by Judy Handley | May 18, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 209, Year 9: Sunday in Quissett Harbor
Date: Sunday, May 18, 2014
Weather: Beautiful Day
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, Massachusetts
It was a beautiful day here in Quissett Harbor. The harbor is still basically empty, but that will change over the next month. Most of the moorings are still not put out for the summer, so it is a very special, quiet time. As we drove to shore in the dinghy to take Mark to work, we noted just how very different from Woods Hole it feels here. Woods Hole feels like the quintessential New England village that it is. Quissett feels much more like a quiet anchorage in Maine. I had invited the boys out for the day, but only Sam and Ollie came. Jonah decided he wanted to stay home with momma and daddy. And the separation was good for everyone. Sam, Ollie, and I had a beautiful, laid back day together. And ‘laid back’ is not a term usually used in conjunction with Sam. He is always in high gear, but today he spent a lot of the day just studying the environment around him. Since most of the moorings are still not out, there are lots of sticks in the water marking those mooring spots. Sam wondered why the sticks lean a particular way. The GPS in the cockpit was on (it comes on at will) and he studied the chart of where we are and found the real life markings that matched those on the GPS chart. He drew pictures of the shore and did watercolors. And he fished. All of this happened while Ollie was taking a nap, and once Ollie was up we headed to shore to play. Sam drove us to shore and did an incredible job of getting us to our destination with no direction from me. All I have to do is start the dinghy motor and off he goes. His first experience at driving a dinghy was in Thailand two days before he was two years old. I have that photo, but unfortunately I don’t have any photos from today. But you have to take my word that today he looked so grown up and responsible. That is exciting and a little sad all at the same time. I just can’t believe how fast that oldest grandchild is growing up.
Heather and Jed arrived with Jonah just about the same time Granddad got home from work and we all had dinner aboard Windbird. Jonah was reluctant to sail with us yesterday and when he arrived in Quissett late this afternoon, he really didn’t want to come out to the boat. But once he was out here, he had a great time. And for the first time, he actually showed an interest in rowing the dinghy. He had Jed go out with him and he did a great job. He has never had the same interest in sailing as Sam, but this evening gave me hope that we can maybe turn this little land lover into a sailor yet.
by Judy Handley | May 17, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9
Day 208, Year 9: Strike That, Reverse It
Date: Saturday, May 17, 2014
Weather: Heavy Rain Early, Then Clouds, Fog, Sunshine, Wind
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, Massachusetts
Yesterday’s log was named “Gearing Up for a Weekend of Work.” Based on weather reports, I reported that we had decided to not move the boat this weekend. Instead we were going to spend the weekend doing many work jobs on the boat that need to be done. Well, you can strike that and reverse it. We are now on a mooring in Quissett Harbor, our new home for the summer. The weather report was right on with heavy rain at 7 am, but three hours later at 10 o’clock, the rain was long gone, the wind seemed to have died down a bit, and the sun was coming out. Mark and I looked at each other and then I asked the question, “Should we take advantage of the weather and the 10:30 am high tide and get out of ‘Dodge’? We both knew the answer, so I called Heather and Jed to see if they wanted to come along. Heather was at a Master Planter’s garden plant sale with Sam and Jonah, but they made a quick turn-around, dropped off a car at Quissett, and were onboard Windbird before Mark and I had everything ready. We really weren’t prepared to leave, but it’s always a good test of your readiness ability to see if in one hour you can go from winter live aboard status to sailing status. Jonah was a bit tentative about going as he remembered the couple of bouts of mild seasickness he experienced last year. But he finally agreed to come along if we would motor and not put up the sails. We agreed and off we went. There will be plenty of time for sailing throughout the summer. By 11:30 am were untied and backing out of the slip. We were headed SW and had SW winds against current making for choppy seas. We did a little hobby horsing and then it either settled down or we got used to it. Everything inside the boat was fine, so I guess we live “ready to sail.” We had one unexpected experience on the way to when we motored into a wall of fog, but Sam and Jonah just had me get out the fog horn and we watched carefully. Just before we reached the entrance to Quissett Harbor, the fog lifted and the sun came out. It took us exactly two hours to motor the almost 9 miles from Fiddler’s Cove, so by 1:30 pm we were picking up a mooring. It was then time to put the motor on the dinghy so we could travel to shore and go get the two cars we left at Fiddler’s Cove. We had the motor professional winterized and thought it would just start right up, but when Mark tried to pull the cord to start the engine, it wouldn’t budge. A few tools and a half an hour later, he got the motor running. When he was working, I got a phone call. It was Jim Hammitt, a sailing friend from the Boston area who keeps his boat across Buzzard’s Bay at Padenarum. Jim is a Professor of Economics and Decision Making at Harvard and is Co-Director of Harvard’s Center for Risk Analysis. I could only hear every other word as my phone has almost no signal here, but I heard enough to understand that he was on shore watching Mark trying to start to the dinghy motor. I never did see him but he could certainly see us. The National Academy of Sciences Jonsson Conference Center is located on land just east of where we are moored and he was just getting ready to leave after attending a couple of days of meetings. Unfortunately we needed to get to Fiddler’s Cove to get the cars so Heather could go home and check on the two new hives of bees, so we didn’t have time to visit with Jim. But hopefully he and Suzie will sail over soon so we can visit. Since they won’t have to time their arrival to come through the Woods Hole Cut with the tide, we might see more of them this season. In fact, this harbor has almost immediate access to Buzzard’s Bay which doesn’t have the strong currents we had in the Vineyard Sound. So I think we will do more sailing this year. But because we are open to the bay, the dinghy ride to and from shore this summer will be rougher. Eel Pond in Woods Hole was so very protected and we were spoiled by that. So we have easier access to sailing, but potentially rougher and longer transportation to shore. You win some, you lose some.
