by Judy Handley | May 27, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 201, Year 7: Cleaning Windbird’s Canvas
Date: Sunday, May 27, 2012
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny Day
Location: At Home with Heather, Jed, and Boys in E Falmouth, MA
Once again, I’m almost too tired to write a log. Just before Windbird was
hauled out of the water, we removed all of the canvas. When I saw “the
canvas” I am referring to the cockpit covering-the dodger and bimini that
make-up the roof of the cockpit and all of the side curtains. Much of this
cover is plastic but the material part is Sunbrella, a highly UV resistant
material much like a light-weight canvas. Before the days of Sunbrella,
these coverings were made of canvas and that is why people still refer to
the total cover as “the canvas.” Piece by piece, I sprayed these down on
Heather and Jed’s back deck and then scrubbed them with a solution of Dawn
dish detergent and Clorox. Woolite, not Dawn, is the recommended soap, but
I left mine on the boat and after visiting the small shops in this area, I
gave up on looking any further and just bought Dawn. After scrubbing each
piece, I hung them to dry. The dodger and the side curtains look good, but
I have to do the bimini again. I used a special stain-removing Clorox on it
and it didn’t work nearly as good as regular Clorox. I switched once I
discovered this, but will do the bimini on another day.
Mark doesn’t work tomorrow, so we are going to the boat to scrub the cabin
top and hull with AwlWash and apply AwlCare (like a wax) to the hull. I
also have to clean all of the stainless in and around the cockpit before
putting the canvas back on and Mark and I will work on shining the prop with
special brushes on the Dremel. When we get all of that done, I’m hoping to
get back here to Heather’s to finish planting the garden. It is tradition
here to plant your garden on Memorial Day and even though we have a lot
planted, we would like to finish up. Heather and Jed will be packing for
their trip to New Mexico to visit Justin, Jo, and Ziggy. They leave in the
wee hours of Wednesday morning and Tuesday is a work day. So packing had
best get done tomorrow.
by Judy Handley | May 26, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 200, Year 7: May Fair in Woods Hole
Date: Saturday, May 26, 2012
Weather: Mixed Sun, Clouds, and Fog
Location: At Home with Heather, Jed, and Boys in E Falmouth, MA
It was another super busy day. Do we have any other kind? Mark worked at
West Marine and they had a super busy day as well. I headed out early with
Heather, Jed, and all three boys to attend a May Fair in Woods Hole. The
fair was set in the park and it had all the feel of a village from
yesteryear celebration of spring. There were lots of musicians, all older
than myself, playing violin, cello, mandolin, and violin. There were pony
rides and other games, lots of food sold by the preschools in the village
and the church. And there was a Maypole with people dancing merrily about.
After lunch, I brought Sam and Jonah back home to nap, and immediately after
a shortened nap, I delivered them to Heather and Jed in town so they could
go have dinner with friends. These friends live in a home with beach
access, so about five families with a total of eleven little ones had fun on
the beach in the late afternoon. Mark got home late, but we had a quiet
dinner and then watched an episode of A Touch of Frost. It is already after
11 pm. I thought we would get to bed early, but that just doesn’t seem to
happen. But Mark is already in bed and I’m headed that way.
by Judy Handley | May 25, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 199, Year 7: Another Good Report for Mark
Date: Friday, May 25, 2012
Weather: Mostly Cloudy with Patchy Mist and Fog
Location: At Home with Heather, Jed, and Boys in E Falmouth, MA
Mark had his bi-weekly appointment with his oncologist this morning and his
blood counts are all still in the normal range. Although he is feeling the
effect of the chemo more than he was in the beginning weeks, the doctor says
this is absolutely normal and that the fact that his blood counts remain
normal is a really great. He was up two pounds two weeks ago, but down the
same two pounds this time. So I’ve got to find a way to fatten him up. We
have been so incredibly busy for the past two weeks that we have hardly had
time to eat. So we just have to slow down a notch or two.
