by Judy Handley | Sep 3, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 304, Year 8: First Day of School. . . Sort of
Date: Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Weather: Overcast with Buckets of Rain Late in the Day
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Today was the first day of public school here and it should have been Sam’s first day of first grade. As a first grade teacher of many years, I have a special attachment to that day. But unfortunately, poor little Sam was not able to go to school. Ollie got dressed to go to daycare, but he didn’t end up going either. So in the end, it was the first day of preschool for Jonah. Mark and I stayed home with Ollie and Sam and later in the morning, I met Jed at the pediatrician’s office with both boys. The official diagnosis is croup or laryngotracheobronchitis. Basically this means a barking cough, but with that comes a swollen or sore throat, a fever, and stridor (a high pitched wheezing sound when breathing). It is viral and can’t be treated with antibiotics, so we just have to wait until they get better.
Our sailing friends from Australia, Chris and Geoff of Shambala, arrived here early this morning in the fog. After Mark helped me get the morning going with Ollie and Sam, he came back to Woods Hole and spent much of the afternoon with Chris and Geoff. When they arrived in the early morning, they anchored in Great Harbor, but Mark helped them move into Woods Hole. They are using our friend Bob Morris’ mooring ball. His sailboat, Apogee, is spending the winter in Portugal and Spain, so Mark called and asked him if our friends could use the mooring ball. That was no problem, so Chris and Geoff are settled here for a couple of days before heading to Nova Scotia. We had dinner in Woods Hole with them tonight and hope to have them onboard Windbird for dinner tomorrow night. Since we saw them last in Beaufort, North Carolina, they have sailed to the Bahamas, on to Cuba, and back to the east coast of the US. They spent a couple of week in Washington, DC, and loved the museums and are looking forward to visiting New York City on their way back south from Nova Scotia.
Here’s hoping the weather improves tomorrow. It has been overcast and raining since late last week, so it is definitely time for some sunshine. I’ll be anxious to hear how much rain we had this afternoon. It certainly felt like bucketfuls.
by Judy Handley | Sep 2, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 303, Year 8: Another Chapter Closes
Date: Monday, September 2, 2013
Weather: Overcast with Periods of Rain
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
We had dinner at Heather and Jed’s this evening to celebrate summer, but this weather doesn’t lend itself to celebration. Jed had to grill while holding an umbrella and we had to eat inside. Despite that, the food was great. Heather spent her afternoon cleaning up the dining area and it looked fantastic. Heather and Jed live in a small Cape and the dining area is an added extension to the kitchen. Since it has the only table in the house, it also serves as the center of kid activities. All of their art and craft and science supplies are in a low sideboard on one side of the dining area and low bookshelves for cook books and a cork bulletin board for kid art are on the other side. The tops of the sideboard and the bookshelves become the repository for anything and everything, but when we arrived late this afternoon, the counter tops were cleared and all of the sideboard drawers and shelves were organized. What a great way to start the school year. It probably can’t last long with three boys, but Heather gets a gold star for trying! She has inspired me to attack this boat inside. We have just way too much ‘stuff’ and now that the Camp Oma chapter has ended, I should have the time to reorganize and get rid of a lot of things.
