by Judy Handley | Jun 9, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 218, Year 8: Work and Play
Date: Sunday, June 9, 2013
Weather: Beautiful Day
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
I would say that it was a beautiful summer day, but then Jonah would remind me that it is not summer yet—not until he has his birthday. Actually summer comes a couple of days before his birthday, but not in his mind. But the point is that it was a gorgeous day. Mark worked at West Marine and I launched into what should have been a small boat project. But if you own a boat, you know that a small project can quickly turn into a major affair. Well, this was not major, but it took me half the day to do it. I needed to unscrew each of the wooden Dorade boxes and remove the towels stuffed in the vents. In the fall Mark carefully took six hand towels, rolled each of them tightly, and stuffed one into each of the vents to keep the cold winter air out. But it is now time to get a little circulation going in the boat and those towels needed to be removed. Once I unscrewed the first wooden Dorade box, allowing me to get to the vent and remove the towel, I realized that I needed to clean before re-installing the box. Once I wiped the area and got it clean, I decided that I should apply AwlCare to the area. And then I decided that as long as I was applying the AwlCare to the Dorade box area, I should go ahead and do the whole deck. So the quick little job escalated. I then attacked the v-berth, getting it ready for visitors. It won’t be long until school is out and Heather, Jed, and the kids will be more often. Sam, Jonah, and Ollie use the v-berth as a play area and then a bed, so I put on the sheets and then put on a cover for playing on. I also removed and stored the three plastic panels at the back of the cockpit as we don’t need them in the summer. By this time, I needed to start a little dinner preparation as the Goldstones were coming to dinner. And before I knew it, Heather, Jed, and boys were here. Oliver was so cute. He kept looking around the boat and saying, ‘gee-dad.’ He knew granddad should be here but he couldn’t find him—but he kept looking. So when Mark got home from work, Ollie was delighted. He really likes his ‘gee-dad.’ I think they had a special bonding last year. Ollie was born just after Mark started his chemo treatments, and Ollie and Granddad spent many afternoons napping together. And I think Ollie remembers that. Jed and Mark took all the boys, including Ollie, out for a little dinghy explore. Oliver is very interested in the dinghy motor and holds the handle and acts like he is starting the engine. Very cute! And the big boys always love a dinghy explore. We ate dinner and just generally had a delightful evening.
by Judy Handley | Jun 8, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 217, Year 8: Day on the Boat
Date: Saturday, June 8, 2013
Weather: Rain and Wind Early, Clearing in the Afternoon
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
The storm has passed and we had a beautiful, but cool and windy, afternoon. I took Mark into the dock at 7:10 am this morning and he headed to West Marine for the day. I went back to the boat and did a little cleaning and who knows what else, and then spent the afternoon researching possible activities for Oma summer camp with Sam and Jonah. There are so many wonderful and exciting things to do on the Cape, but many cost more money than Camp Oma is willing to spend. But with careful planning, I think the boys and I can have quite an exciting and fun summer on our Tuesdays and Thursdays together. In fact, I found so many activities that the challenge will now be to pick only the best and still leave time for boys to be boys.
My calendar tells me that there is a Sailing and Power Squadron meeting tonight in North Myrtle Beach. We sure had a lot of fun with that group this winter and we miss the friends we made there. We are thinking of them tonight.
by Judy Handley | Jun 7, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 216, Year 8: Shake, Rattle, and Roll
Date: Friday, June 7, 2013
Weather: Overcast with Rain and Wind (gusts to 35 knots and higher)
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
The tropical storm has arrived. The morning was more drizzle than real rain, but late-afternoon—about the time I was headed out to Windbird in the dinghy—the heavens decided to open. And then later in the evening when it was time to go back to shore to drive to Falmouth to pick Mark up from work, the rain and wind got a little more serious. For the past two hours, we have had driving rain and wind—enough to make Windbird shake, rattle, and roll and I’m sure enough water to fill the dinghy. The rain has stopped momentarily, but the wind is still roaring. The forecast calls for more of the same during the night but sometime tomorrow morning things should settle down. But before it settles, Mark has to be at work at 7:30 am and it will probably still be pouring and roaring. I will take him to shore in the dinghy and then come back to Windbird for the day. By the time this storm is over, we will have lots of wet clothing that will need to dry out, but it looks like we should have sunshine on Sunday to do that job.
