by Judy Handley | Jul 8, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 243, Year 7: Reunion with Friends
Date: Sunday, July 8, 2012
Weather: Beautiful Day, Very Windy
Location: Visiting with Friends in Greenland, NH
Today we drove from Falmouth-Foreside in Maine to Portland for breakfast and
then on to Kittery to the outlet malls to do a little shopping. The
Kanegsbergs took us out to breakfast at Becky’s Diner in Portland and it was
a fantastic way to start the day. The stop in Kittery was to try and find
shoes and that was successful. We then drove a little further south to
Greenland, New Hampshire, not far from Portsmouth, to visit with friends.
It was an absolutely beautiful day, but it was very windy on the shores of
Great Bay where Tom and Detta Porat and David Wolowitz and Sue Robichaud
live. We first stopped by Detta and Tom’s and caught up on what’s been
happening in our lives since we last saw them in early March. Then we all
went to David and Sue’s where we were joined by Leslie and Rich Kole and
Roger and Carole Brooks. Sue, Detta, Leslie, and myself were all teachers
in Concord, New Hampshire, where Roger was our principal and good friend.
We haven’t seen Roger since we left for our sail around the world in 2005 so
it was great to get together. We all sat on the Sue and David’s back patio
overlooking the bay and caught up on what all of our children are doing
these days. Mark and I are the only ones with grandchildren at this point,
so we assured everyone that the best is yet to come. After dinner there was
a birthday celebration for Mark. While we talked the evening away, the
setting sun decided to put on quite a show for us. The sunset was
magnificent.
After four days of visiting with friends and family, we will head back to
Cape Cod in the morning. We’ll get home in time to pick Sam and Jonah up
from school and take them to Woods Hole for the afternoon. Mark has an
appointment with this oncologist but when he gets home from that we plan to
launch the new kayak and paddle about Eel Pond. We have had a wonderful
long weekend, but it is time to head home and settle back.
by Judy Handley | Jul 7, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 242, Year 7: A Day of Celebrations
Date: Saturday, July 7, 2012
Weather: Overcast AM, Sunny Late Afternoon, and Hot
Location: Onboard Atlantis with Helaine and Alan Kanegsberg
What a wonderful day! Happy 70th Birthday to Mark and Happy 50th Wedding
Anniversary to Alan and Helaine. Mark has enjoyed his renewed energy and
has been overwhelmed with all the birthday messages he has received from
friends and family today. Late this afternoon we were successful in making
a Skype video call to Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Jo’s parents who have arrived
from England for a two-month visit. It was very special to be able to talk
to JJ&Z on Mark’s birthday. Jo is getting bigger every day, so something in
the next couple of weeks we should have grandchild number 5. It is so hard
to be far away from your children and grandchildren and it is especially
hard during those special times that you want to share with each other. So
thank you Skype for making our meeting possible this afternoon.
We spent our evening at Alan and Helaine’s 50th wedding anniversary
celebration, and that, too, was very special. The Portland Yacht Club is
one of the six oldest in the country and it is a lovely setting for special
celebrations. The sun was shining brightly when the guests arrived, so the
water in the mooring field was sparkling. There were cruising friends,
racing friends, friends from Concord, and family. Alan and Helaine’s son
Howie and his wife Marianne came from western Massachusetts and went sailing
with us today before attending the celebration tonight. The Kanegsberg’s
other son, Philip, his wife Denise, and their son Torsten, live in Reno,
Nevada, so they couldn’t make the celebration. But I know they were there
in spirit. The food was exceptional and a good time was had by all. So
congratulations to Alan and Helaine, and a big thank you for hosting us for
the weekend.
Justin and Jo think Mark is feeling better just because he got to go
sailing. I doubt that is the case, but the weather and the company this
weekend couldn’t have been better and that certainly raises one’s spirits.
We are both really enjoying our little Maine vacation. Tomorrow we head an
hour south to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to visit our friends there.
