section I did. While I did this,
Mark worked on adjusting the rigging. It was tightened in Grenada, and
slowly since then, Mark has felt that it needed to be loosened some. He
also spent a great deal of time removing rusty parts from our dinghy anchor
chain. The swivel connector was a rusty mess. When the work was done we
had lunch, and then we drove into Falmouth to do some shopping and pick up
the ladder at Heather and Jed’s. And that brings us back to where this
story started.
We got an email from a reader from Louisiana today who could really use
those hurricane lines we are trying to get rid of. Bob, if you are reading
this, we just want you to know that we will email you in the morning. Not
sure how we could get the lines to you without huge shipping costs because
they are bulky and heavy. But we will look into it. It would be great to
find a home for them where they are needed. And thanks for being a loyal
reader.
by Judy Handley | Oct 7, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 334, Year 7: Day of Rest . . . with an Eency Bit of Work
Date: Sunday, October 7, 2012
Weather: Partly Sunny Morning; Overcast with Rain Remainder of Day
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Actually we worked all day, but at a very slow pace, so it seemed like a day
of rest. Mark and I worked together to take everything out of the storage
area under the v-berth. We looked at it, thought about it, and ended up
putting everything back with the exception of the hurricane lines. These
came with the boat, have taken up a huge amount of space for the past eleven
years, and have only been used once during that time-to decorate the outdoor
reception area at Heather and Jed’s wedding to give it a nautical feel.
Each of the four lines is 100 feet long and it would cost at least $600 to
buy the lot of them new. But they take up a huge amount of space and aren’t
as strong as other line we have that take up less room. Basically, we just
don’t need them. So we put them in the car and will start looking for a
home for them. During the afternoon we went to shore and talked to Buzz,
the marina owner, to see if there might be dock space for us for the last
two weeks of October when Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco will be here. There
will be room but there might not be electricity, and that is precisely why
we would want to move to shore. It would be nice to have heat in case it is
really cold. But Buzz is going to be putting in new water and electrical
lines at some point, and that could leave us without power. We will look
for other options, and stay in touch with Buzz to check on his timing of
getting things done. It is possible that he might not get to the electrical
work until after we are gone. In that case, we could stay here. We have
one other possible option in Eel Pond. The big boat that comes in here from
Nevis in the Caribbean each summer stays on a private dock. They are headed
south sometime next week, so the dock owner might let us move in for a
couple of weeks. If neither of the Eel Pond options works out, we’ll check
with Fiddler’s Cove. So one way or another, we’ll probably have a dock and
be plugged in while Justin and Jo are here, maybe not in Woods Hole, but
somewhere. One good thing came out the conversation with Buzz. He might be
interested in buying the hurricane lines. The selling price will be very
cheap. We just want to find a home for them. We’re also looking for a home
for all of the old electronic gear, but that might not be as easy to
off-load. We have a large shopping bag of gear to give away to someone who
needs strange electrical connectors and other parts.
Tonight we talked to Justin and Jo via Skype. Ziggy was a ball of energy
and Coco entertained us with her smiles and ‘talking.’ She is a cutie and
we just can’t wait to meet her. I’m posting a few photos that I got off
Jo’s Facebook page with this log.
If I manage to stay on Windbird all day tomorrow, it will be the first time
in more than a year that I have stayed put for three straight days. Do you
think I’ll make it?
