by Judy Handley | May 22, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 200, Year 8: Congratulations to Lynda and Lee
Date: Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Weather: No Change–Foggy Early & Late, Mostly Sunny In Between, High Temp 60’s F
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Our friends, Lynda and Lee Kaufman, who helped Mark deliver Windbird to Cape Cod, are about to become new boat owners. Yesterday they made an offer on a boat that we had seen at the Annapolis Spring Boat Show and that they saw again in Rock Hall on their way up the Chesapeake, and today the owner accepted the offer. The boat’s current name is Grace II and she is an Island Packet 36. They still have to go through the survey process, but since the boat is only three years old, hopefully all will be well and they will be ready to sail Grace (or whatever her new name might be) south to Little River. The boat is absolutely beautiful (photos attached) and I know Lynda and Lee are going to love sailing her. So congratulations, Lee and Lynda, and welcome to the world of cruising. You have been sailors, but with a boat like Grace, you just have to do some serious cruising. And I know you’ll both love it!
Mark worked at West Marine today, his first day back, and other than getting a little tired after 8 hours on his feet, all went well. I did the Granny Nanny thing this morning and stayed through the afternoon, even after Heather got home. Mid-afternoon, I slipped away long enough to go to the hospital imaging center for a bone density test. After that, I joined Heather, Jed, Sam, Jonah, and Oliver at a Falmouth High School lacrosse game. Both Sam and Jonah are very into lacrosse and they really enjoyed watching a real game. Tomorrow morning very early, Heather takes Jonah to the Falmouth Hospital for day surgery to have tubes inserted in his ears and possibly have his adenoids removed. Mark works again tomorrow and I will spend my day helping out at the Goldstones.
by Judy Handley | May 21, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 199, Year 8: Little Bit of Everything Day
Date: Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Weather: Foggy Early and Late, Sunny In Between, High Temp 60’s F
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
I started to say that this was a do-nothing day, but then I reconsidered and called it a ‘little bit of everything’ day. Mark took the car in for repairs and I finished washing down the starboard side of the boat and scrubbed the cockpit cushions. We moved the fishing boat on the mooring next to us because it’s twin props that are lifted up out of the water have gouged our hull three times in the past couple of days and Woods Hole Marine is not open for business until June 1. We were told that the boat should be moved but that complaints aren’t welcome until June 1, so we took the matter into our own hands. I took the bus to Heather and Jed’s and did a little gardening and then went to pick Sam up after school. Mark stayed on Windbird and napped since he now thinks he is getting the cold/flu that has been going around. He ended up getting a ride with Heather and Jed at the end of the day and come to their house to ride home with me on the bus. They stopped to check on the car, but it is not ready yet. So it was a little of this and a little of that kind of day.
Tomorrow I will take the bus in early to watch Jonah and Ollie while Heather goes to work. Mark will take the bus in a little later and hopefully pick up the car on his way to work at West Marine. He is on the 11-7 shift during the week and 8-4:30 on the weekends. So today was his last day of freedom. He will probably only work four days a week, but that is lot after months of no work. But he enjoys it and we could definitely use the money!
