by Judy Handley | Jun 27, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 236, Year 8: Camp Oma, Day 2
Date: Thursday, June 27, 2013
Weather: Overcast with Periods of Sun, High in the 70’s F
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Tuesday’s whale watch was the first official day of Camp Oma and today was the second. Every Tuesday and Thursday all summer, Sam and Jonah and I are planning to have a lot of fun. Today was beach day in Woods Hole and we were lucky enough to have good weather. The weather forecast for the next ten days is for partly cloudy weather with a chance of a thunderstorm every day. The first sunny day in the long range forecast is Sunday, July 7th. Since that’s Mark’s birthday, it’s a good day for sunshine, but just as today, I know that we will have other periods of sunshine.
We got a bit of a late start today as we had to take Mark to work, but as soon as we got back to Woods Hole, we walked to Stoney Beach. Unlike when Jonah and I were there for low tide last week, today we arrived at full high tide. The rock jetties on either side of the beach were underwater and the beach was much smaller. This gave me a great opportunity for talking about the change that happens on a beach. This was Sam’s first trip to Stoney this year, but he’s been there many times and could remember low tide days when the rock jetties were fully exposed. We talked about high and low tide and noted the high tide line left behind as the day progressed and the water retreated. Another name for the high tide line is wrack line. I suppose it is named that because it is piles of seaweed and shells that have been torn to bits by water action over time. We discovered that there are lots of empty slipper snail shells mixed in with the debris of the wrack line at Stoney Beach. But enough learning for now. It was time to get in the water and Sam and Jonah tried out their new boogie boards. Jonah was a bit tentative, but Sam loved it. The engineer in him quickly took over and he started building sandcastles on the board and pulling it around in the water—just one of many uses for boogie board. Jonah tried out his ladybug swim floats and I think he enjoyed those over the ladybug boogie board. He is feeling much better today so we can only hope that none of the rest of us get Strep so we can fully dive into summer.
by Judy Handley | Jun 26, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 235, Year 8: Happy 4th Birthday to Jonah
Date: Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Weather: Mixed Sun and Clouds, High in the 80’s F
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Seems like another life ago, but actually it was just four years ago when Mark and I left Windbird in Malaysia to come home for the birth of Ziggy Milo Handley in April and then Jonah Biggs Goldstone in June. Today was Jonah’s 4th birthday, but unfortunately he woke up in the middle of the night with a very high temperature. Friends that were visiting this weekend called when they got home to let Heather and Jed know that one of their three boys came down with a killer Streptococcal infection as soon as they got home. Now Jonah has it. What bad timing to have to spend your birthday with a high fever. Finally by this evening, he was feeling just a tad better, but he toughed it out and we went ahead with some of today’s plans despite the fever. Heather brought all three boys to Windbird this morning for a special ceremony. When we returned from our trip around the world, Sam was four years old. He immediately announced that he was co-captain of Windbird, so today we inducted Jonah into co-captain status since he is now four. We will have a similar ceremony for Ziggy when he arrives and Coco will get her ‘Admiral-in-Training’ shirt. Today Sam and Jonah got new t-shirts that announce that they are Windbird’s Co-Captain. Ollie got a ‘Captain-in-Training’ shirt. Sam and Jonah sang The Star-bangled Banner for us while Captain Granddad took down the old American flag that hangs off the back stay and replaced it with a new one. We had birthday cookies with candles and then whisked Jonah off to the doctor. I went with Heather, Jonah, and Ollie, while Sam stayed on Windbird with Mark to have a little special time with the captain. They went out paddling in the kayak and took the dinghy out to Devil’s Foot Island to play. After the doctor’s appointment which confirmed the Strep, I went home with Heather and encouraged Jonah to fill the little pool on the deck with water and play in it to help bring down his fever. He played for quite a long time and then had a good, long afternoon nap. After nap that nasty temp was back, but he came outside and laid in the hammock. I sat with him in the hammock and read for some time, and just before dinner, he rallied. He actually ate a little bit and enjoyed opening his presents. You know a kid is sick when they can’t eat their chocolate birthday cake, but he sure enjoyed looking at his ladybug cake and he worked so hard at having a good time. For his birthday, we got him a Boston Cannons lacrosse jersey with his name on the back and he got a fireman’s water-filled backpack that he can use to put out ‘fires’ from his other grandparents. He loved everything, but I think his favorite presents were from his mom and dad. He got child-sized front carrying pack so he can carry around his stuffed baby orangutan as well as other stuffed babies. He loved it. He also got a set of animal x-rays with matching photos of the animals and a replica of the moon that can hang on the wall in the bedroom as a big nightlight and be synchronized to match the phase of the moon outside. I can’t wait to see that one in action. So even though he felt terrible, I think Jonah managed to have a good birthday. Tomorrow is another Camp Oma day and when asked if he wanted to stay home or come to Windbird, Jonah chose Windbird, so we’ll have a slow and easy day to give him a chance to recover. And we sure are glad we decided to do the whale watch yesterday!
by Judy Handley | Jun 25, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 234, Year 8: Jonah’s Birthday Whale Watch
Date: Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Weather: Mostly Sunny and Very Warm Day
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Today was the official start of Camp Oma and the plans were to go to the beach and take note of the plants in the water and on the shore. Tomorrow is Jonah’s birthday and Mark and I had planned to take Jonah and Sam on a whale watch to celebrate. When we got up this morning, the weather for tomorrow looked a little iffy, but today was beautiful. So we changed our plans and headed to Provincetown to go on a Dolphin Fleet Whale Watch today. We can always go to the beach tomorrow if the weather is nice.