I delivered Sam and Jonah’s summer journals this evening along with certificates of awesome achievement for their participation in Camp Oma. We learned a lot and had great fun while doing it. Our Tuesdays and Thursdays spilled over into Wednesdays and Fridays, and sometimes Saturdays and Sunday. Jed asked each of the boys what their favorite activity was this summer. Sam immediately answered that going to Stoney Beach was his favorite. Jonah said playing miniature golf and our pirate sail to Treasure Island were his favorites. That was surely fun, but I think I side with Sam on this one. The times we had at Stoney Beach here in Woods Hole were special. It is a tiny little beach, but at low tide it is amazing. There is a sandbar not far from shore that extends the playing area for the little ones, as well as the big ones. And even when there are lots of people, it somehow doesn’t feel crowded. There are stone jetties that define the width of the beach and those jetties provide hours of entertainment. It was from the tops of the jetties that we fished for crabs using beach grass for line and periwinkle snails for bait. And it was from the base of the jetties at low tide that we discovered sea life and marine plants. We swam with schools of small fish and played among the ctenophores, commonly called comb jellies, which light up at night, but do not sting. Sam and Jonah frolicked on their boogie boards and sometimes we just kicked back on the rice mat and ate snacks while watching the puffy white clouds float in Cape Cod blue sky. So I give Stoney Beach an A+ and look forward to more fun there before the chill of fall arrives and certainly next summer. School starts tomorrow, but we have three more weeks of summer to enjoy after school and on the weekends. But before we can enjoy the beach again, those three boys need to get well. Sam and Jonah now have the cold that Ollie came down with about eleven days ago. He started getting sick on the Friday before our weekend sail to Tarpaulin and Menemsha. Then late last week, both Sam and Jonah got it. Jonah is recovering quickly, but Sam has been hit hard. Unless there is a miracle overnight, he won’t be able to go to his first day of first grade tomorrow. He wants to go so badly, so we’ll just have to wait and see how he is in the morning. Ollie is still wheezy and needs the nebulizer, so Heather’s not sure he should go to daycare tomorrow. So Granddad and I are on standby. We will go in early tomorrow morning to get first day of school photos and then see who can go to school and who cannot.
Last night Mark brought home September copies of Cruising World and Ocean Navigator magazines. There was an article in Ocean Navigator by a cruising friend from Maine that we met in South Africa. And there was an article about sailing to Bermuda in Cruising World. Nat Warren-White’s article about the most challenging passages of his circumnavigation inspired me to write my own. We both agree on the fact that the top two most challenging passages are 1) in and out of New England, and 2) in and out of New Zealand. After that he lists 3) the Strait of Malacca and 4) the “Wild Coast” of South Africa between Durban and Cape Town. I agree that both of those were tricky, but they might not be at the top of our trickiest list. Nat often sailed with crew as his wife Betsy did not do long passages, and I think a woman’s perspective gives a different twist to the story. So there’s one more reason I need to get started on writing that book.
by Judy Handley | Sep 1, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 302, Year 8: Quiet Labor Day Weekend
Date: Sunday, September 1, 2013
Weather: Mostly Cloudy and Windy, Thunderstorms Overnight
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Can’t believe it is September! With Mark working Friday, Sunday, and Monday, and with all three of the grandkids sick, we are having a very quiet Labor Day weekend. But quiet is not all bad. Jonah and Sam spent the night on Windbird last night. We bought a Peter Pan DVD to watch as last weekend in Menemsha the boys had tried to catch their shadows. Mark told them they were going to have to watch Peter Pan, and so we did. We bought the 1953 animated Disney version as that was what was available at the local Walmart. It was the one that both Mark and I had seen as children and it was interesting to see it again after so many years. Both boys had a fever last night, so after the movie and a dose of Children’s Tylenol, they were immediately asleep. Jonah didn’t move until 7:30 this morning, but Sam had to get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night smack dab in the middle of a thunderstorm. There was quite a light and sound show associated with the storm, but it didn’t last long and we were all back to sleep again. There was at least one other loud thunderstorm during the night, but somehow, Jonah slept through it all. Jonah was actually better this morning, but Sam really wasn’t feeling good. It was totally overcast, so the boys and I stayed inside and actually watched Peter Pan one more time. While they watched, I worked on gluing photos in their summer journals. Tomorrow we will have dinner at Heather and Jed’s and the boys will share their summer journals with momma and daddy, so I have a bit of work to do. Heather, Jed, and Ollie came to Windbird for a chicken noodle soup lunch today and then they took the boys home for a nap. Sam wanted to stay over another night, but he just wasn’t feeling up to it. There’s nothing like your own bed when you are sick. Hopefully all three boys will be better by Tuesday morning for the first day of school.
