by Judy Handley | Sep 27, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 328, Year 8: New Dinghy Arrival
Date: Friday, September 27, 2013
Weather: Partly Sunny, Still Cool (mid-60’s F)
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
The new dinghy arrived on the West Marine delivery truck at 6:30 am this morning. Mark drove into town to help unload it and an hour later he was back here in Woods Hole with the dinghy in a borrowed truck. It wouldn’t fit in the back of our Taurus. We had to move fast as Mark had to be back at West Marine to officially go to work at 9 am, but we did have time to unload the dinghy, take it out of its very nice cover (that will never be used again), inflate the tubes, and admire. We left it on the lawn in back of Redfield, the WHOI building where Jed works and where there is a great little ramp for launching the dinghy once the work is done. We both drove back to West Marine. I dropped Mark off and went to Heather and Jed’s to finish the laundry I started yesterday. I needed to kill some time while waiting for the other items we had ordered from the West Marine warehouse to be unpacked and available for pick-up. Around noon I picked up the dinghy bottom paint and KeelGuard protector and headed back to Woods Hole. My goal was mark off the area on the dinghy where the KeelGuard will be installed and then tape-off and paint the bottom. Painting the bottom of a dinghy is not necessary unless you live aboard and leave the dinghy in the water all of the time. If you do, and if you don’t use bottom paint, the dinghy bottom very quickly grows all sorts of creatures that are very hard to remove. Barnacles are at the top of that list, but the algae, depending on the variety, can be difficult to remove as well. We didn’t have a huge problem with this as we sailed around the world, but the cooler waters of New England promote unbelievable growth and a dinghy with no bottom paint in Eel Pond for the summer is not a pretty sight. So before launching this new dinghy, we thought it best to go ahead and apply the bottom paint and put on the keel guard. This is a rubber strip applied to the ‘v’ of the keel with 3-M adhesive. This keeps the keel from getting scratched and dinged when pulling it up on coral and pebble beaches. I used masking tape to mark off the area where the keel guard would be applied and then started taping off the area where we would apply black bottom paint. I did the job, but I was just not certain that the area I had marked off was just right. It needs to be right at the water line, and since we have never had this dinghy in the water, I was using another West Marine dinghy in Eel Pond as my guide. But still, I decided I wanted Mark’s input before forging ahead. Besides, it was time for me to go back into town to pick Sam up from school. I had planned to take him home and stay there until Heather and Jed arrived, but when I told Sam what I had been doing all day, he really, really wanted to go to Woods Hole to see the new dinghy. So off we went. When we got there, he danced around the new dinghy with great excitement and immediately started making plans for launching it. He also wanted to see if he could pick up one end of it, and with surprisingly little difficulty, he was able to do so. We then picked Jonah up from preschool and I drove Sam, Jonah, and Jed into Falmouth to meet up with Heather and Oliver on my way to pick Mark up from work. When Mark and I got back to Woods Hole, the Captain gave his assessment of my work for the day, made a few changes, and then watched while I painted the bottom. I had on the paint clothes, but he was still in this West Marine clothes. So he really couldn’t help. But this spectacle drew a few observers interested in the details of why we use bottom paint and how effective we find the keel guard. It was twilight when we finished, but we were glad to get that first coat of bottom paint on the dinghy. Now we will be able to get a second coat on tomorrow after the keel guard is applied. And then we will be able to launch the dinghy on Sunday morning with Sam and Jonah and Oliver’s help. This will mean a special trip in to get Ollie, but he likes driving the dinghy like Sam did when he was Oliver’s age. So the youngest Captain-in-Training should be present.
by Judy Handley | Sep 26, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 327, Year 8: Happiness to Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco
Date: Thursday, September 26, 2013
Weather: Partly Sunny, Still Cool (upper 60’s F), Winds NNE 5-10
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco spent their first night in their new home on the island of Culebra last night. Justin emailed this morning saying that there is some work to be done to make it feel like home, but after months of thinking about it, they were all ecstatic to be settling in. We wish them great happiness in this new chapter in their lives and look forward to seeing them in December when we reach Puerto Rico.