The whale watch was wonderful. We saw Finback and Minke whales and once one got closer to us than anticipated and we could feel the spray from the blow on our faces. That was quite a thrill. We learned that whales leave footprints in the sea just as we leave on land and the boys even made some new friends on the boat. We didn’t get to see Humpback whales today, so we didn’t see any of the tail slapping and acrobatic breaching that they do, but we felt very lucky just to see any whales up-close and natural. It was a long day for the boys as the drive from here to Provincetown is more than an hour and half and whale watch was three hours. And after the whale watch, we took the boys to the beach for a much deserved swim. It was after 6:30 pm when we got home—all of us a little exhausted but with wonderful whale memories. The first day of Camp Oma was a smashing success. And tomorrow we will officially celebrate Jonah’s fourth birthday and have another great day.
by Judy Handley | Jun 24, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 233, Year 8: Perks
Date: Monday, June 24, 2013
Weather: Foggy Morning, Sun and Haze During the Day, Warm
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
There are lots of perks for working at West Marine. The most obvious is the discount you get on purchases. But then there is the weekly supply of clams and fish from one of Mark’s co-workers. Sue and her husband have a fishing boat that they keep over on Martha’s Vineyard and every weekend they go over and come back with loads of clams and fish. They get enough to share, so this week we got littleneck clams (quahogs) and sea bass. We sometimes get oysters from another co-worker. There’s nothing like truly fresh seafood. We had the clams tonight with spaghetti and will have the sea bass tomorrow night. Delicious.
Jed stays home with the boys on Mondays while Heather works, but this morning Heather asked me to come in early to stay with Sam and Jonah while Jed took Oliver to a routine check-up. When I arrived, Jed was jumping into the shower and had put Sam and Jonah in charge of Oliver. Sam and Jonah had turned on the karaoke machine and had Oliver singing and dancing to Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You.’ I’m not sure that the video I got of the performance will post with this log, but if it does, definitely watch it. It will make your day just as it did mine. Ollie is a true rock star.
by Judy Handley | Jun 23, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 232, Year 8: Trip to Boston
Date: Sunday, June 23, 2013
Weather: Partly Cloudy and Warm
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Three of my best friends from my teaching days have all moved from Concord, New Hampshire to Portsmouth, on the coast. I received an email from one of the friends on Thursday night letting me know that the college-aged son of another one of the friends had been air-lifted out of a remote village in Nepal and treated for typhoid fever in a hospital in Kathmandu. Then late last night I got another email telling me that Matthew was back in the United States and was, in fact, in Massachusetts General Hospital. I was Matthew’s first grade teacher, in addition to being very good friends with his parents, so I decided to drive to Boston today to see Matthew, Detta and Tom. It has been a harrowing week and half for all of them, but Matthew is now on the road to recovery . . . with just one little bump. They found gall stones and he will have to deal with that, but late in the day, they felt he was doing well enough to release him from the hospital. Matthew attends Middlebury College in Vermont and spent the last semester in Alexandria in Egypt learning Arabic. Then he flew to Nepal for a six-week stay, now cut short, to check on a project he helped start a couple of years ago–helping the women of the village learn how to market the tea they are growing. And if his health allows, he will fly back to Egypt in late July for a two-month internship in an international economic development office. Matthew is totally dedicated to trying to help people in underdeveloped parts of the world come up with sustainable ways to support themselves and to helping facilitate the sharing of ideas and skills of successful projects in one country with people in other countries who can benefit from a similar project. He has big ideas and quite an impressive resume for a junior in college and we all hope this health issue won’t stand in his way. I’m confident that he’ll be in Egypt in just a few weeks. Good luck, Matthew, we’ll be sending our positive thoughts your way.
by Judy Handley | Jun 22, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 231, Year 8: Shopping Day
Date: Saturday, June 22, 2013
Weather: Mostly Sunny
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Shopping . . . not my favorite thing, especially here on the Cape. Shopping in Myrtle Beach was so much easier than here. I was looking for specific little things for Jonah’s birthday coming up this Wednesday and Mark’s birthday coming up on July 7th. I order most everything online, but there are some things that you just need to see before you buy. So I took Mark to work at West Marine at 11 am and headed to Hyannis as shopping in Falmouth is basically limited to Walmart and expensive tourist shops. Mark works 11 am to 7 pm on most days which works fine for him, but by the time I take him to work at 11, the day is half over. So my little shopping trip today didn’t begin until afternoon. I was fairly successful in finding many of the things I was looking for, but after a couple of hours, I gave up and came home. I’ll have to continue on another day. This person can only take so much shopping and then an automatic shutdown takes place.
