by Judy Handley | Apr 24, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 185, Year 9: W-I-N-D
Date: Thursday, April 24, 2014
Weather: High Temp in the 50’s F
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, Massachusetts
Okay. I’ve said over and over that I am sick of being sick. But now I am going to add wind, very strong wind, to my list of things that I am sick of. It is always windy here in the springtime, but we have been having 45 to 50 mile per hour winds over and over and over again in the past few weeks. Mark and I have started feeling like we are back in South Africa. I don’t know if the weather folks would agree with us, but it sure feels like stronger winds are blowing than are normal for here. Last night was especially windy and the winds continued to blow all day. Finally, late this evening, things settled down. So at least we should have a quiet night for sleeping.
Even with the sunshine today, and temps in the 50’s, we had to wear our winter coats outside most of the day due to the wind chill. Or at least Ollie and I wore our winter coats. Sam wears short-sleeved shirts all winter, but even he put on a long-sleeved shirt. Mark worked at West Marine today, and Heather went to work but didn’t drive to Boston as planned. Her bout with this ‘cold’, or whatever we have, has gotten worse and worse and last night she started having severe pain in her ears. So after a half day at work, she came home, took a short nap, and then drove to Hyannis to see her doctor. She was given an antibiotic for a sinus infection. I probably need the same, but I will give it a few more days before I succumb and to the doctor.
by Judy Handley | Apr 23, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 184, Year 9: Ice Pellets Falling from the Sky
Date: Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Weather: High Temp in the 50’s F
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, Massachusetts
The weather continues to dominate our lives. Today we got rain, and I do mean lots of rain, and at one point the rain turned into ice pellets falling from the sky, accompanied by thunder. The back deck at Heather’s was covered in little pearl-sized ice balls. But thankfully, and quickly, the ice turned back into rain. Heather and I fear that all of the seeds planted yesterday were washed away by the heavy rain. Tomorrow I am home with Sam and Ollie and the sun is supposed to shine. So we will venture into the backyard to access the damage caused in the garden.
As suspected, I was not able to put another coat of varnish on the cockpit coaming cap rail today because of the rain. And the current weather forecast looks like I might have trouble finding three days between now and the time we have to take the plastic cover off Windbird (about nine days from now) so she can be hauled out for bottom painting. Boat work is always challenging in the Northeast in the spring and early summer. But surely in that time period I can find at least one more sunny day which will allow at least one more coat of varnish. Three is better than none and I just might have to be satisfied with that.
This afternoon while Heather took Sam and Jonah to the public library for a Lego building fest, Ollie and I drove to Hyannis to try and register the new (new in the fall) dinghy. Unfortunately, we missed the detail that we had to present a pencil rubbing or photograph of the metal plate that has the serial number imprinted on it. Thankfully, I was able to process everything and now just have to send in the rubbing. It would have felt like a very long drive in the rain if nothing had been accomplished.
by Judy Handley | Apr 22, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 183, Year 9: Lee Kaufman—Happy Birthday
Date: Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Weather: Partly Sunny with a High Temp in the 50’s F
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, Massachusetts
At least we think today is Lee’s birthday. And Lee, if it is not your birthday, we hope you had a happy day anyway!
The weather today was again spring-like. It was cooler and cloudier than yesterday, but still a grand day. And so, no matter how bad any of us felt, we chose today to be the day to plant the garden. So we did it and had a fun time doing it with little helpers from time to time. Of course, not everything can be planted now, only the cool weather crops, but that filled half the garden. We’re supposed to get rain tonight and again tomorrow afternoon. That would be just perfect to get those little seeds growing. While Heather and I were working in the garden, the boys were playing in the backyard. Somehow, as only little boys can do, they turned the plastic Easter eggs that held candy for them on Sunday into little dirt bombs. They were throwing them at the fence and on the ground, so we let them go at it. Soon, however, Jonah comes over to the garden to invite me to come have a drink of my coffee. I had left my coffee cup on the picnic bench in the yard when I started working in the garden. Jonah is a most caring child, but I immediately figured out why this invitation was being offered. I say to Jonah, “Don’t tell me you dirt bombed my coffee.” Jonah replies, with a most mischievous grin, “Okay, I won’t.” And he walked away. You had to be there to see Jonah’s facial expressions and hear the expression in his voice to fully appreciate this. But both Heather and I went into hysterical laughter at the same time. So maybe Jonah is a budding comedian. His timing is perfect. And, indeed, a little dirt bomb had left its traces in my coffee.
The rest of the day was business as usual. Mark sanded the cockpit coaming cap rail and I varnished it before I took him to work. I then went to Heather and Jed’s and spent the rest of the day there. Jed took Sam and Jonah to the public library for a special art activity and Heather, Ollie, and I napped in the afternoon. Hopefully the extra rest is going to help us get rid of these awful colds that we have. Jed is now getting it, so Mark and Sam are the only holdouts.
by Judy Handley | Apr 21, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 183, Year 9: Gone Fishin’
Date: Sunday, April 21, 2014
Weather: Sunny with a High Temp of 60 degrees F
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, Massachusetts
The public schools here are closed this week for spring vacation. Ollie and Jonah are always at home on Monday and today Sam joined them. So mid-afternoon, Mark and I went over to see if we could do something fun with the boys. Jed needed to go to work for a bit and Heather was trying to get Ollie down for a nap, so Mark and I took the boys to get a Dairy Queen swirl cone and we were off to Fiddler’s Cove to go fishing. We went by the house to leave a “Gone Fishin’” sign, but I was unsuccessful in sneaking in the house without Heather hearing me. Ollie couldn’t breathe when she tried lay him down for a nap, so she was just holding him. He wanted to go with us, but was just not feeling good enough. It was just too pretty to stay inside, so he convinced Heather to take the big wooden rocking chair outside to rock! That must have been an interesting site. We didn’t have much luck fishing in the cove, but it was fun to try. And both boys reminded us that it takes ‘patience’ to fish. They are certainly right about that.
