by Judy Handley | Jul 3, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 242, Year 8: Beach Time
Date: Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Weather: Foggy in Woods Hole, Sunny in East Falmouth, High in the 70’s F
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Falmouth has a number of beaches. Some are Buzzards Bay, others are on the Vineyard Sound, and one is a sandy beach at the edge of small freshwater pond. Heather and Jed chose that one for Sam and Jonah’s summer swim lessons. The city provides this service at a very low cost, so we will start our days at the pond for an early morning swim lesson on Camp Oma Tuesdays and Thursdays, Jed will take the boys on Mondays, and Heather will take them on Wednesdays. I took all three boys with me today and we had a delightful time. We stayed all morning and only headed home because it was time for lunch and nap for Ollie and Jonah. Heather has a huge workload right now, so I am helping out with the kids more than usual. I will watch them again on Friday morning and then in the afternoon I head to Boston to pick up Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco. Mark and I both have a number of things we need to do tomorrow to get ready for their visit, but we’ll take time out for a little 4th of July celebration as well.
by Judy Handley | Jul 2, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 241, Year 8: Focus on Motion
Date: Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Weather: Mix of Sun and Clouds, High in the 70’s F
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
We got a little break from the rain today with a mostly sunny morning. What a nice change. Camp Oma’s focus today was motion. We started the day at the Woods Hole Exhibit Center playing in the model of Alvin they have there and talking about the pressure exerted on it as it moves deeper in the ocean. We also visited the Buzzards Bay Discovery Center in to explore the animals in touch tank. The bay scallops were the favorite today as every time one of the boys picked one up, it would immediately open its shell and let us see inside. We also got to go out to the dock to help get a water sample and then see what’s in the water through a microscope hooked up to a computer. This really didn’t have anything to do with motion, but the water sampling activity happens on Tuesday mornings and I thought Sam and Jonah would enjoy that. We then went out to Windbird for a lunch break and to do some motion experiments. We watched a NASA video about the early days of space exploration and that led up to Newton’s Third Law of Motion—For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Nothing like watching a rocket take off to get that point across. We ended our day at the public library by attending a presentation on Marvel of Motion by Mad Science. There were loads of kids there and they all loved the Mad Scientist. He had them chanting, “We love science.” And the lady from the library added, “And we love reading.” It was a fun day.
In the evening, friends Bruce and Jane Woodin joined us for dinner aboard Windbird. It was great catching up on what has been happening in our lives since we last saw them in early January. They had spent their day in Woods Hole with their two year-old twin grandchildren. We all agreed that we are so lucky to have the resources of Woods Hole to share with the grandchildren . . . and so lucky to have such fantastic grandchildren!
by Judy Handley | Jul 1, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 240, Year 8: Getting Ready for Justin and Jo’s Visit
Date: Monday, July 1, 2013
Weather: Overcast with Periods of Light Rain, High in the 70’s F
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Our son Justin, his wife Jo, and their two children, Ziggy and Coco Annabelle arrive on Friday for a short visit before they fly to England for the summer months. They are currently in a packing frenzy because when they fly here on Friday they are leaving their home in New Mexico for good. They love it there, but they have decided that they will move to the little magical island of Culebra, Puerto Rico, when they return from England. Right now they are packing everything they want to take with them in their bus and putting it in storage for the next three months while they are in England. When they return the first of October, they will fly to New Mexico and be there long enough to get everything sent to Puerto Rico. Then off they will go. They made this decision after going to Culebra for a vacation in late January. They just simply fell in love with it. It is very possible that we will see them there this winter. Before they made their decision to move there, we made our decision to try out Culebra next winter simply because it is a beautiful place and one where Mark can continue his consulting work using the US phone system there. Whether or not we end up in Culebra, we should be somewhere in the ‘neighborhood’ and can hopefully spend some quality time with Ziggy and Coco.
Mark worked at West Marine today and I spent my day shopping. Mark’s birthday is on Sunday and we are planning to convert Windbird into a pirate ship and sail away to Treasure Island with our whole crew—Heather, Jed and boys, and Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco. Really we will just sail to nearby Tarpaulin Cove, but it sounds so much more exciting to call it Treasure Island. I’m not fond of pirates, but I’m putting my dislike aside in deference to Sam, Jonah, and Ziggy. They love playing pirates, so we’ll give them a run for their money on Sunday. The shopping today was to pick up some of the items we will need for our pirate transformation as well as to stock up on groceries. I had to drive quite a distance to get some of the items, and by the time I got everything back to Woods Hole and transported out to Windbird, the day was nearly over. Luckily I arrived back in Woods Hole during a period of no rain. When I got back to the boat, I did have time to mix up a solution of water and muriatic acid to soak Mark’s tools that came out of a storage area I cleaned out yesterday. They were SO VERY RUSTY and now they look great. Muriatic acid is scary stuff, but when used carefully, it sure does the job. Tomorrow and Wednesday I’m off to Camp Oma. On Thursday, we will all celebrate the 4th of July and then on Friday Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco arrive. Busy days ahead.
