by Judy Handley | Apr 11, 2013 | Little River, SC, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 159, Year 8: Pain in the Neck
Date: Thursday, April 11, 2013
Weather: Winds S 15-18; Partly Sunny; Temp in the High 70’s F
Location: Lightkeepers Marina in Coquina Harbor, Little River, SC
I now know that I’d much rather be a ‘pain in the neck’ than have a ‘pain in the neck’, but the unfortunate truth is that I have had pain in my neck, shoulder, and upper left arm since early January. We returned here from Boston on January 8th and something I did on that plane trip triggered problems stemming from a neck injury I sustained in the early 1980’s. I have been to a regular physician, an orthopedic doctor, and a chiropractor. I have had x-rays and an MRI and today I finally heard from the orthopedic doctor that I have multiple problems in my neck. Well, I knew that, but the news was worse than I had hoped. I not only have three herniated discs but I also have arthritis. Yuck! It’s this old age thing again. And all of my problems can be traced back to Dolly Parton. When we were in our ‘back to the land’ days in West Virginia, we raised two pigs and named them Waylon Jennings and Dolly Parton. These cute little pigs grew and grew and it was time to slaughter them. Waylon went like a gentleman, but Dolly didn’t go so easily. After you slaughter a hog, you have to cut them in half down the spine and hang them by their hind legs to cool out. You can then be your own butcher and cut the meat into usable pieces or you can take it to a professional butcher. We opted for the latter so we hung dolly from a tree and came back later to lower her and take her to the butcher. Since Dolly was so heavy, we opted for Mark to lift one half while I lowered the other. I made sure I had a clean sheet to wrap her in so she didn’t get dirty when I lowered her to the ground. But when Mark lifted, instead of lowering gently as Waylon had done, half of Dolly’s weight came flying at my forehead. My neck went back as far as I could let it before I thought it would break. I finally had the presence of mind to tuck my head and dive, letting her fall on top of me. I fell to the ground with the sheet falling on top of me and then Dolly on top of that. Mark lifted the sheet and said quietly, “Are you alive?” At the time we laughed, but I have known since then that the neck injury would come back to haunt me and now it has. What I have right now is a pinched nerve that causes excruciating pain when I sit. So I’m fine all day as long as I walk or work standing up. When evening comes, however, and I want to sit down, the pain can be almost unbearable. Multiple trips to the chiropractor have helped in that I no longer have the pain all day long. I really don’t want to go down the drug or surgery route unless I absolutely have to, so we continue to look for other solutions. The orthopedic doctor here is referring me to a physical therapist who can show me how to do exercises that might help. Then as soon as we get back to the Cape, I’m hoping to do two things. The first will be to go to Concord, New Hampshire, to a chiropractor there who, in my opinion, can perform miracles. The second will be to get a referral to Mass General Hospital’s Spine Service. In the meantime, I will keep doing what I’ve been doing for the past three months. I am a bit concerned about the trip north, so we’re not sure what we are going to do about that. I had so hoped that we would be able to go outside and sail all the way home, but Mark has yet to see a time when going around Cape Hatteras has looked safe. If that doesn’t change, it means we will have to do the Intracoastal Waterway and that means hand steering all day every day. I might be fine as long as I’m standing and steering, or I might not. If not we would have to do shorter days and it could a month to get home! Outside it is only two days from here to the Chesapeake, but inside doing the Intracoastal took us eight days. The days were shorter in November, so tomorrow we will study the route and see just how long it will take us with longer days on our side. One way or another, a week or so from today we could be headed north.
Patsy is doing so much better and Mark, Joe, and I spent another afternoon planting in the backyard. It is supposed to rain all day tomorrow, so we wanted to get the planning done in time to benefit from the rain. Tomorrow we’ll use that rainy day to do inside house cleaning and trip planning for the cruise north.
by Judy Handley | Apr 10, 2013 | Little River, SC, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 158, Year 8: Springtime at 710 Wild Oak Lane
Date: Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Weather: Winds SSW 10-12; Mostly Sunny; High Temp 79 degrees F
Location: Lightkeepers Marina in Coquina Harbor, Little River, SC
Today was filled with springtime activities at Patsy and Joe’s . . . with a little boat work thrown in for good measure. It was a busy day as Mark, Joe, and I worked together to get flowers planted in the backyard garden, the bluebirds worked hard at making a nest in the old bluebird house, Patsy and I went out to do a little shopping, and Mark cleaned the autopilot control head and cut and installed carpeting in our aft cabin.
