by Judy Handley | Nov 24, 2011 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 16, Year 7: Happy Thanksgiving to All
Date: Thursday, November 24, 2011
Weather: Coldest Day Yet-High Lower 40’s, Low Tonight, Lower 30’s
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, N Falmouth, Massachusetts
This day gives us all a chance to reflect and think of all the things for which we are thankful. At some point today, Heather asked Sam and Jonah what they are thankful for and the response from Sam was, “Car and trucks.” Heather then asked him why cars and trucks, and he responded by saying that they keep us from having to travel by horse. Fair enough. We have no idea where he picked up this idea, but it was very cute. Mark and I are thankful for many things, but most of all for the health and happiness of ourselves, our children, our grandchildren, and everyone in both of our families. We spent a lovely afternoon and evening in Cambridge at Jed’s Aunt Sue and Uncle John’s. His other Uncle and John and Aunt Becky were also there and it was just a fun time together with family. So Happy Thanksgiving to all.
by Judy Handley | Nov 23, 2011 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 15, Year 7: A Hearty Northeast Blow
Date: Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Weather: Heavy Rain Overnight and AM, Drizzly All Day, Winds NE 30+
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, N Falmouth, Massachusetts
I spent my day in the kitchen at Heather’s cooking and didn’t realize what a blow we were having until we got back to the boat tonight. Right now the winds are blowing 30 to 37 knots with higher gusts. The water is churning and it sounds fierce outside. The wind is howling and the lines on the other sailboats around us are clanging and banging. Since we are the only live-aboards, there is no one on the other boats to secure loose lines. We can take a look in the morning and see if there are lines we can tighten. And even on Windbird, the lines holding us to the docks on either side of us are creaking and groaning. It should settle down sometime tomorrow morning, but it is going to be a noisy night.
Mark ended up being called into work at West Marine again today and Heather stayed home with Jonah as he spiked a high temperature last night. I had planned to bake all morning and then go pick up the kids as usual, but since Heather had to take Jonah to the doctor a little before time to pick-up Sam, she picked him up and I stayed home in the kitchen. We made and canned cranberry chutney to give as holiday gifts, made our traditional cranberry salad for tomorrow, baked pumpkin and pumpkin pecan pies, and Heather worked with the boys to make holiday butter cookies in the shape of pumpkins and leaves. We had some of the cranberry chutney with pork chops for dinner and Heather and Jed both loved it. It is a recipe I got from Judy and Howard Wang of Laelia while in Grenada last spring. Here’s the recipe:
1 Granny Smith apple, chopped
1 cup raisins
I cup chopped onion
1 cup sugar
I cup white vinegar
3/4 cup chopped celery
3/4 cup water
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 (12 oz) bag fresh or frozen cranberries
Combine all ingredients in a large sauce pan. Bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, or until slightly thick, stirring occasionally. Yields 4 cups. Serve with poultry, roast pork, or ham. Judy of Laelia made a note at the end of the recipe that said, “I’ve even eaten it on a peanut butter sandwich.”
Thanks to Judy and Howard for the yummy recipe.
by Judy Handley | Nov 22, 2011 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 14, Year 7: Windbird’s First Frost of the Season
Date: Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Weather: Freezing Overnight; Partly Sunny and Warmer Today
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, N Falmouth, Massachusetts
We had our first frost here on the water last night. Heather and Jed had a frost that killed the green beans in the garden a couple of weeks ago, but we hadn’t seen Jack Frost until this morning. Mark left early to go to the hospital for his stress test, and I went out about 8:30 am to go up to the clubhouse to take a shower. I stepped out on to the dock and almost slipped and fell in the water as the dock was frosty and slippery. Everything was covered in white frost. But the interesting thing is that it was colder here on the water than it was at Heather and Jed’s this morning. Usually the water moderates the temperature. So for whatever reason, the tender green lettuce in the garden at Heather’s was not frozen. The temperature is now actually rising as we go into the evening. At some point during the night, we are supposed to get heavy rain that will continue tomorrow. The forecast is for sunshine on Thanksgiving Day. For that we are thankful.
We are also thankful that Mark got a complete positive report from his second stress test today. The cardiologist says there is absolutely nothing wrong with Mark’s heart. In addition, his primary care physician called today with the results of blood tests and everything looks great. So, why does his chest tighten when he is walking, causing him to be short of breath? At first the cardiologist thought it might be asthma and he has Mark using an inhaler twice a day. But now the cardiologist doesn’t think that’s it. We have another one of these mysteries. Personally, I think it is asthma. Mark has never been able to rake leaves in the fall and there are certainly a LOT of leaves on the ground here. Mark goes back for some different tests next week, so hopefully we will soon figure out what is causing the problem. In the meantime we can celebrate knowing that the problem is not his heart.