by Judy Handley | Jun 30, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 239, Year 8: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Date: Sunday, June 30, 2013
Weather: Overcast with Mist, High in the 70’s F
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
What is going on with this weather? There’s a children’s book called “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” and I think that is how we all feel. Right now we’d rather have meatballs falling from the sky than rain! Today I overheard a young man in Woods Hole say he would just like to know, one way or the other, if it is going to rain. But no one has that answer. The forecast has been and continues to read like this, “Overcast with thunderstorms, then a chance of a thunderstorm and a chance of rain” for the next two weeks. This coming Friday looks like there might be some sunshine, but it is not until Thursday of the next week that there is a fully sunny day in the forecast. This really is an unusually long string of overcast and rainy weather, but we just have to deal with it. Mark worked today and I stayed on Windbird to do some boat cleaning. We are preparing for Justin and Jo’s arrival on Friday. Anytime you are having guests, it’s a good excuse to get that cleaning done. So I’ll clean on.
by Judy Handley | Jun 29, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 238, Year 8: Visit to the Fire Station for Jonah’s B-day Party
Date: Saturday, June 29, 2013
Weather: Overcast with Periods of Rain, High in the 70’s F
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Four-year old Jonah wants to be an EMT or a fireman when he grows up. He’s been pretty insistent on this for the past year, so for his birthday party, Heather arranged a visit to the Falmouth fire station. Friends and their parents gathered in the lobby and then officer on duty greeted us and started the tour. The ambulance was first and everyone got to inside and even sit in the driver’s seat. Well, almost everyone. The exploration of the ambulance was interrupted by a call for help. So we had to abandon the ambulance and watch it head out, lights flashing and siren on. We then moved to the big fire truck and everyone got to explore that as well. But Jonah wanted to see a bush truck for fighting forest fires, so the duty officer took us into another bay where the specialty trucks live. We no sooner moved from one bay to another, when there was another call. This time the main truck had to go out along with the duty officer. Another fireman filled in and we got to see a dinghy very much like ours set up for water rescue, an old school bus converted into a diver’s truck, a hook and ladder truck, and a bush truck. Then it was time to head across the street to Steve’s Pizza for a birthday pizza party and the grand finale—Fire Truck #4 Birthday Cake. Heather did a fabulous job decorating this cake and Jonah loved it. After eating all that cake and icing, it was definitely time to get the kids outside and running, so we walked to the library lawn where they ran with abandon for the next hour. Thankfully, the rain subsided for the afternoon so that being outside was a possibility. The whole afternoon was a wonderful birthday present for Jonah.
by Judy Handley | Jun 28, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 237, Year 8: Rainbows, Vortexes, and Freedom
Date: Friday, June 28, 2013
Weather: Overcast with Periods of Rain, High in the 70’s F
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Mark went to work early and I went to Heather’s to take care of all three boys while she went to work for the morning. Ollie is an easy baby to care for. He plays on his own until it is time for a nap and then he cuddles on your shoulder and falls asleep. So he played why I did a few activities with Sam and Jonah. Yesterday at the beach, Sam discovered a place in the rock jetty where the waves came in, formed a whirlpool, and then the whirling water was sucked down into the sand. So we did a little follow-up today by creating our own little vortexes or whirlpools in a bottle. We just filled a Snapple bottle from the recycling bin with water, put in a little liquid detergent, capped it, and then moved it quickly in a circular fashion. When you put the bottle down on a table, you can watch the vortex form. It looks just like a tornado in a bottle. We also did some color experiments, again as a follow-up to yesterday. When Sam was writing in his journal, he wanted to write Stoney Beach in rainbow colors. We identified red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet as the rainbow colors and he wrote the letters in those colors. Today we colored circles near the bottom of a paper towel in those progressive colors. We then laid the paper towel over the side of dish pan and filled the pan with just enough water to reach the bottom of the paper towel. As the paper towel absorbed the water, a rainbow formed. What fun it is to play and learn with little ones!
That takes care of rainbows and vortexes, but now on to Freedom. In one week our son Justin and his family will arrive here for a week’s visit before they head to England for three months. Justin’s work is all internet based, so he is not tied to any one place for work. He has had his own company, Narasopa, for the past 13 years, but has just transformed Narasopa into the 4-D Media Lab. I just watched Justin’s video called The Freedom Model where he makes the connections between milking a cow and good business practices. It is so Justin and you just have to watch it (not short—almost 25 minutes) to appreciate his view on the world. Here’s the link:
The Freedom Model