While Mark, Jed, and I drove to Fiddler’s Cove to get the other two cars, Heather took all three boys for a walk out to the Knob and back to the beach. It is a lovely walk and I’m sure we’ll do it many, many times this summer. When we returned, Heather, Jed, and boys headed home and Mark and I headed into town to buy a new pair of sneakers for Mark. When he got home from work yesterday, his feet were killing him. So we are hoping a new pair of New Balance running shoes with super cushiony insoles will do the trick. Mark also bought a new water pump, so tonight we have running water once again. But we discovered one thing this afternoon that we hadn’t counted on, or maybe I should say that we had counted on. It doesn’t appear that we have access to fresh water at the dock. We just took that for granted. But we see no evidence that water is available. For a short time, I was convinced that we would have to find another home for the summer. How could we possibly live aboard without access to water to fill our tanks? I started thinking about sailing around the world and wondering how in the world we did that without easy access to water. Then I remembered that, oh yes, we have a watermaker. We haven’t used it since we returned here in 2011, but this harbor is open enough to have good clean water with no oil residue (or at least we hope that is the case), so we should be able to get the watermaker going and have a ready supply of H2O. And we have internet access. So life is good.
by Judy Handley | May 16, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 207, Year 9: Gearing Up for a Weekend of Work
Date: Friday, May 16, 2014
Weather: Partly Cloudy, Winds Increasing
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, Massachusetts
We have totally abandoned the idea of moving the boat this weekend. The weather tomorrow still promises to be messy—very windy from the southwest and a 100 per cent chance of rain early, decreasing as the day continues. But it doesn’t sound like the day we would choose for the first sail of the season. We checked in with the marina this morning and they are fine with us staying here for another week, so we are going to shoot for moving next Saturday in the late afternoon. High tide next Saturday is between 4 and 5 pm, so we’ll try to leave here mid-afternoon with a rising tide. In the meantime, we have lots of work we can do while we are still here at a dock. I have a zillion cleaning jobs on my to-do list and all of them require water. I have put these jobs off as long as possible, but better to get them done while we are here and hooked up to a hose. Once we are on a mooring for the summer, jobs requiring lots of water means transporting lots of water from shore—no fun at all. Mark will work on our water pump tomorrow to see if he can get the pressure water working once again and then he will work on a new consulting job. He is one busy guy!
by Judy Handley | May 15, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 206, Year 9: Laid Back Day with Ollie
Date: Thursday, May 15, 2014
Weather: Partly Cloudy, Daytime High in the 60’s F, Low in the 50’s
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, Massachusetts
Sam gets well, Ollie gets sick. It’s that cycle. Ollie just didn’t feel great today, so we had a very laid back day. We played outside until about 10:30 this morning when he commanded, “Inside, Oma.” It was early, but he was ready for a little lunch and a nap. Heather went to Boston today and when she left this morning Ollie wanted to go with her. When we came in for lunch, he also wanted momma. When a little guy isn’t feeling good, there’s no replacement for momma, but I did my best. I was burbling chicken mineral broth on the stove so Ollie drank a little of that and then crawled up on my shoulder and asked me to go “rock, rock.” He fell asleep almost immediately but was unsettled. I decided that the best thing for both of us was for me to just hold him while he slept, and so I did for the next two and half hours. When he woke up, he seemed to feel much better but still had a bit of temp. In the meantime, Jed had come home and was working on his computer in the kitchen. He had a wisdom tooth extracted this morning and decided working at home was the best option for him. We divided duties for the remainder of the afternoon. He went to pick Sam up from school and then Ollie, Sam, and I drove to Woods Hole to pick up Jonah. We then played outside while Jed got dinner ready for the boys.
