by Judy Handley | May 21, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 195, Year 7: Ready and Waiting
Date: Monday, May 21, 2012
Weather: Overcast with Mist and Rain
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, N Falmouth, MA
We were up early and had Windbird ready to be hauled by 8:30 am. We were ready and waiting, but we then got word that she probably won’t be hauled until tomorrow. We had loaded all the food from the refrigerator and freezer into the car, so we headed to Heather’s to store things before they could spoil. We will go back to Fiddler’s Cove early in the morning to check on the schedule and to clean the defrosted frig and freezer. This morning we simply turned them off and left, so we need to dry them out tomorrow morning. Then we can truly relax a bit about the boat and just let the work be done. We have never had work done on the boat done for us without being right there, but I think the time has come. The little break will be good for both of us. It will give Mark time to do his public radio consulting work and give me time to catch up on correspondence and garden work. We are now staying in the guest room at Heather and Jed’s and will be here until the boat is back in the water.
We finally got to see the baby swans today. We caught a glimpse of them last Wednesday on a rainy day but have revisited every day since with no luck. Today was misty and rainy and as we drove by the cranberry bogs, momma and poppa were there with their six babies–right beside the road. In a few short days, the babies have grown tremendously. They are no longer fuzzy little black things. Two of them are now white and four are gray. It was great to watch them gobbling up the duck weed in the aqueduct that runs through the bogs. Momma and poppa just floated about regally watching their babies. I took Sam and Jonah to the bogs after picking them up from school, but the swans were gone. I am really hoping the boys are going to get to see them. We’ll keep up the daily visits.
Oliver was two months old today. He is growing so fast and he is such a happy baby. So ‘Happy Two-Month Birthday to Oliver.’
by Judy Handley | May 20, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 194, Year 7: Crazy Day
Date: Sunday, May 20, 2012
Weather: Yet Another Beautiful Sunny Day
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, N Falmouth, MA
It was a bit of a crazy day, but the really good news is that Mark felt good
enough to go to work at West Marine and stay the entire day. Yeah! And
after standing on his feet for eight straight hours, he had to come home and
do some things to get Windbird ready to be hauled in the morning. I split
my time between cooking at Heather and Jed’s and Windbird. I got a huge pot
of beef broth cooking and helped Heather make another strawberry-rhubarb
pie. Then I came back to the boat and cleaned under all the sinks where the
workmen will be replacing through-hulls. I went back to Heather and Jed’s
to take everything from our refrigerator since we won’t be on the boat for
the next week, to finish up the beef broth and get it into jars, and to get
my afternoon snuggle time with Oliver. This is the only chance Heather has
to grab a quick nap and since she is up and down all night feeding Oliver,
afternoon naps are cherished. I picked Mark up at 5 pm and we headed back
to Windbird to finish the preparations for hauling. We removed the
remainder of the canvas from the cockpit, took down the radio antennae from
the backstay, and on and on and on. We will get up at 7 am to do the final
prep.
by Judy Handley | May 19, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 193, Year 7: Windbird Uncovered
Date: Saturday, May 19, 2012
Weather: Another Beautiful Sunny Day
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, N Falmouth, MA
Windbird has shed her outer skin-the winter cover that kept us warm and cozy
during the freezy months is gone. For the past two months the thermometer
on the deck has been reading in the 60’s and 70’s at night, but now without
the cover, 55 degrees F is the nighttime reading. However, it is still 72
degrees inside, so all is well.
Heather, Oliver, and I went to a Master Gardener’s plant sale this morning
while Jed took Sam and Jonah to a Coast Guard demonstration. Heather and
Oliver came back to Windbird with me and Heather perched herself up on the
boom to cut loose the plastic cover. She started the process yesterday and
today she finished the job. I have to admit that I feel a bit naked without
the cover. It protected us from the weather and also from the observation
of fellow boaters. Now we are open to the weather and to close observation
of fellow boaters. What was private is now public. Not a bad thing, just
different. And after a boys’ morning out to see a Coast Guard demonstration
and a lacrosse game, Jed brought Sam and Jonah to Windbird with a picnic
lunch for all of us to enjoy on deck. Jed helped finish getting the framing
down that held up the winter cover. Mark did not feel good enough to go to
work at West Marine today, but he did come out on deck long enough to start
getting the framing down. Later in the afternoon, he took down the flags
and Christmas lights that were wrapped around the fore and back stays. And
even later in the evening, I sprayed down the deck to get rid of some of the
grime that had accumulated over the winter. Other than a little cleaning
that I need to do on the inside, I think Windbird is now ready to be hauled
on Monday morning. Hopefully Mark will feel good enough to go to work
tomorrow and I will go to Heather’s to do a bit of cooking. We want to made
another strawberry rhubarb pie and I want to make a beef broth for Mark from
organic pasture-raised beef. The beef liver from the Farm Institute on
Martha’s Vineyard has been keeping Mark’s blood count normal when it would
otherwise be low. So I am hoping the beef broth will work a little magic as
well.
We will sleep on Windbird tomorrow night and get up super early to watch as
our home is lifted out of the water. We will then make a temporary move to
Heather and Jed’s while Windbird’s bottom is painted and four new
through-hulls are installed. I know we will be coming here to check on
progress during the week, but we have full confidence in the staff here and
don’t feel like we have to really oversee the work. Hopefully by week’s
end, Windbird will be back in her slip so we can put the sails on and get
her ready for the move to Woods Hole.
