by Judy Handley | Jul 12, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 264, Year 9: Dinner with the Crew of Reveille
Date: Saturday, July 12, 2014
Weather: Gorgeous Day, High Temp in the Low 80’s
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, Massachusetts
The weather today was just gorgeous—sunny, calm seas, winds building in the afternoon. It would have been a great day to go sailing. Unfortunately, we had chores to do and had planned to go sailing tomorrow. But the forecast has changed and it might be too windy. We’ll wait until morning and see how things look. Friends Jim Hammitt and Suzy Klein sailed over today from Padenarum across Buzzard’s Bay and it was Jim who let us know that the forecast is now predicting 20-30 knot winds tomorrow afternoon. We had planned on going on a lazy sail with Heather, Jed, and boys, but it won’t be lazy with winds like that. If we go early enough, we might avoid the heaviest winds. We shall see.
Today we woke up to no wind, so we took Windbird to the dock to fill the water tanks and wash her down. After we returned to the mooring, we then took the dinghy in to give it a good wash down. We need to get the UV protectorant on it, but it has to be clean first. So step one is done and maybe I’ll get the UV protectorant on it early Monday morning. After cleaning the dinghy, we delivered the ‘goodies’ we bought yesterday for Heather and Jed—deck chairs, food, laundry detergent—and we switched cars. Once we had our old blue Taurus back, we headed to storage to empty the back that has been stuffed for the past couple of weeks.
This evening Jim and Suzy came over for a shared dinner. Suzy brought a delicious salad and we grilled salmon and had corn-on-the-cob. It was a perfect summer dinner and a great chance to catch up on what has been happening in our lives for the past few months.
by Judy Handley | Jul 11, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 263, Year 9: Another Trip to Boston
Date: Friday, July 11, 2014
Weather: Mostly Sunny, High Temp Still in the Upper 80’s
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, Massachusetts
Today Mark made his second trip of the week to Boston and this time I was able to go with him. The purpose of the trip was to meet with his oncologist and get the report from Tuesday’s CT scan. This post-surgery scan will be used as a new baseline for comparison of future scans. The pre-surgery scan showed some things in the lungs that had not been there previously, but they are gone now and were probably caused by the upper respiratory infections Mark had through the winter. Today Mark also got to talk with his surgeon, Dr. Ferrone. She saw him in the room where he was getting blood work done and popped in to check him out. She feels like he is doing great and Dr. Kwak, his oncologist, feels the same way. So even though we feel the recovery is taking a very long time, they think our expectations are just too high. They both keep emphasizing that this was a ‘big’ surgery and that the internal healing will continue for the next few weeks. Mark will return the end of September for the next scan and if all is still fine, he’ll get the okay for sailing south for the winter.
This morning we went to Heather and Jed’s early. Heather had to leave at 5:45 am this morning to travel to the outer Cape to go out on the Charles W. Morgan for the day. This whaling ship was first launched in 1841 and has recently been restored to its original state. We didn’t get to talk to her tonight, so we’ll have to get the report of her trip tomorrow. Anyway, Mark and I had Ollie and Jonah when Jed went to work and took Sam to his summer science class. At 10 am, Mark and I took Ollie and Jonah to Woods Hole to get Sam and then we went marsh mucking again. Today we went to the marsh on the back side of Chappaquoit Beach in West Falmouth. And again the three boys had a great time collecting crabs and just running through the mud flats. We got home in time for a late lunch and then Jed came home early to take over while Mark and I made a mad dash for Boston. His appointment was at 3:20 pm. Luckily we had very little traffic, so we made it exactly on time. After the appointment, we headed to Cambridge to do some shopping at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, went to Harvard Square to have dinner, and then started the trek home after the rush hour and weekend traffic had thinned out. We made additional stops at Costco and Ikea on the way and timed things so that once again, we had no traffic. We returned home laden with food and new deck chairs for Heather and Jed. So it was a successful day on all counts.
by Judy Handley | Jul 10, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 262, Year 9: Happy Birthday, Patsy
Date: Thursday, July 10, 2014
Weather: Mostly Sunny, No Wind, High in the Upper 80’s F
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, Massachusetts
Happy birthday to my sister Patsy. I won’t mention her age, but I will say that I attended her 80th birthday party last summer. Unfortunately, Patsy had to spend her birthday at the dentist dealing with an abscessed tooth. Ouch! Not a very happy birthday present. We will be traveling to Williamsburg, Virginia in a couple of weeks for a Martin Family (my family) vacation and we’ll have to have a little birthday celebration then.
Our day started on a positive note. Before Mark’s surgery, we had tried to get our watermaker working with no luck. It actually worked but was pulling water into the pump but then pushing it back out (because the check valve was not working). At least Mark figured it was a problem with the check valve but didn’t have time to work on it until today. It took about one minute to remove a hose and stick a little screwdriver in to help seat the valve. Now we can start making water again. Hurray! We have two water tanks and one of them is empty now. We will take the boat to the dock this weekend to fill up and then we will try to run the water maker when we run the engine to charge and hope that will keep us in water from now on.