by Judy Handley | Aug 31, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 301, Year 8: Big Boys Overnight on Windbird
Date: Saturday, August 31, 2013
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Windy, and Cool
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
The weather continued to be overcast and cool. So it was not a good end-of-summer sailing day. We’ll wait until there is a beautiful weekend in September and do the sail then. Instead, Heather and Jed took the boys to play miniature golf and we met them there at 11:30 am. I had an appointment at a clothing consignment shop in the same complex as the mini-golf course and Heather wanted to go with me. The appointment was a complete bust as only one of the 15 items we took in was accepted. This is a high end consignment shop and the clothes have to be perfect. Ours obviously were not. But the good thing is that Heather was able to find a number of clothing items to update her wardrobe. We had lunch together and then they took the boys home for naps and we came back to Windbird. Ollie is starting to recover a bit from his cold, but this morning Sam and Jonah both woke up with a cold. Later in the afternoon, despite having fevers, they both decided to come spend the night on Windbird. Earlier in the week Sam talked to me about staying over before school starts and he has decided he wants to spend both tonight and tomorrow night on the boat. We’ll have to see how they are feeling tomorrow, but hopefully they can both stay another night. We love having them here. This evening when we went to pick them up, Ollie got really sad that he couldn’t come. He was reaching out to both Granddad and myself pleading to go with us. He loves his big brothers and wants to do everything they do. But he’s not ready to make it through the night without momma just yet. Maybe by next summer he can join us. Tonight we watched Peter Pan. After our episode of trying to catch our shadows last Sunday in Menemsha, both Mark and I thought they would enjoy seeing this old favorite.
Mark goes to work early tomorrow and I’ll decide what Sam, Jonah, and I should do once I see how they feel in the morning. The weather is supposed to be more of the same with a greater chance of precipitation, so it is not being at all helpful. At least the wind is coming from the SW quadrant and not from the north. Our sailing friends from Australia, Geoff Nunquam and Chris Melco of Shambala, left the Chesapeake Bay this morning and are headed this way. It looks like they could have a wet trip, but they will have plenty of wind moving them along. They could arrive in time for dinner on Labor Day. We are looking forward to visiting with them again before they head further Down East.
by Judy Handley | Aug 30, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 300, Year 8: Timeless
Date: Friday, August 30, 2013
Weather: Mostly Cloudy and Cool, Some Sun Mid-Afternoon
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Thankfully, there are some things that never change. They are timeless. And one of those is little boys on lazy days at the end of summer. You have to picture this as I didn’t get photos. I was at Heather’s for lunch and after lunch I looked down in the backyard to see what Sam and Jonah were doing. They were just too quiet. Earlier I had helped them make fishing poles out of sticks and string, and there they were sitting on the wooden picnic table pretending that it was a boat and they had their stick and string fishing poles dangling down into the yard with leaves attached to the ends for bait. They sat there quietly for the longest time catching pretend fish and casting their lines again. I just stopped and stared. All I could think is that this could have been any two little boys anytime in the past. It looked like a Norman Rockwell painting. Of course, they moved on before I thought to get my camera, but they continued to play with those stick and string fishing poles throughout the afternoon. Sam even made the point to me later that their fishing poles were made out of natural materials and that they were even better than fishing poles you buy at the store. I wholeheartedly agreed and smiled to think that he appreciates such things.