I am sick of being sick. I have had some sort of upper respiratory issue since November, but I now have a full-blown cold. The boys have actually been healthier this winter than in the past, but you couldn’t tell that by our situation this week. Ollie and I were both worse today. Jonah is recovering and Heather says she feels a bit better, but she is still not able to go to work. Sam, Jed, and Mark have escaped so far, and let’s just hope they can be spared. This is no fun and certainly no way to spend the spring vacation week! But we are trying to make the best of it. Since Windbird comes out of the water two weeks from today for bottom painting, the plastic bubble we have been living in will have to come off. And before that happens, I really wanted to get the cockpit coaming varnished. So that process started today. Mark sanded and taped and I varnished. That is coat # 1. Tomorrow morning before Mark goes to work and I go to help out with the kids and do some gardening, we will sand and do varnish coat #2. I need to get at least five coats of varnish on, so we will continue this process on the days when it is not raining. Even though we are under cover, if you varnish when it is raining, the humidity is too high and the resultant finish will not be as good. It is supposed to rain tomorrow night and Wednesday afternoon but Thursday and Friday look great. So hopefully I’ll get this project completed before the cover comes off.
After we finished the varnishing project, Mark and Lee Kaufman down in Little River, South Carolina, tried to contact each other via ham radio. We haven’t used the radio much at all since we returned in the summer of 2011 and the attempts today weren’t all that successful. So thank goodness for telephones. Mark and Lee stayed on the phone while giving each other directions for which station to try next. We can hear Lee better than he can hear us, but we are going to have to keep working on this.
by Judy Handley | Apr 20, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 182, Year 9: Easter Sunday
Date: Saturday, April 20, 2014
Weather: Another Gorgeous Day, Slightly Cooler, High Temp 55 degrees F
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, Massachusetts
It was Easter Sunday and this always calls for an Easter egg hunt. So as soon as we got up, we headed to Heather and Jed’s to witness the fun. When we arrived there was a wild rabbit sitting under a bush very near the front door. We took photos and he just sat there for us, so we decided this must have been the real Easter bunny. Sam and Jonah had been watching the rabbit through the front window and they came up with the same conclusion. When you have a two, an almost five, and a seven year-old, coming up with a fair way of hunting for Easter eggs can be quite tricky. But Heather came up with a masterful plan for this morning. Sam is really into his hand-held compass, so he was given a card with directions to each egg, i.e., “From the front step walk E exactly 20 steps.” Jonah was given photographs of things in the area where his eggs were hidden (which wasn’t as easy as it seemed), and Sam and Jonah were told not to pick up eggs that were not part of their directions as those were for Ollie. The system worked great and avoided the oldest child finding all the eggs. After the hunt, we had some wonderful French pastries that Jed picked up from Maison Villatte, the French bakery on Main Street that I didn’t even know existed. Then Mark was off to work and I played in the backyard with the boys for a while before heading home. Heather, Jed, and boys then came out to Fiddler’s Cove for dinner. We ended the evening by each decorating our own carrot cake carrot-shaped cookies. It was a delightful day except for the fact that Heather and I are suffering from the same bug that had Jonah in its grips last week. Ollie also has some version of it and tonight Sam felt a little hot. Hopefully he will not be the next to succumb. Heather has been hit the worst. So here’s hoping that these sunny days will bring health to us all.
by Judy Handley | Apr 19, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 181, Year 9: Boat Work
Date: Saturday, April 19, 2014
Weather: Gorgeous Day with a High Temp of 60 degree F
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, Massachusetts
Today rivaled last Saturday as a drop-dead gorgeous spring day with warm temps. Mark didn’t have to work at West Marine, so we took advantage of his presence and the weather to take down all of the cockpit enclosure panels and the bimini cover. These all went out onto the dock so I could scrub the Sunbrella trim with a solution of Tide and Clorox to get rid of any mildew spots. Over a year’s period, it is inevitable that there will be mildew spots and today was the perfect weather for this boat work. Mark took the panels down and put them out on the dock. I did the scrubbing and found a way to hang them to dry. We left the dodger cover in place and once I was done cleaning the pieces on the dock, I moved inside and cleaned the dodger inside and out. When the bimini cover was dry, Mark got out the SailRite sewing machine and started his annual repairs. The machine was giving him fits, so that job is “to be continued.” Tonight all of the cockpit enclosure curtains are rolled up neatly for storage in the v-berth and the metal framing for the bimini cover has been removed so the cockpit coaming is ready to be sanded and varnished. This is the varnished trim that encircles the cockpit. Mark works tomorrow and we are then having Heather and gang over for Easter dinner. So boat work is on hold until Monday.