This was a first of three ‘get ready to head south’ cooking days. Today I made more granola. I made a huge batch last week, but that won’t get us to South Carolina. So I made another today that will last us through our South Carolina visit and we can make more while we are there. I can always make more along the way, but it is much, much easier to bake granola in a big oven with two big pans rather than in one little pan in a boat-sized oven. Next week, I have Tuesday and Thursday set aside to do more food preparation for the trip. Today, while waiting for granola to bake, I continued working on getting all of the winter jackets from Heather and Jed’s den closet washed and dried. I also had sheets and blankets from Windbird that I needed to launder, so at one point in the day, I had a load in at Heather’s and another load in at the Laundromat that is nearby. Mark spent most of his day doing his consulting work and in his spare time, he posted things that we have to sell on Craig’s List. Yesterday he sold two sets of pipe clamps to a guy from the International Hostel in Hyannis. Today he had two buyers for our old Alaska chainsaw mill. This is a device you attach to a chainsaw to make a portable saw mill. We sawed boards for making furniture in our cabin in Idaho with this mill in 1974. I hate to see it go, but we really have no use for it. We were hoping to sell our dinghy, but no bidders on that as yet. Our new West Marine dinghy arrives on the truck at 6:30 am in the morning. Mark is going to go in to help unload it and then sleep in the car until he starts work at 9 am. He thought he was finished working for this year, but a co-worker needs him to cover for her tomorrow. It’s going to be a long day for him, but he is turning in early tonight and he really will be able to nap in the car in the morning. Mark can sleep almost anywhere!
by Judy Handley | Sep 25, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 326, Year 8: Wednesday with Ollie
Date: Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Weather: Another Beautiful Day, Not as Windy but Still a Chill in the Air
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
We have had beautiful days this week with nighttime temps in the low 50’s F and the daytime temps nearing 70 F. That doesn’t sound cold, but it has felt chilly. Maybe it is because the wind is coming from the north or maybe it is because I no longer have a tolerance for chilly weather. Thanks goodness for polar fleece. Tonight when we got home, the young man on the boat ‘next door’ was sitting out in his cockpit with a friend and both had on polar fleece jackets and wool caps. It is fall in New England.
I spent the day at Heather’s, her day off work, and played with Ollie while Heather got some cooking and house organizing done. This was the fourth of six Wednesdays that I had set aside to be with Ollie so Heather could some things done. We had grand plans, but with only two Wednesdays left, I’m afraid that not all will get done. But we are making some progress. I can’t believe there are just two Wednesdays left. I’m looking forward to heading south but not without a huge pull in my heart to stay here to be close to Sam, Jonah, and Ollie. I got to spend lots of quality time with Sam and Jonah this summer, but I really haven’t gotten to spend as much time with Ollie. And he is such a cutie. Today we played on the swings, dug in the dirt in the backyard, took Peter the Rabbit (a stuffed version) for strolls in his little baby carriage, and went for a walk with Ollie in the little red wagon. Ollie is such a sweet-natured little boy and so easy to be around. He is in daycare on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, and Jed stays home with Ollie and Jonah on Monday. So thankfully I’ve had these Wednesdays to be with him. Ollie has been Granddad’s little boy, but today I think I scored some points. When Mark arrived late this afternoon, for just a moment, Ollie was hesitant to go to him, preferring Oma. But it didn’t take long before he was back to being Granddad’s side-kick.
Our son Justin, his wife Jo, and those other two beautiful grandchildren, Ziggy and Coco, arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico yesterday, and hopefully they are settled into the casa they will be living in for the next year. This is a big move for them, from the mountains of New Mexico to the tropical island of Culebra, and we wish them great happiness in their new home. And it so happens that Culebra has the best harbor in that corner of the world, so we will be seeing them this winter. How convenient that our children have chosen to live in two drop-dead gorgeous places in this world that we can sail to and visit with them!
by Judy Handley | Sep 24, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 325, Year 8: The Purge Continues
Date: Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Weather: Beautiful Day, Still Windy
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Our morning was spent getting a pine trestle table and benches from storage and taking them to a consignment shop. We also took some miscellaneous glassware. Then we went to Heather and Jed’s and got a big bandsaw and box of tools out of their garage and took them to storage to fill in the space left empty. Mark is posting this on Craig’s List in hoping of selling it. We have a huge bag of clothes that we are taking off Windbird and to storage. So we are purging what we have onboard Windbird and stored at H & J’s and putting these things in storage, but as quickly as we can we are trying to pare down what we have in storage as well. This job will have to continue next year as we are running out of time, but it feels good to finally be getting rid of some things.