Onward.
by Judy Handley | Jul 6, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 241, Year 7: Glorious Sailing Day
Date: Friday, July 6, 2012
Weather: Sunny and Warm
Location: Onboard Atlantis with Helaine and Alan Kanegsberg
Mark just said to me that it was a wonderful day because he felt human again
. . . and of course it helped that we were out sailing all day. He feels
like he is getting the best birthday present of his life by somehow
magically feeling good again. If this can just last through the weekend, he
will be a very happy man. Tomorrow is his 70th birthday and we will
spending it sailing back to the Portland Yacht Club and attending the 50th
wedding anniversary celebration of Alan and Helaine Kanegsberg. We left
Kennebunkport this morning and arrived at the Portland Yacht Club just after
10 am. Alan and Helaine were there to meet us and we took the launch out to
their sailboat, Atlantis. Atlantis is a J-40 and a bit faster than
Windbird. It was a beautiful day and we motored out to Eagle Island to
enjoy a picnic lunch and visit the former home of Admiral Robert Peary.
Robert Peary, accompanied by Matthew Henson and four Inuit men, claimed to
have reached the North Pole on April 6, 1909. Another US explorer,
Frederick Cook, also claimed to have reached the Pole a year earlier, but
his claim is not widely accepted. Although it remains controversial, Peary
is accepted by most people as the first to reach the North Pole. He grew up
in Maine, attended Bowdoin College, and fell in love with Eagle Island.
After graduating, he purchased the island for $200 and years later built his
dream home overlooking the islands off the Maine coast. Years after his
death, the family donated the island to the state and Maine and they have
opened the home to the public as a small museum. After our tour, we sailed
off the mooring and enjoyed a couple of hours of absolutely delightful
sailing. We sailed our way into Potts Harbor, had a lobster dinner ashore,
and are now settling down for a long summer’s nap.
by Judy Handley | Jul 5, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 240, Year 7: From Cape Cod to Maine
Date: Thursday, July 5, 2012
Weather: Sunny and Warm
Location: At Home with Brad and Sue Cook in Kennebunkport, Maine
I have no idea what I just did, but somehow I completely lost the log I just
wrote. So this will be a shortened version. It is definitely time to go to
bed.
After making a few stops in Falmouth this morning to get the oil changed in
the car and do a little shopping, we went to Heather’s to see the boys
before heading out for the weekend. Sam and Jonah were enjoying their day
by keeping cool in the little pool on the deck. Oliver was sleeping, but
woke up to say to hello to us. I did a little garden work and then it was
time to head out.
We arrived in Kennebunkport in time to have Happy Hour with my sister-in-law
Sue, her husband Brad, and a few of their neighbors. Sue and Brad live in
Florida in the winter and summer here in Maine. It is the perfect
combination for them. We really enjoyed our conversations with their
friends and then had a great dinner with just Brad and Sue. We wish we had
more time to stay and visit, but we have to be in Portland by 10 am to meet
our friends the Kanegsbergs. Tomorrow is supposed to be a sailing day, but
the weather report looks like wind will be scarce. I guess we need to do a
little wind dance.
by Judy Handley | Jul 4, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 239, Year 7: Happy Fourth of July
Date: Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Weather: Rain Overnight and Early Morning, Clearing to a Beautiful Day
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Here’s hoping all of you had a happy Fourth of July. We had a busy, but
good day, filled with parades, garden work, a little birthday celebration,
and getting ready for our trip to Maine. I went into Falmouth to meet
Heather, Jed, and boys for the bicycle parade through downtown. It had
rained in the very early morning and was still overcast with a few
sprinkles, but that certainly didn’t put a damper on the parade. When I
arrived a few minutes before 10 am, there were hordes of little ones on
decorated bicycles all lining up to parade through the downtown. Mark
stayed in Woods Hole and watched the parade around the pond. This parade is
mostly graduate and summer students, but Mark was surprised at the size.
The participants wound halfway around the pond. Mark stayed in Woods Hole
as he needed to do some boat maintenance and was not going to leave Windbird
until the marina moved the power boat next to us that has managed to put
some nasty little gashes Windbird’s side. The move was made and Mark came
into town on the trolley in the early afternoon. After the downtown parade,
I did a little shopping. I was mostly trying to decide what kind of kayak I
was going to buy for Mark for his birthday. He keeps saying he needs to do
some sort of upper body workout, and I think paddling around Eel Pond is the
answer. West Marine was a zoo with so many people making holiday purchases.