Tomorrow morning Mark and I will go to Heather and Jed’s to do some pre-Thanksgiving cooking. On Thanksgiving Day, we will leave here early and head to Cambridge for the day to share Thanksgiving with Jed’s family. And on Friday, we are going to get together with Scott and Kelly McPherson and their three little boys for lunch. Scott and Mark worked together at New Hampshire Public Radio and we haven’t met their youngest child or seen their five year-old twins since they were two. Lots of catching up to do.
by Judy Handley | Nov 21, 2011 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 13, Year 7: No Shoes
Date: Monday, November 21, 2011
Weather: Totally Overcast-Feels Colder Than It Is
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, N Falmouth, Massachusetts
When you live on a boat, storage space is a constant challenge. And our current challenge is shoes. Mark was just saying that some days, like today when he went to New York, he needs to wear dress shoes. Tomorrow when he goes to have another stress test, he needs to wear tennis shoes. When Mark goes to work at West Marine, he wears a good pair of leather walking shoes. When it is cold out, we need to wear boots. And as the outside water temperature drops, we need to wear slip on shoes in the boat to keep our feet from freezing. Too many shoes! When Mark was complaining about this, I replied by saying, “I agree. I like the consistency of wearing just two pair of shoes-one pair for inside and one for outside. Mark replied that he also likes consistency-the consistency of wearing NO SHOES. For a great deal of the time in the past six years, we didn’t have to wear shoes, and when we did it was a pair of sandals. Unfortunately, that is not an option now, so we will just have to find spaces to put all these extra shoes.
The temperature today barely reached 50 degrees F. With no sunshine, it felt much cooler. And it will be in the low 30’s tonight. But by tomorrow, it will be a few degrees warmer both day and night and the forecast shows it staying this way for the next ten days.
With Thanksgiving coming up in a couple of days, I started probing our children to find out what they would like for Christmas. The response from both was “nothing plastic” and nothing produced through child labor in other countries. Both families make a plastic exception for Lego Duplo building blocks but Justin says they can be bought on Ebay, teaching the little one to reuse. I guess we did something right with our kids as they are both really into simplifying their lifestyles and living as naturally as possible.
by Judy Handley | Nov 20, 2011 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 12, Year 7: Cause for a Tiny Celebration
Date: Sunday, November 20, 2011
Weather: Partly Cloudy, Temps in the Low 60’s
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, N Falmouth, Massachusetts
I’ve lost track of how many weeks I have been working on updating our logs from Year 1 of the Voyage of Windbird. I did not head them in any set manner which made it very difficult to go back and find information. I finally finished the job yesterday but immediately discovered that I had to update each log in a different way on the website. So I dedicated today to getting that job done. I still have to get all of the photos from Year 1 renamed and put into Picasa, but I’m just celebrating the completion of the first job and am so happy it is done.
Mark worked at West Marine today while I stayed home and worked on the computer. Then in mid-afternoon Jed came to pick me up to come babysit while he and Heather went to see Ira Glass from public radio’s This American Life speak in Woods Hole. We took Sam and Jonah to the ice arena for Sam’s ice skating practice followed by an Indian curry dinner once everyone got home. After dinner, Sam and Jonah entertained us with a music concert. Sam plays and Jonah sings. What a team!
Tomorrow Mark heads to New York City early in the morning. He is doing some public radio consulting work and has a late afternoon meeting. He is taking the bus from Falmouth to Boston and then to New York. It is actually faster and much cheaper to go from here to Boston and then to New York rather than going from here to Providence, RI. Coming home he will hop on the Acela Express train to Providence and I will pick him up there around 9 pm. It is more expensive, but MUCH faster.
by Judy Handley | Nov 19, 2011 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 7 |
Day 11, Year 7: Still No Reverse-Cycle Heater
Date: Saturday, November 19, 2011
Weather: Partly Sunny, Temps in the Low 50’s
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, N Falmouth, Massachusetts
Randy, the refrigeration and heating/air-conditioning repairman we have been using to work on our ‘problems’ came this afternoon to install the starting relay in our heater/air-conditioner. But still only the fan came on, so now we need a capacitor. Maybe by spring we’ll get this thing fixed! In the meantime, we are staying warm and I am hoping that this moderate weather continues for a few more weeks.
This morning we went for another long walk in our new neighborhood. Some mornings we explore the beaches but this morning we headed inland to see what stores are in the tiny little strip mall on the main road. There is a store, a spa, and a dry cleaner. We didn’t walk further but we found out later that there is another little mall with a post office just past this one. I had intended to get packages sent to Justin, Jo, and Ziggy today, but when we got back to the boat I got busy cleaning out the refrigerator and all of a sudden in was noon. The post office closes at noon on Saturday, so I’ll have to send the packages on Monday. We also investigated the bike path. It is so close that it makes it very tempting to ask Santa for a couple of bikes for Christmas
Early this morning Heather, Jed, Sam, and Jonah headed to New Haven to attend the Harvard-Yale football game. Jed’s undergrad alma mater is Yale and he goes to what is called The Game to connect with friends. Harvard defeated Yale today 45-7 in the 128th meeting of one of college football’s oldest rivalries. Yale has only won this game once in the past eleven years, so I’m sure the outcome wasn’t a surprise. But it was a beautiful day so I know the Goldstones enjoyed the outing. I’m sure I’ll hear all the details from Sam on Monday.