The weather continued to be uncooperative today so we didn’t get our last day in at the beach. The sun didn’t shine through the clouds until too late in the afternoon to go to be beach, so we switched to the rainy-cloudy day plan. Mark had to go to work earlier than scheduled to cover for someone who couldn’t make it in, so I met Heather and boys in Woods Hole and we went to the WHOI Exhibit Center to play in Alvin. Heather had to go to work for a bit, so I had the three boys and they enjoyed playing in Alvin together. The floor and walls in the Alvin mock-up are padded and Ollie had a great time resting on the padding. He would play a bit and then lie down for bit, over and over. Eventually Sam and Jonah tired of playing in Alvin and wanted to go see the film that plays repeatedly in the next door room. Ollie did more running around that he did watching, but Sam and Jonah watched it for the third or fourth time this summer and were amazed that they saw things they had never noticed before. We then toured the upstairs of the Exhibit Center. When all three boys were ready to move on, we went across the street to the Woods Hole Day Care Cooperative playground. Ollie is getting old enough to really enjoy the playground along with his big brothers, so everyone played until Heather rejoined us after her longer than expected stint at work. Sam and Jonah played school where Heather, Ollie, and I were the students and they were the teachers. They took us on a pretend swamp mud muck field trip and when we came back to school they taught us what makes boats float. They even let us have rest time and lots of play time. Heather and I decided we liked the school run by Sam and Jonah!
When it was time for real life lunch, we headed home to Heather’s. I went along to help watch the boys so Heather could get some kitchen projects done. She needed to finish making spaghetti sauce to can and process three or four big zucchinis to turn into zucchini bread. While she did this, I took the boys on a neighborhood explore and then to the local elementary school to see if the new playground was completed. Since school starts on Tuesday, I was sure it would be done. But not so. The workmen were still there at 4:30 pm when we left, but even though they were still working they let the boys play in certain parts of the playground. Ollie was still going strong until we got home and then he finally gave in and took the nap he should have had hours earlier. He seemed worse during the night last night, but this afternoon he seemed to be finally feeling better.
The weather is going to continue to contrary tomorrow, so I don’t think we are going to get a sail in this weekend. Mark works on Sunday and Monday, so tomorrow is our only day. I guess we will just have to see what tomorrow brings.
by Judy Handley | Aug 29, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 299, Year 8: Uncooperative Weather
Date: Thursday, August 29, 2013
Weather: Overcast, Breezy with N Winds Making It Feel Very Cool
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
This might not be the official last week of summer, but since school starts next week, it is the last week of summer fun for Sam and Jonah . . . and the weather has just not been cooperative. We’ve had a great summer, so I can’t really complain, but I haven’t been able to do the Camp Oma activities with the boys this week that I had planned. And then there has been the complication of Oliver and his summer cold. Mark and I have worked together to keep all three boys this week, and somehow Mark has been able to get a lot of his consulting work done as well. Today was a bit tougher as Ollie really didn’t feel good and he wanted Granddad to hold him constantly. The attachment between the two of them is so special. For the first six months of Ollie’s life, Mark was going through chemo. He spent a lot of time resting on Heather and Jed’s living room sofa with Ollie napping right beside him. They became ‘best buds’ and they had continued that relationship. Unfortunately Mark has to go to work at West Marine tomorrow, but Heather will be home so Ollie will have momma. If the weather is the least bit cooperative, I hope to take Sam and Jonah to the beach, but it is looking like a cool morning with continued North winds, so that might not happen. If not, we’re hoping for better weather on Saturday so we can at least do a Labor Day weekend day sail. Mark has to work at West Marine on Sunday and Monday, so a weekend sail would be tricky. And besides, overnights on the boat with a sick baby are not easy as there’s no rocking chair. So we’ll just hope for beautiful weekends in September so we can have at least one more weekend sail with Heather, Jed, and boys.
The dinghy repairman, EJ, came to pick up our dinghy late this evening and we now have EJ’s dinghy to use until ours is returned. EJ did repairs on this dinghy last summer and he is of the definite opinion that we should buy a new one. Our dinghy has more patches than spaces without patches, but we’re hoping it will make it for another few years. We think the patches make it look very special.
Note: We did take all three boys to the Cape Cod Children’s Museum this morning and they had a good time. Actually I think Ollie enjoyed it more than the older boys. The museum is a great local resource, but Sam has outgrown most of the activities and Jonah is borderline. But it is still fun on a cloudy, indoor kind of day.