Mark went to work at West Marine after the appointment and I returned to
Heather’s to take care of Oliver while Heather went shopping. She is in
charge of fund raising at Sam and Jonah’s daycare and tomorrow is one of
their main fund raisers. She bought 25 pounds of fresh strawberries to go
with the 30 bags of frozen strawberries donated by Trader Joe’s. I’m
sitting here with a box of dozens of donated Stop ‘n Shop bakery biscuits,
and there is whipped cream in the refrigerator. Tomorrow the Woods Hole
Daycare Cooperative booth at the Woods Hole May Fair will be selling
strawberry shortcake. A couple of parents came over this afternoon to help
Heather and Jed prepare the fresh strawberries, but very few people have
signed up to man the booth tomorrow. It looks like Heather and/or Jed will
be there all day. I will help out with the boys and one of us will bring
them home for a nap in the early afternoon. Since Heather is Oliver’s only
source of food, he’ll be sticking close to momma tomorrow. We were all
looking forward to doing some major garden work on Sunday, but the current
forecast is for rain. Maybe we’ll get lucky.
by Judy Handley | May 24, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 198, Year 7: Day Trip to Concord, NH
Date: Thursday, May 24, 2012
Weather: Another Misty Morning, Sunny in the Afternoon
Location: At Home with Heather, Jed, and Boys in E Falmouth, MA
It was a good day. I spent most of my morning holding Oliver while Heather
was at a seminar and in the early afternoon Mark and I drove to New
Hampshire. He attended the Leadership New Hampshire 20th (not 25th as I
wrote last night) anniversary celebration while I had a fantastic sushi
dinner with good friends celebrating Dr. Barbara O’Brien’s new educational
status. Barbara was there with her significant other, Chris Lane, and Linda
Stuart and Chris Demers were also there. The last six years that I worked
in Concord, Linda, Chris, and I were teachers who worked out of the Board
office. Linda was and still is the math coordinator, Chris was in charge of
data analysis, thus his nickname of Data Boy, and I was the Professional
Development Coordinator. We were teachers on leave from the classroom
working to support teachers. Since there were just the three of us, we
became very close and it was really good to be reunited tonight. Plus, the
sushi was really good.
by Judy Handley | May 23, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 197, Year 7: Windbird on the Hard
Date: Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Weather: Misty Morning, Mostly Sunny Afternoon
Location: At Home with Heather, Jed, and Boys in E Falmouth, MA
Finally Windbird is safely on the hard at Fiddler’s Cove and she looks
great. It has been three full years since she has been out of the water and
we were just sure the bottom was going to be a mess. But after the
powerwash, the bottom hardly looks like it needs painting. The people at
the marina couldn’t believe it has been three years since she has been
hauled, but I told them that Mark did religiously use the snuba gear to dive
down and clean the bottom. And we did pay a professional diver to clean the
bottom in the water in South Africa. So I guess our strategy worked. When
we went to the marina to check on Windbird this morning we found out that
they had actually hauled the boat yesterday afternoon but had left her in
the travel lift sling all night because they couldn’t raise her up high
enough to get blocks under the keel. This morning they put her back in the
water, drove her out and turned her around and came in forward instead of
backing in. Yesterday they backed in and it was the wind generator that
stands tall on the aft deck that didn’t allow them to lift the boat as high
as needed. So this morning, they disconnected the forward stay and roller
furler and the inner stay and furler so the boat could fit under the travel
lift bar. It was a lot of in and out, but they got it right and now the
work can begin.
Tomorrow afternoon we drive to Concord, New Hampshire, where Mark will
attend an evening reception and I will have dinner with friends. Mark was
very active with a group called Leadership New Hampshire and tomorrow night
is the 25th anniversary celebration for that group. Mark really wants to go
to see some of his Leadership New Hampshire colleagues, so even though it is
a long trip for such a short time, we will do it. I have a good friend from
my teaching days that just received her Doctorate of Education, so I will
spend the evening celebrating with her and a few other friends. Mark has to
be back here early on Friday morning to meet with his oncologist, so we have
to return tomorrow night. We will probably not get back here until almost
midnight. So I imagine it will be Friday morning before I post a log for
tomorrow.
by Judy Handley | May 22, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 196, Year 7: Still Waiting
Date: Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Weather: Same, Same–Overcast with Mist and Rain
Location: At Home with Heather, Jed, and Boys in E Falmouth, MA
We headed to Fiddler’s Cove early this morning hoping to be there when Windbird was hauled, but the schedule got delayed and she was still in the water when we had to leave. So we are still waiting to see if she made it out of the water today. We will head there again early in the morning and hopefully have a full report by tomorrow night. Otherwise, we are dealing with a few days of rain—good for the garden but no fun for energetic little boys or adults wanting to get outside work done. Tomorrow is supposed to be more of the same, but hopefully by week’s end we’ll have a little sunshine. But then we did have a bit of sunshine today when we had a Skype video call with Ziggy, Justin, and Jo.