I spent my day at Heather’s. Mark and I watched Ollie this morning early and then Mark had to catch the bus to get to work by 11 am. I stayed with Ollie and while he was napping, I started making granola. Heather got home not long after Mark left and she had time to gather some baby items no longer needed and take them to friends who just had a baby. It seems that we are all in constant motion. As soon as Heather and Ollie got back from delivering the baby items, I had to take the car to get to a 1 pm physical therapy appointment. When I got back I finished making the granola, baked a couple of loaves of banana bread, picked Sam up from school, and then headed to Woods Hole. My plan had been to leave the car at West Marine and take the bus so Mark would have a way home after work. But just as I got to West Marine to drop off the car, the rain got really serious. I just couldn’t bring myself to get out of the car and walk a half mile to the bus stop in the pouring rain, so I drove to Woods Hole and then came back for Mark a couple of hours later. The logistics of getting three adults to and from work, Ollie and Jonah to two different day care centers, Sam to school, and each of us to various appointments with just the two cars is quite challenging. I do a lot of delivering and waiting, but so far, it is working out. We just all have to think ahead to make sure we have the right car in the right place at the right time.
by Judy Handley | Jun 6, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 215, Year 8: Tropical Storm Andrea Headed Our Way
Date: Thursday, June 6, 2013
Weather: Sunny and Clear Early, Partly Cloudy Late Day
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
The weather forecast is looking like rain, rain, and then more rain as Tropical Storm Andrea heads this direction. The weather changed here during the afternoon and we might get rain during the night and tomorrow, but for sure it looks like we will get even more rain and wind tomorrow night and into Saturday. So we decided to go ahead and move Windbird back out to her mooring this evening to avoid doing it in the pouring rain. We were very surprised that indeed being plugged into shore power almost got our batteries up to a 100 per cent charge. We made it to 92 per cent today, so we know it is possible. So now the experiment continues.
by Judy Handley | Jun 5, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 214, Year 8: On the Dock
Date: Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Weather: Sunny and Clear, High Temp in the Upper 60’s F
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Windbird moved to the end of the dock at Woods Hole Marine this morning to plug in for a day or two. We are still trying to figure out the new batteries that Mark picked up in Rock Hall, Maryland on the way here. The new ones are AGM’s (versus gel cell or wet cell), the same kind we had previously, but we haven’t been able to get them fully charged. So our thinking was that going to a dock and plugging into shore power might accomplish that. But then Mark was reading some additional information from the company that makes the batteries and it says that these particular batteries will not fully charge until they have cycled at least 40 times. That means we have to let them fully discharge and recharge that many times. And we haven’t been doing that. We have recharged every day and not let the batteries discharge fully, so after our stint here on the dock we’ll let the batteries discharge fully before charging and wait a month or two to see if the batteries will fully charge then. Electrical systems on a boat are the trickiest for us and probably for most boaters. And it is very difficult and very expensive to find good boat electricians and sometimes reading the information about electrical systems seems more like Greek than English. But eventually we figure it out the problems (or learn to live with them) and I’m sure we’ll figure this one out as well.
by Judy Handley | Jun 4, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 213, Year 8: Back to Cape Beautiful
Date: Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Weather: Sunny and Clear, High Temp in the Upper 60’s F
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
The weather is back to Cape Cod beautiful—lots of sunshine and clear blue skies. Mark spent his day doing boat chores—changing the oil, changing the transmission fluid, changing burned out light bulbs in impossible to reach areas (deep in the engine room), searching for impossible to find parts stored somewhere on the boat. I did a little research into what is available for kids on the Cape this summer as I will be running “Camp Oma” on Tuesdays and Thursdays once school is out. And I have to say I got very excited thinking about all of the possibilities. I don’t know about Sam and Jonah, but I know I will have fun.
Our friends Lee and Lynda Kaufman who just bought a sailboat had their first boat fright today. Evidently the boat would not go into gear to back out of the slip, so it became evident that the current owner will have to replace the transmission before the sale can go through. The boat is only three years old, so this was a surprise to all. Especially since we saw the boat in Annapolis in April and it was then sailed or motored back across the Chesapeake to the Eastern Shore. We know from experience that it is a horrible feeling to find that something that seems so major is a problem, but in this case the owner is going to replace the transmission and all should be well. When we left Cape Cod to sail around the world, we ended up having to replace our engine in the Chesapeake before we barely got started. Then just after going through the Panama Canal less than three months later, we ran into a fishing line which eventually caused the clutch plate to break. So $20,000 later with a brand new motor, we couldn’t engage the transmission and had to replace the clutch plate. It was a disheartening chain of events, but since then we have had no further motor issues. So we trust that after the transmission is replaced in Grace, Lee and Lynda will also have no further troubles. Keep the faith.