We picked Sam up from school at 12:40 pm today as it was an Early Release Day. We brought him to Woods Hole for a dentist appointment which ended up being an erroneous entry in Heather’s calendar, but Sam was fine with that. He spent the entire afternoon playing with little Legos in our aft cabin. He can build with those things for hours. Then late in the afternoon, I convinced him that we needed to go out on deck to soak up some of the beautiful sunshine. He did his homework on the forward deck and as soon as we finished that, Jed showed up with Jonah. Then Heather and Ollie arrived. One thing led to another and the whole crew decided to stay for dinner and to spend the night. Heather had an evening meeting in Woods Hole and it sounded like fun to stay over. Unfortunately after we got the boys to bed, Jed started having an allergic reaction to the epoxy that we used in the aft cabin a week ago to repair the floor. He started swelling, so he was going to have to go home. The boys weren’t quite asleep when this decision was made, so they decided that they should go home as well. We feel terrible that the epoxy work prevented Jed from staying onboard. We were super careful, but it seems that if things were even in the same area when we were doing the work, they can affect him for two to three weeks.
by Judy Handley | Sep 23, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 324, Year 8: Sail South 2013
Date: Monday, September 23, 2013
Weather: Beautiful Day, but Windy and Cool
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
It is time to get serious about planning our sail south. I’ve decided to give our little trek a name—Sail South 2013. Last year at this time we were planning on sailing south to the Bahamas for the winter. But we only got as far as Little River, South Carolina, and decided to spend the winter there. And it was a great decision. We enjoyed spending time with my sister and brother-in-law, getting to know the folks in the North Strand Sail and Power Squadron, and living at Lightkeepers Marina. But I am determined that we will get further south this year. The plan is to arrive in Little River during the first or second week of November, stay a couple of weeks, and then by Thanksgiving, we should be ready to head offshore to Puerto Rico. It is a ten-day sail from Little River to Puerto Rico, so we hope to be there well before the middle of December. That’s the basic plan. Now we are starting to fill in the details. Late this afternoon, I came up with a three-week itinerary getting us to Little River by the 6th of November. I built in time to stop in the Chesapeake and visit with friends, so if the weather allows, we’ll use that plan. But if we can’t leave here on October 17th as planned, we will have to come up with Itinerary 2 and then 3 and so on, all depending on the weather. Since we have had no hurricane threats this year, I’m fearful that those will come just about the time we are ready to leave. If so, we’ll adjust, but hopefully we’ll get to Little River by the middle of November at the latest. I wrote out the meal plan for those three weeks and set aside time while we are here to cook things and get them frozen. We have only a three-day, two night offshore passage to the Delaware Bay and then the rest of the trip is one day at a time. So I can cook on the go. But it is always nice to have things in the freezer just in case of rough weather. I also made a list of those things that need to be done before we leave, so now it is time to start doing. Today I took some of my old teacher resource notebooks to Sam’s school in the hopes that teachers there can use them. Tomorrow I’ll take some to Jonah’s school. That will only get rid of a couple of boxes from storage, but it is a start. Tomorrow we have an appointment at a local consignment shop to place the last of the furniture from storage. Once that is gone, it will give us room to sort through things and pull out items we want to take to Justin and Jo in Puerto Rico. They actually leave England tomorrow and fly to their new home on the island of Culebra in Puerto Rico. The following week they fly to New Mexico to get their pets and by the 9th of October Justin says they should be settled in Culebra with Ziggy’s chiquaqua Honey, their big dog Alfie, their medium-sized dog Lulu, and their two cats! The chiquaqua and the two cats fly on the plane with them, but Alfie and Lulu have to fly on cargo planes. I’m sure their next two weeks are going to be crazy, but we wish them the best of luck in making this move. And we look forward to seeing them when we arrive in Puerto Rico in December.