by Judy Handley | May 20, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 198, Year 8: Day Trip to Boston
Date: Monday, May 20, 2013
Weather: Foggy Early and Late, Sunny In Between, High Temp 70’s F
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Today it was my turn to make a trip to Mass General. I’ve been struggling with pain in my upper left arm for the past four and a half months due to a herniated disc in the neck area. Thankfully an activator-type chiropractor in North Myrtle Beach was able to give me some relief from the pain and right now my neck feels ‘almost’ normal—but not quite. From my internet research, I thought I knew what the specialist in Mass General’s Spine Center was going to tell me, but I wanted to hear it directly. Dr. Cha first wanted to hear about the injury to my neck 40 years ago. I tried to get away with telling him a heavy object hit me in the forehead and forced my head backwards to a point where I thought my neck was going to break—then I dove and let the heavy object land on my back. But, no. He wanted to know more. He wanted to know what the heavy object was and I had go into more detail explaining that it was half of a dead pig! I didn’t tell him that the name of the dead pig was Dolly Parton. I thought the dead pig story was enough all by itself. He actually chimed in and offered that of course we had hung the pig in a tree to let it bleed out. Enough. The bottom line is that the injury has come back to bite me years later by inviting arthritis to start its degradation thing more aggressively in this area of my spine earlier than I would hope. The options for treatment range from acupuncture to surgery, but Dr. Cha suggested that I might want to try physical therapy and continue seeing an activator-type chiropractor before opting for surgery. He said different things work differently for different people, so whatever I have been doing has been work, and I should continue that. He left the injection of a steroid in the neck area up to me, but I decided to wait and try adding the physical therapy first and see what that does. Eventually, I will probably have to have the surgery, but we’ll put that off as long as the severe pain doesn’t return. The surgery is a one day in, out the next day affair, if all goes well, but that is always the caveat—if all goes well. So I’m happy to keep trying other things and wait and have the surgery as a last resort.
Tomorrow we will deal with the car. The place that installed the new steering parts last year will install a new power steering pump—and if all goes well (sound familiar), we’ll have the car back tomorrow night. But it is an old car and there could be other problems, but one way or another, we need the car back by Thursday morning because Jonah is going to have surgery to put tubes in his ears and we need more than one car to get everyone where they need to be and still have a car at the hospital to bring Jonah home. So on goes the story.
by Judy Handley | May 19, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 197, Year 8: Recovering
Date: Sunday, May 19, 2013
Weather: Sunny, High Temp in the mid-60’s F
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
I’m recovering from whatever this flu bug is that hit us and I just took it easy today. Mark and I headed to Heather and Jed’s late morning so Mark could paint beehive parts that need to be put into use. Heather and Jed were still home, but shortly after we arrived, they headed to Boston for a family gathering. The boys were all dressed up and looked so handsome, so I got a couple of photos that are attached. Not much else happened today. Tomorrow Mark and I head to Boston for an appointment I have at Mass General to get an assessment of my spine problems (specifically my neck). Thankfully the chiropractor in Little River was able to give me some relief from the pain caused by a herniated disc, but I want to find out what more can be done if there are future problems.
by Judy Handley | May 18, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 196, Year 8: Sharing the Wealth
Date: Saturday, May 18, 2013
Weather: Sunny, High Temp in the Low 60’s F
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
I love my daughter, but this is one time when it would have been nice if she hadn’t ‘shared the wealth.’ Of course, she had no choice, so I’m just being facetious. But I do now have a modified version of the flu she had a couple of days ago and Ollie was hit with it last night as well. Heather was truly violently ill with cold-like symptoms, laryngitis, and a stomach flu. Ollie spiked a temp last night and threw up and was then just tired. I woke up this morning with cold-like symptoms and a terribly achy body, but so far (and thankfully) no stomach flu symptoms. And Mark is feeling extremely tired today, but otherwise he is okay. So hopefully this will pass quickly and we’ll all be on the road to recovery by tomorrow. That might be wishful thinking, but I choose to be wishful. But we all forged on today acting like all was fine. The ‘boys’ (minus Oliver) went to an open house at the Coast Guard Station in Woods Hole while the ‘girls’ (plus Oliver) went to a local nursery to buy plants for Heather’s bee garden. Ollie fell asleep on the way to the nursery, so I stayed in the van with him while Heather shopped for perennials. She found most of what she wanted, but not the Shasta Daisies, Black-eyed Susan’s, and Bee Balm. So we stopped at another garden center and I went in to buy those. Perennials are located by their scientific names, so I had to get help to find them. Finally, with the help of three sales people, we finally found what Heather wanted. Heather and I then hurried home to get everything planted before the ‘boys’ got home. Ollie was still sleeping in the van so we parked the van near to us and left the windows open so we could listen for him while we planted about 18 different plants—Echinacea, Shasta Daisies, Cape Daisies, Black-eyed Susan’s, Mediterranean Heather, and a couple of others that I didn’t recognize. We planted all of these in what Heather calls her Bee Garden, just in front of her bee hive and bee hive to-be. She had already put in four Lavender plants late last week. So with some sun and rain, it should be a beautiful little garden this summer and for many summers to come. Just as we finished planting, Mark, Jed, Sam, and Jonah returned from their excursion to the Coast Guard Station. They had a good time but then switched gears and got excited about helping out with the bee garden. The next task was to put in a border, so the ‘boys’ completed that task. Finally Ollie work up and he joined in the fun.