When I was holding Ollie while he napped, Justin called. Evidently Ziggy is fully into robot mode and Justin was telling him about a robotic arm he had when he was a little boy. It was an Armatron Robot Arm. And Justin also told him about Capselas that he had. These were spherical plastic capsules with gears and motors that could be connected to form static or movable creations. This sounded very exciting to Ziggy so Justin called to see if we still have these toys in storage. We do and recently I checked them out thinking I might send them to Ziggy for his birthday. I didn’t do that, but at least I know right where these things are and I will send them to Ziggy now. Evidently he was ecstatic and dancing around with praises for Oma. Now I know why we have paid more than $15,000 in storage fees over the past eleven years!
I’m watching Mark brush his teeth before he goes to bed because he’s having to do this in the galley sink using the foot pump to get water. Yesterday something happened to our water pump and it runs almost constantly when it is on. Mark doesn’t have time to deal with it right now, so we just turned off the pressure water and are using the one foot pump that we have that still works—the one in the galley. The list of things we need to get done on the boat seems to be mounting as our move to Quissett Harbor grows nearer. The weather for Saturday just does not look good, so we are going to talk to the manager here at Fiddler’s Cove to see if we can stay an extra week. That would give us time to do some of these mounting jobs and hopefully give us a better weather window for the trip next Saturday. If we can’t stay here, then we’ll move the boat on Sunday morning of this weekend. Mark can help us get Windbird out of this tiny little harbor and we can then bring him back to the dock in the dinghy so he can get to work on time. We (me, Heather, Jed, and boys) will then continue on to Quissett. At least that’s the plan at this moment.
by Judy Handley | May 14, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 205, Year 9: Of Bees and Food
Date: Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Weather: Partly Sunny, High in the Lower 60’s F
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, Massachusetts
This new vegetarian diet is driving me over the edge with the amount of chopping and zesting and juicing and more chopping, chopping, and chopping. But the food is good. And if eating colorful food is good for you, we should be very healthy. Tonight’s North African Chick Peas and Veggies dish was especially colorful—red peppers, green cilantro, green zucchini, yellow squash, bright yellow lemon zest, and red paprika.
The weather today was a bit warmer than yesterday. This is the day of the week that Heather is normally home, but she had an interview this morning and I went over to play with Jonah and Oliver in the backyard. We did a little gardening and played a game of mom, dad, and baby. This is the game that Jonah normally plays with next-door-neighbor Molly, but today I had to be Molly’s stand-in as ‘mom.’ Obviously Jonah was dad and Oliver was baby. We lived on a boat and fished for our food. Sometimes ‘mom’ could escape to the garden to do some work, but soon I would have to return to take my turn fishing. Jonah takes his pretend play very seriously, so Ollie and I did just what we were told. When we stopped for a lunch break, Heather returned home. Ollie went down for a nap and then Heather and Jonah got on their bee keeper’s gear and went out to check on the bees. The new bees, two hives worth, arrived on Saturday and seem to be doing great. After Ollie woke up from naptime, we all made a trip to the supermarket. From there, I headed out to do some additional shopping chores and made a quick trip back to Windbird to start the dinner preparations. I didn’t get too far before it was time to head back into town to pick up Mark, but at least I got a bit of a head start.
We are not sure what we are going to do about moving the boat to Quissett Harbor on Saturday. Right now the weather report looks horrid with high winds and rain. If we don’t move it on Saturday, we have to wait another week as Mark has no days off in the meantime. We’ll check tomorrow morning to see if we can stay here an additional week. If not, maybe Heather, Jed, and I will have to move the boat on Sunday without Captain Mark.
by Judy Handley | May 13, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 204, Year 9: The Unavoidable Cycle
Date: Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Weather: Mostly Cloudy and Cool, High in the 50’s F
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, Massachusetts
Sam has fought valiantly to escape this cold that has caused us all so much grief. But when we arrived this morning, we found that Sam wasn’t going to school as he came down with the “thing” yesterday. The hope is that we won’t all get sick again, but it is probably an unavoidable cycle. As long as kids are going to school, they are going to bring every germ home with them. But I can still hope that Sam recovers quickly and that none of the rest of us gets sick again.
Once again the weather was dominant today as the beautiful, warm weather of the past two days turned back into cloudy weather that felt cold. Ollie, Sam, and I had a good day. Despite the nasty weather, Ollie and I did a little gardening and Sam busied himself with little indoor projects. He actually took a nap when Ollie did, and hopefully the extra rest will help him fight this thing. He really wants to help move Windbird from Fiddler’s Cove to Quissett on Saturday, so I hope he is better by then. But the move could be delayed due to the weather. At this point Saturday looks rainy and windy, but that could all change. So we will wait and see.