It has been that way the past two days when I have either stopped in or
called to inquire about a kayak. But I was able to make a decision and
purchase one today. I had to go back two times, but I got it done. There
was a holiday special, a two-person inflatable kayak that is being
discontinued, and the price was more than right. We presented it to Mark
at the end of the day and he was elated. So that made it a Happy Fourth and
a Happy Birthday.
I had all sorts of ambitions that did not get fulfilled today, but there is
always next week. I wanted to weed the garden, do a lot of mulching, plant
some seeds and seedlings that are long overdue, and on and on. What I
actually did was a little bit of weeding and a lot of picking. The Russian
kale desperately needed to be picked as well as an armload of summer squash.
So instead of weeding, I picked and processed the kale for freezing.
Heather has been picking and freezing peas for the past few days as well.
When the food is ready to be picked, that has to come first. I’ll hope to
get the weeding, mulching, and additional planting done next week.
I also did a huge amount of laundry this afternoon. We brought all of our
summer clothes back from storage yesterday and everything needed to be
washed. Hopefully when we get to packing in the morning, we will now have
something to pack! Mark’s energy level has returned and hopefully it will
stay this way through the weekend. Tomorrow morning we will do some packing
here and then head into Heather’s to complete the job as I left some of the
clothes there. I’m hoping to eek out an hour or so of time to work in the
garden before we leave, but we’ll see how things go. We plan to leave no
later than 1 pm so we will be in Kennebunk by 4 pm. We don’t want to be
late for Happy Hour with my sister-in-law Sue and her husband Brad.
Maine-here we come.
by Judy Handley | Jul 3, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 238, Year 7: Full Thunder Moon
Date: Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Weather: Still Hot and Sunny
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
What a beautiful sight is tonight’s full moon. We saw it rise as we driving
home from the North Country this evening. You don’t get quite the same
views as you do when you are at sea, but even a glimpse here and there
between buildings and trees was breathtaking. The Native Americans in this
part of the world kept track of their seasons by naming the full moon of
each month. July was either the Full Buck or Full Thunder or Full Hay Moon.
This year I would call it the Full Thunder as we have been having our share
of thunderstorms. Hay was cut early this year and we don’t have many buck
deer. But if we did, we would see their velvety antlers starting to push
through during July.
We drove to Boston today for Mark’s appointment with Dr. Sherri-Ann
Burnett-Bowie, his endocrinologist at Mass General. Her take on Mark’s
slightly elevated calcium and parathyroid hormone levels is that the
condition is due to primary hyperparathyroidism. This just means that the
cause of the problem is in the parathyroid glands themselves and not caused
by another source. Her recommendation is to treat this with a medication
instead of surgery. She is recommending that he have an infusion of Reclast
which is zoledronic acid once or twice a year. Zoledronic acid is a
bisphosphonate that helps prevent osteoporosis. So it doesn’t cure the
problem. It just manages the possible side-effects. We need to do a lot of
research. At the end of the day, we have more questions that we did when we
went into our meeting with the doctor. Mark had more blood and urine tests
today and has to have an MRI of the specific area. Once we get those
reports, and get the answers to some of our new questions about the
recommended drug, we’ll decide whether or not to go along with the
recommendation or seek a second opinion. Sure wish we didn’t need to deal
with this right now, but we do. So we will.
Just before leaving for Boston today, we realized that Mark’s New Hampshire
driver’s license is expiring on his birthday which is this Saturday. So
after the appointment, we rushed to Concord to apply for the new license.
We made a quick stop at our storage unit to pick up some summer clothes and
then it was back to the Cape. We’ll do some July 4th celebrating tomorrow
and get ourselves ready to our long weekend trip to Maine. We’re looking
forward to the visiting, but not to the getting ready part. Leaving the
boat for most of five days with no way to recharge the batteries means that
I have to turn off the freezer and fridge AGAIN. And that means moving food
back to Heather and Jed’s. Maybe we should just stop eating.