As we do each summer weekday, at 10 am we drove to Woods Hole to meet Jed (who delivers Jonah and Ollie to us), and to pick Sam up from his School of Science class. Today his class walked to the beach and watched periwinkles race. Periwinkles are marine snails encased in spiral shells about the size of a marble. At low tide, you find them grasping on to rocks. As with all snails, they move very slowly, so watching them race takes lots of patience. You mark your snail with a tiny dab of fingernail polish and then let it go. Sam enjoyed the races and when we picked him up he was ready for more fun at the beach. Jonah and Ollie agreed, so off we went to Woodneck. This is a sandy Buzzard’s Bay beach with sand dunes separating it from a huge mudflat area. It was the mudflat area that the boys were interested in as it makes for great marsh exploration at low tide. And it was nearing low tide when we arrived. We basically had the whole marsh to ourselves for the first hour and the boys collected lots of crabs—green crabs, fiddler crabs, hermit crabs, and baby horseshoe crabs. Sam and Jonah take this job very seriously and they set up a row of buckets on Sam’s body board and call this their lab. They become scientists and gather specimens as they pull around their traveling lab. Granddad discovered the secret to finding the horseshoe crabs and it didn’t take long for both Sam and Jonah to find their own. You just walk along in the shallow water and look for the trail in the sand left by the horseshoe crab as it moves along. Then look for the bump in the sand at the end of the trail and gently dig down and lift up the baby crab. They found one the size of the end of your thumb. So tiny. We shared our treasures with other people and they shared theirs with us. Some people with nets were finding pipe fish and others said they were finding small shrimp. When we were ready to leave we prepared to release our finds, but other children were so interested in seeing the various crabs that we let them take our catch with the promise that they would release the creatures soon. Next time we’ll take nets and see what other treasures we can discover.
by Judy Handley | Jul 9, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 261, Year 9: Backyard Soccer and Downtown Street Fair
Date: Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Winds Settling Some, High in the Low 80’s F
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, Massachusetts
I started my day with a one hour walk with Jane Woodin. She walks every Wednesday morning and I am going to try and join her on most Wednesdays. It is great exercise and a nice time for Jane and I to catch up on the week’s happenings. From there I went to pick Sam up from The School of Science and we then went to Quissett to pick up Granddad. He is still not supposed to pull the cord to start the dinghy motor, so Sam and I motored out to get him. He talked with his surgeon’s office assistant today and was told that he can now eat what he wants, can drive, and can pick up more than five pounds. I think we’ll keep the ban on starting the dinghy engine in effect for now, but otherwise, he can function normally. He still has to take pain meds at night and the doctor said this is normal for the type of surgery he had and might continue for a few more weeks. Ollie was so very happy today because Granddad could pick him up. He beamed that beautiful smile of his and said, “Granddad all better now. He pick me up.”
Jed’s mother, Marti, left this morning. Sam, Jonah, and Ollie really enjoyed her visit and they hope she will come back soon, maybe at the end of the summer. They will be going to Maine in mid-August and will see her then. Jonah wrote about Grammy in his journal this afternoon. He was so excited that she helped him practice passing a ball and play Frisbee. In Grammy’s absence, Granddad spent the better part of the afternoon in the backyard playing soccer with Sam and Jonah. There were lots of squeals of delight every time a goal was made. I’m not sure what ‘brand’ of soccer they played as the final score was 19-18, but whatever, it involved making lots of goals.
In the late afternoon, we drove the three boys downtown to meet Heather for the annual street fair. We walked the main street looking at all of the exhibits while eating popcorn and drinking lemonade. Sam and Jonah each connected with a couple of friends and they collected ‘treasures’—a worry stone made from Quahog shell, a box of candies that looked like sliced fruit, and new placemats for the dinner table. The place mats each had a different fish/lobster print and will make a most colorful addition to the dinner table.
We are starting to make plans for our trip to Williamsburg, Virginia in two weeks. We will drive down with Heather, Jed, and boys for five days of fun with my family. Figuring out which route to use to drive South and whether to drive straight through or spend the night somewhere are decisions we have to make. I can’t believe how fast the summer is passing. I guess we are just having too much fun.
by Judy Handley | Jul 8, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 260, Year 9: Mark to Boston; Grandkids with Grammy & Oma
Date: Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Weather: Sunny, Windy, High in the Low 80’s F
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, Massachusetts
Today Mark headed to Boston to have his post-surgery baseline CT scan. They do this just to document what things look like after surgery. They will use this CT scan on which to base the results of future scans. Mark took the bus to Boston and after his late afternoon scan, he took public transportation to the airport to pick up the car that Jed left there on Sunday when he flew to Washington. This is the first time Mark has driven since his surgery and all went well.
I drove Mark to Woods Hole to catch the bus to Boston just before noon and then I headed to Heather and Jed’s. Jed’s mom, who the kids call Grammy, was holding down the fort until I got there. All three boys were so excited to be with her. I got Ollie down for his nap and then I left again to go to the public library to pick up the required wrist bands for a special science presentation at 3 pm. By the time I returned Ollie was up from his nap and everyone was ready to go. So off the grandmothers went with the three boys. The show was really not appropriate for a two year-old, so Ollie and I hung out in the Children’s Room at the library while Grammy, Sam, and Jonah enjoyed the show.
Marti, AKA Grammy, leaves tomorrow morning headed to Maine for the summer and life here will return to some sort of normal state. I say that because I really don’t think there is such a thing as normal. We never seem to have the same the schedule for two days in a row . . . so we just have to go with the flow!
by Judy Handley | Jul 7, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 259, Year 9: Happy Birthday to Mark
Date: Monday, July 7, 2014
Weather: Sunny, Still Windy, High in the Low 80’s F
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, Massachusetts
We have been celebrating for three days, but today was actually Mark’s birthday. I think we’ve decided that after 65, you should only have big celebrations every 5 years—65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95, 100! On the in-between years you just keep things low key, so that is what we did this year. Tonight we had a birthday dinner at Heather and Jed’s with Jed’s mother, Marti, with us. She and Jed had a quick trip north today from Washington, DC, and arrived before 4 pm. Unfortunately Kevin and Claire did not have the same quick trip home yesterday. It took them 11 hours, but they did make it safely. But back to the birthday, we had a great dinner tonight and Mark got lots of calls and emails from friends and family. So Happy Birthday, Mark!