We started the day by watching bluebirds build a nest in the old bird house in the backyard and admiring the azaleas which looked to be in peak bloom today. We then went about planting two flats of red begonias, 36 in all, named Whiskey. Later in the day we planted the white begonias named Vodka. We also planted the coral-colored begonia Mark and I gave Patsy when she was in the hospital and got a hearty laugh when we read the label today and saw that it was an Amstel (our favorite beer) begonia. So I guess you’d have to say we had an ‘intoxicating’ grand time planting flowers. After lunch, Patsy decided it was time for her first outing since returning home from the hospital. She desperately needs a pair of shoes that are comfortable for walking. Her favorite brand is SAS, so we headed to the SAS Outlet. We found a pair of sandals that we think will be comfortable, so that foray was successful. Mark’s work on the boat was only half successful. He installed a piece of carpeting in the aft cabin that Brian Thompson gave us and it looks and feels great. The reason for the carpeting is to cover a part of the teak flooring that needs some repairs. We’ll get around to fixing the flooring one of these days, but for now, the carpeting does the job. Brian had the piece of carpeting left over from remodeling a condo, so he just gave it to us. Thanks, Brian! Mark’s unsuccessful task is more costly. Our autopilot control head is in a place where salt water can get into it and over the years it has taken its toll. Mark thought if he washed it out and dried it really well that he might revive it. He did this once before, but it wasn’t successful today. It is operational except for the button that puts it into auto. Since South Africa, we have had to do that with a remote controller. And I guess we will just have to keep doing it that way until we get home. Mark called Ray Marine after finding that his ‘fix’ didn’t take and they said that if we sent it in, it would be at least two weeks before we would hear back from them. We expect to be on our way back to the Cape by that time, so we’ll just keep using the remote and send the control head in for repairs once we are home. It is ten years old and we may find out that we just have to spring for a new one, but we’ll try the repair route first.
Tomorrow is supposed to be another beautiful, warm day and Joe and I have a little more gardening to do before the rain comes tomorrow night. Mark is spending his time thinking about what needs to be done on the boat before our passage north. He flies to Boston on Tuesday of next week for a routine check-up and flies back the next day. And then we get serious about figuring out the best time to leave here. Our time here has passed so quickly and I think we are both in a bit of shock that it is time to head out.
by Judy Handley | Apr 9, 2013 | Little River, SC, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 157, Year 8: Do-Nothing Day
Date: Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Weather: Winds SW 8; Mostly Sunny; High Temp in the Upper 70’s
Location: Lightkeepers Marina in Coquina Harbor, Little River, SC
At the end of the day, all I can ask myself is, “Where did this day go?” Mark and I spent the day at Patsy and Joe’s and I cooked, and cooked, and did laundry, and did laundry. Then the day was over. If we didn’t have to cook, life would be so much simpler. The great news today is that Patsy continues to gain strength. Her body seems to finally be getting somewhat back to normal and the issue she was having with her foot has resolved itself. Well, it resolved itself when she started taking Celebrex for her arthritis once again. She was taken off of it for the surgery and told not to take it during recovery, but the time has come when she really needs it. I don’t know what’s in that stuff, but on Sunday Patsy could not walk without a walker and today she is getting around just fine. Our next big job is to find a way to get enough calories in her each that she can maintain what appears to be her new body weight of 100 pounds. Prior to surgery she was struggling to keep her weight at 106 and now the struggle is to keep it at 100 pounds and try to gain some. Our time here is running short, so I’m looking for that magic solution. Patsy is diabetic and that complicates things tremendously in terms of coming up with foods to fatten her up that won’t raise her sugar level. Tomorrow we will continue the quest and Joe and I plan to do a little planting in flower beds. Mark is going to work on our auto pilot display to see if he can get it functioning properly. Right now we have to use the auto pilot remote as all of the buttons on the display do not work. It looks like we have very warm weather until Friday when there is 70 per cent chance of rain. So we’ll try our best to enjoy this beautiful weather.