When the garden was completed, Mark and I headed back to Windbird. We had expended as much energy as we had for today and we actually took afternoon naps in the cockpit. This is something I almost never do, but I needed it today and am actually feeling a bit better tonight. Heather, Jed, and company are headed to Boston tomorrow for a family gathering. Jed’s mother and her brother return from a trip to Iceland tonight and Jed’s cousin’s wife is celebrating getting her Masters from Brandeis. We will stay here tomorrow and have a low-key day and then Mark and I drive to Boston on Monday because I have an appointment for an assessment at Mass General’s spine center. The problem I have been having with a pinched nerve in my neck has been so much better, but I still want to get an assessment to find out what I should be doing to try and avoid that kind of pain again.
I totally forgot to mention in yesterday’s log that while I was cleaning the outside of the boat, Mark spent time checking out our steering system. Just when he, Lee, and Lynda were circling to wait for the Eel Pond Bridge to open, something happened that made it very hard to steer to the right. Thankfully it happened just as they got home. What Mark found yesterday was that the steering cables had come off the quadrant. That allowed them to still work, but just not quite right. So yesterday Mark got them back on the quadrant and hopefully all is well. We won’t know for sure until we take Windbird out again, but things should be fine.
by Judy Handley | May 17, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 195, Year 8: Settling In
Date: Friday, May 17, 2013
Weather: Sunny, High Temp in the Low 60’s F
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
This morning Mark took the Ford Taurus to the repair shop that replaced all of the parts in the power steering component a year ago because it has not been working since we were here to visit in January. The Taurus is the car that we bought in conjunction with Heather and Jed for $1200 in June of 2011. We thought we would be using it for a few months and would then be leaving it for Heather and Jed. Well, one thing led to another and we didn’t leave and we used the car until last November when we headed to South Carolina. During that time, it had to have several different repairs—one of them being the power steering. And it cost more than the car to get the work done. So when I got here a couple of weeks ago I was surprised to find that the power steering was not working. What Mark found out today was that the parts that were installed last year had a guarantee. It looks like the pump is bad, so a new one has been ordered and will be installed at no cost next week. I sure hope this solves that problem, but there are still other issues that must be dealt with. I guess it is all part of settling into life in another location, so I’m calling it ‘settling in’. I spent most of my day washing down the deck and the topsides. After I used up all the water in the jugs on deck, I had to go to the town dock for more water. Mark had hoped to stop at the town dock when he came in on Wednesday to do a good wash down, but it was just too windy. It was still windy today, so I just did the bucket routine. I put AwlWash and water in one bucket for scrubbing and white vinegar and water in the other bucket for rinsing and I just go at it. I have to refill the 5 gallon rinse bucket at least 4 times to do the whole boat. I got most, but not all, of the boat done and will finish the rest tomorrow. And then this evening, Heather, Jed, Sam, Jonah, and Oliver came to Windbird to celebrate her return to Eel Pond. We had dinner and the boys (Ollie included) had great fun playing on Windbird’s deck. Ollie has decided he likes chewing on the safety netting while looking out at Eel Pond. He also likes exploring with Granddad and on the way out to the boat, he and Granddad examined all the mooring balls on the dock ready to be put out. It was great to have the Goldstones back on Windbird. We now truly feel like we have returned home.