And as a final note, I must mention Swimmy. This is a stuffed animal, a fish, that comes home for a weekend with a member of Sam’s class on a rotating basis. He came home with Sam in the fall and he came with them this weekend. We documented Swimmy’s visit to Windbird with photos and those are attached to this log along with photos of taking down the plastic.
by Judy Handley | May 18, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 192, Year 7: Deck is Done
Date: Friday, May 18, 2012
Weather: Beautiful Sunny Day
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, N Falmouth, MA
Day is done, deck is done . . . Hallelujah. Heather came over to help this
morning after Oliver’s two month check-up. I can hardly believe he is two
months old, but it is so. And as expected, he is doing great. After the
check up, Heather came here and spent the remainder of the day helping me to
finish the deck. Jed pitched in as well by picking up the boys and bring
them here to nap so he could relieve Granddad by holding Oliver. This gave
Heather and I the chance we needed to continue the caulking. At one point
in the afternoon, Jed was napping with Sam and Jonah and Granddad was
napping with Oliver. The only females aboard Windbird were caulking the
deck. And we finished the job.
After naps, we went for a walk and then we went up to the clubhouse. It is
big and beautifully decorated and no one was there but us. It is a huge
space with lots of seating, a kitchen, a piano, a pool table, and lots of
games. Sam and Jonah spent a great deal of time exploring games with Jed.
Then when he went to pick up pizza for dinner, the boys played the piano.
After dinner, all the boys, excluding Oliver, played pool. It was a great
evening and all of us enjoyed the huge space in clubhouse.
by Judy Handley | May 17, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 191, Year 7: One More Day
Date: Thursday, May 17, 2012
Weather: Overcast Early, Then Sunny Day
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, N Falmouth, MA
We got the sunny day we needed, but it was a little slow getting started.
Part of the deck was still too wet to work on this morning, but by 2 pm,
everything was dry. I worked until almost 8 pm and got the remainder of the
deck cleaned. I got most of it taped but will need to continue that job in
the am before doing the final caulking. But unless something unforeseen
comes up, I should be done tomorrow. There is still the forepeak and
hatches on the back deck to do sometime during the summer, but those parts
don’t impact the integrity of the deck. The parts that count will be DONE
and I will be so glad to report a job completed tomorrow night.
Mark had his low day today, but he still had enough energy to get the dodger
taken down. Somewhere in the Indian Ocean, the starboard ‘windshield’ was
shattered when a line snapped-not once but twice. We taped the plastic
together with clear packing tape and have been using it that way since. It
has been functional, just not pretty to look at. But Mark works with a guy
named Ed who does canvas work and we are finally getting the dodger to him
to replace the plastic. Sometime this weekend, I will take down the
remaining canvas surrounding the cockpit to clean. Since the boat is being
hauled on Monday, it is a good time to do this.
After removing the canvas, we both went to Heather’s to babysit Oliver while
Heather went to a working lunch. Her once a week call-in program begins the
middle of June and she is working to line up her guests. Once she returned,
I came back to the boat to work. Mark stayed at Heather’s so he could hold
Oliver while Heather went out to check on the beehive. She did this right
after naps, and Sam really wanted to help her. We got her a new hat and
veil for Mother’s Day, so she put that on Sam and she wore the old hat.
Even when a bee got inside his ‘bonnet’, Sam remained totally calm. He has
been fascinated with the bees since they arrived and today he felt so proud
that he could truly assist Heather. They sell bee gear for little guys, so
maybe we are going to have to invest in an outfit for Sam. Jonah hasn’t
shown an interest yet, but maybe he will in time.
by Judy Handley | May 16, 2012 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 190, Year 7: Rain, Rain, Go Away
Date: Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Weather: Heavy Rain Overnight and Early Morning, Still Misty
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, N Falmouth, MA
If I’m ever to get the deck work done, this weather must cooperate. It was raining so hard this morning that even under the winter cover, the grooves in the teak deck were swimming in water. I tried to do a cleaning of the remaining grooves, but it was just too wet. I had hoped that it would clear by late afternoon and dry up a bit, but still tonight the deck is soggy. So I’m not sure just how much work I will get tomorrow morning. Heather has a work engagement at noon tomorrow in Woods Hole and will pick up the boys and bring them home, but Mark and I might go over to watch Oliver while Heather goes to lunch and then I will come back to Windbird and work in the afternoon. I didn’t get the message from Mark until tonight that the boat is definitely being hauled out of the water on Monday morning, so ready or not, the winter cover is coming off over the weekend. Hopefully I can get the remaining deck cleaned, taped, and caulked by then. But it is 11 pm and I see that rain is still falling. So we shall see what can be done.
I drove Mark to Heather’s today before I went to pick up Sam and Jonah. Mark enjoyed watching Oliver play on the floor today. He is a strong little guy and loves to play on the rug and try to raise his head. He is such a beautiful baby. And speaking of beautiful babies, just before we got to Heather’s today, we saw a momma and papa swan with their babies in the cranberry bogs. These are the bogs that are just a short walk from Heather’s. I went to pick up the boys and we drove straight to the bogs in hopes of seeing the babies, but they were gone by the time we got there. Evidently the parents are taking morning outings with the babies, but then returning to their nest in the afternoon. Heather had been out walking earlier in the morning had seen the swans much deeper in the bogs. A woman she was walking with said she had seen the pair with seven babies. So we will keep checking in hopes of getting and up close encounter with the little ones. In our search for swans this afternoon, Sam and I saw fish in the pond, pond lilies about to bloom, but no swans. We also delighted in smelling the blossoms of a bush with little yellow flowers. It smells just like honeysuckle, but it is a bush, not a vine. Again, the friend Heather was walking with in the morning had local information about his plant. She calls it autumn olive (elaeagus umbellate). If that is the case, it is the local bush that is loaded with little red berries in the fall. I have so much to learn about the plants in this area. So much to learn and so little time.