by Judy Handley | Apr 8, 2013 | Little River, SC, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 156, Year 8: Springtime . . . on Cape Cod and in South Carolina
Date: Monday, April 8, 2013
Weather: Winds SSW 7-10; Sunny; High Temp in the Low 70’s
Location: Lightkeepers Marina in Coquina Harbor, Little River, SC
Before I go into the details of our trip to Brookgreen Gardens today, I just want to once again rave about Skype video calls with grandkids. When we got home to Windbird late this afternoon, Heather called via her tablet from her backyard to share the springtime activities happening there. We got to see Jonah playing lacrosse with Cassidy (an older kid who lives across the street and that Jonah adores), Sam being the Cool Dude in his shorts and sunglasses, and Ollie swinging with neighbor kids that know very well, Molly and Joey. It was great to see them all. The backyard connection was not perfect so the video often looked like an impressionistic painting, but we saw grandkids happily at play which warmed our hearts. At the end, Heather took Ollie up to the deck and for the first time we got to see him taking a few steps on his own. Actually he took off with Heather’s tablet. He then sat down with the tablet and ‘talked’ to us while Heather got a photo. This is what one year-olds can do these days. He looks perfectly at ease with the modern technology and loves to look at the screen. Hopefully seeing Oma and Granddad will help him accept us more readily when we get home in a few weeks. Thanks, Heather, for taking time out of a busy afternoon with a yard full of kids to Skype us to share what’s happening with our grandkids on the Cape.
It was a beautiful day here with sunny skies and temps in the 70’s. Mark wore a short-sleeved shirt and shorts today and I wore capris. We are both in sandals now as spring has finally arrived. This kind of spring weather is much like our summer weather on the Cape and it is very much welcomed after the past two and half months of cooler than usual late winter and early spring weather here. Our friends Lee and Lynda Kaufman invited us to go to Brookgreen Gardens with them today to celebrate the coming of spring and to see the flowers in bloom. Lynda was a bit disappointed that the azaleas are not quite at ‘peak’ bloom, but they were still beautiful. Lee and Lynda invited us to Brookgreen during the Christmas holiday season to see the display of ‘a thousand candles’ throughout the gardens. That was stunning and it was so interesting today to see the same gardens in the daytime and with all the flowers in bloom. Archer and Anna Hyatt Huntington opened the gardens to the public in 1932. They purchased 9,100 acres that were four former rice plantations. The name comes from the Brookgreen Plantation as the current gardens are situated on the land that was once this rice plantation. The Huntington’s purchased the land to develop gardens to showcase Anna Hyatt Huntington’s sculptures. The gardens now host some 1,444 sculptures by Huntington and other American artists. Brookgreen has been designated a National Historic Landmark and is listed on the Register of National History Places. But more importantly it is a spectacular property with beautifully kept gardens and hundreds of sculptures from American artists. This is where a ‘thousand’ pictures are better than hundreds of words, so I’ll let today’s photos speak for themselves. But before exiting to the photos, we must say a great big thank you to Lee and Lynda for inviting to go along as their guests. It was a beautiful day.