While I was writing up our sailing itinerary and making meal plans, Mark was on the computer and on the phone trying to find the best price for a gyro for our autopilot. Another term for this is a heading sensor–a three-dimensional gyroscope that is done within a computer chip that sends information on boat pitch (hobby-horsing ), roll (rocking side-to-side movement), and yaw (bow swinging from side to side) to the autopilot. This type of gyroscope used to be a large instrument and it seems amazing that this is now all done inside a little computer chip. The information on boat movement is sensed ‘magically’ by the chip and is send to the autopilot. This allows the autopilot to more readily adapt to the current conditions and sail a more direct and precise course. We found last season that Windbird was very hard to steer in the Intracoastal Waterway. We had to be at the helm every minute because the autopilot was allowing us to waver from side to side in the very narrow channel. While that amount of wavering in our course is no problem when out to sea, in the narrow waterway it is huge problem. At the end of the afternoon Mark ordered an Airmar Heading Sensor from iMarine in California. The company that manufactures this, Airmar, is in South Carolina about 80 miles from Myrtle Beach. They claim this device will maintain a heading with no more than one degree of deviation in calm conditions and two degrees in dynamic (rough) conditions. We figure if we get it installed and then have problems on the way to South Carolina, we can go right to the company and get advice once we arrive there.
Mark also spent time this afternoon talking to ‘neighbors’ and finding a mooring for us from October 7 to the 17th. Woods Hole Marine is shutting down early this year as Buzz, the owner, is heading south as well. We have to be off our mooring by October 7th, but our neighbor, Bob Morris, thinks the powerboat that is on his mooring presently will be out of the water by then. And if not, he had a couple of other options. So we are going to have a home in Eel Pond until we leave. And then Mark put our current dinghy up for sale on Craig’s List. He also made a one-page ad that we can post in the village. Even though our current dinghy is very ‘well used’ it could still have some life if someone was willing to go to the trouble of putting in TubeSeal. I took photos of Mark in the dinghy that he used in the ad and I’m posting them here for posterity. Our AB dinghy has been our constant companion since 2005 and we are going to miss her. It was the perfect dinghy for sailing around the world. Our new West Marine dinghy arrives on Friday and has a lot to live up to. We will embrace the new as we sadly say goodbye to the old.
We are making progress. One job at a time, we will get ready for Sail South 2013.
by Judy Handley | Sep 22, 2013 | Cape Cod, USA, Sailing Logs Year 8 |
Day 323, Year 8: Fun in Downtown Falmouth
Date: Sunday, September 22, 2013
Weather: Overcast and Rainy Early, Clearing Late Afternoon
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Today was our “Fun in downtown Falmouth” day with grandkids. We spent the early part of the rainy morning on Windbird with Sam, Jonah, and Heather. Oliver made it through the night at home without mommy and Jed was able to keep him entertained this morning until he came to Woods Hole at 10:30 am to pick up Heather, Sam, and Jonah. We all then met at the Falmouth Town Center and went to the Family Amusements Center to go candlepin bowling. Bowling is one of those games that I am just not able to master. I always manage to get the lowest score of anyone I’m playing with and today was no exception. But it was fun, nonetheless. We had pizza for lunch and then Heather and Jed took the boys for a drive in hopes of letting them get a mini-nap before the next activity. At 2 pm we went to the Falmouth First Congregational Church to hear the Cadet Glee Club of the US Coast Guard Academy from New London, Connecticut. This was a definite gray hair event. There were only seven children in attendance including our three. But our boys were very well-behaved. They didn’t last through the whole program, but I think they enjoyed what they saw. The Glee Club opened with the national anthem and Jonah immediately joined right in. He loves singing the Star-bangled Banner and it was a shame to have to quiet him. But he enjoyed listening and heard yet another rendition of this song.