by Judy Handley | Apr 7, 2013 | Little River, SC, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 155, Year 8: Happy Birthday, Ziggy
Date: Sunday, April 7, 2013
Weather: Mostly Sunny and Warmer, High Temp in the Upper 60’s
Location: Lightkeepers Marina in Coquina Harbor, Little River, SC
Happy Birthday, Ziggy Milo Handley! Ziggy is the second born of our five grandchildren and he was four today. Or rather, he will officially be four years old at 11:47 pm. We got to talk to him ever so briefly via Skype video today and when we wished him a happy 4th birthday, he immediately pointed out to us that he was not four quite yet. He is holding out until the actual time of birth before he will call himself a four year-old. It was April 9 in Thailand when we finally got the email announcing his long and arduous birth. We were supposed to be in New Mexico for his birth, but he decided to come a couple of weeks early and he arrived as we were sailing from Thailand to Malaysia where we would leave Windbird while we flew home. With the difference in time and the email delays when at sea, we didn’t get the official word until we reached Ko Lipe in the Butang Island Group—just before you reach Malaysia. We celebrated on the beach by releasing a Chinese lantern. I wrote in my log that evening, “It went up and up and up as if it were trying to reach the full moon. A number of children that had gathered uttered the Thai equivalent of ‘wow’ and we were all in wonder of the light that just rose higher and higher in the sky. All I could think is that a new star is born—our Ziggy.”
My nephews left this morning and things are back to normal here. Patsy continues to recover, but she had a bit of a setback today. She has arthritis in her left foot and they took her off the Celebrex she takes for the arthritis before the surgery. Her orders when she left the hospital were to not resume taking the Celebrex, but the pain in her foot today was so bad she could hardly walk, so she took it in hopes of stopping the pain. Evidently Celebrex can hinder the healing process of the incision, but at the same time, I read today that it can also inhibit the formation of adhesions (scar tissue) internally which would be a good thing. Her incision is almost healed, so she decided to try the Celebrex, contact a doctor tomorrow, and hope for ‘official’ permission to take it. In the meantime, we are hoping for an improvement after taking the Celebrex that will tell us it is actually an arthritis flare-up that is the problem in her foot. As Patsy said tonight, Mark and I are ‘taking the day off’ tomorrow and going to Brookgreen Gardens with friends Lynda and Lee Kaufman. The temperature is still below average, but it was warm enough today for us to take a walk on the beach. Every day this week is supposed to be warmer than the day before, so we will celebrate the arrival of spring at Brookgreen tomorrow. And we’ll check in with the patient via phone and hope for a great improvement.
by Judy Handley | Apr 6, 2013 | Little River, SC, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 154, Year 8: Sailing, Sailing
Date: Saturday, April 6, 2013
Weather: Beautiful Day, High Temp in the 60’s
Location: Lightkeepers Marina in Coquina Harbor, Little River, SC
Well, there is sailing, and then there is sailing. We pulled out of the slips this morning at 10 am with Rex and Pam, their friends Mike and Penny, and two of Tommy’s children, Olivia and Cory. There was not a cloud in the sky, and even though a bit on the chilly side, it was a beautiful day. It took us about an hour to get out of the Intracoastal Waterway and out to sea and the sailing conditions were perfect. We had 12-15 knots of wind on the beam with less than one foot seas. This was SAILING. We sailed along for about an hour and a half and then we started experiencing the ‘other’ sailing. The winds started building, so we reefed the headsail. Then both the wind and the seas started building. The winds went from 15 to 16 to 17 to 18 and on up to 23 knots. The seas went from 1 to 2 to 3 feet and then on up to 5-6 feet with an interval of about 5 seconds. We reefed the main and turned to head home. By this time the wind had clocked around so we were headed into it which with the wind speed and wave interval resulted in a bit of a rough ride. We only had one ‘casualty.’ Cory, Tommy’s fourteen year-old, got sea sick, but everyone else survived the conditions and had a good time. Cory swears he also had a good time, but I don’t know how that is possible as sick as he was. One thing’s for sure, he was a good sport, and never complained. Rex’s friend Mike flew down from West Virginia just to go sailing, and he certainly got to experience a wide spectrum of conditions. He loved it all, as did Mark. All in all, it was a great first sail of the season, and it reminded us of some things that need to be done before we head north the end of the month.
Patsy is doing great and we all descended on her house for dinner. Tommy grilled shrimp and hamburgers and everyone spent the evening watching basketball. We’ve had a nice couple of days visiting with family and the weather is warming—so life is good.
