by Judy Handley | Feb 11, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 114, Year 9: Whew Whoo—We Made It!
Date: Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Weather: Mostly Sunny, 85 degrees F
Location: Visiting with Justin and Jo in Culebra, Puerto Rico
The absolute best image from today is one I did not catch on camera as I was participating in the event. You have to image Heather, Jed, Sam, Jonah, Ollie, Mark and I at the ferry terminal in Fajardo, Puerto Rico. Then you have to imagine that they have called passengers to board the ferry to Culebra. Here we go. Jed, wearing a full backpack, is walking in front pulling a carry-on bag with a heavy duffle bag on top of that while carrying a very heavy bag of groceries. Next comes Sam wearing his backpack while pulling Jed’s almost over-sized carry-on bag. Then comes Jonah wearing his backpack and carrying Heather’s bag of snack food for the day. Heather is next in line wearing a full backpack, carrying Ollie in a front pack, and pulling a very large bag of dive gear with a large bag of groceries tied to the handle. I follow Heather wearing my backpack while pulling a carry-on bag with a large bag of groceries tied to the handle. And Mark brings up the wear wearing his backpack and pushing a newly purchased dolly stacked high with boxes of food from our purchases at Costco while also carrying a large bag of groceries. What a sight! But we did it. We were successful in boarding the ferry with all that gear and no one had to go back to bring more things. Then the next best image of the day is all of getting of the ferry with the same loads of stuff and meeting Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco on the dock. It was 8:30 pm here (7:30 pm back home) and we had been up and on the go since 4 am. It was a very long day but things went off without a hitch. We had no flight delays and the three little Goldpebbles were all so, so, so, so, so, so very good. We had to take a shuttle bus from our hotel room to the airport in Boston, board our plane for a flight to Philadelphia, walk through a very large airport from terminal C to terminal A, board a plane headed to Puerto Rico and then fly there, take a van taxi from the San Juan airport to Coscto to do some serious shopping for the week, and then drive on to Fajardo in the van where we departed at the ferry terminal carrying a ridiculously large load of bags and groceries.
The three little ones were perfectly behaved for the first 12 hours of the day, but somewhere in Costco they got a bit rambunctious—but not enough to ruin an otherwise perfect day. Justin and Jo with Ziggy and Coco met us at the dock in Culebra and now the rest of history. We had a joyous reunion and will continue tomorrow.
by Judy Handley | Feb 10, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 113, Year 9: Crazed by Gummy Worms
Date: Monday, February 10, 2014
Weather: Partly Sunny, High in the 20’s
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, Massachusetts
As we crossed the Bourne Bridge, leaving Cape Cod behind, we had a spectacular red-orange-pink sunset. We stopped outside of Boston to have dinner and Sam and Jonah ordered Dirt Cake (chocolate pudding with crushed Oreos and Gummy Worms) for dessert. Ollie saw the Gummy Worms and asked if he could have one . . . and then another. Well, when we got to the hotel little Ollie, who had been so sleepy all through dinner, came alive. In fact, he was crazed. He took his clothes off and wanted to run up and down the hallway. We enticed him back into the room where we had turned on the TV for Sam and Jonah to watch a little of the Olympics before bed and men’s speed skating was on. One of the skaters was from Russia and the three boys broke into a spontaneous chant of “Go Russia.” And Ollie just couldn’t stop. No more Gummy Worms for that little one. He ran around the room chanting “Go Russia” for the next 20 minutes. The experts who say sugar doesn’t affect behavior should have been here tonight!
It’s early to rise in the morning to make the 5 am shuttle to the airport. Our flight is not until 7 am and we had hoped to get a 5:30 shuttle, but they only run on the hour. So 5 am it is. The weather forecast looks good, so here’s hoping we take off on time. We have to change planes in Philadelphia and then should arrive in San Juan at 2:30 pm. And definitely no Gummy Worms tomorrow.
by Judy Handley | Feb 9, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 112, Year 9: For the Birds
Date: Sunday, February 9, 2014
Weather: Mostly Overcast, Snow Flurries Early
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, Massachusetts
Today was one of those days when you feel like you got little done and the time simply flew away. So I’ll say it was ‘for the birds’ because the only thing of import that happened was a bird sighting. Late in the afternoon we went to Heather and Jed’s so Mark could hem a pair of pants for me on Heather’s sewing machine. Our SailRite seemed a bit of overkill for the job. When we got home, we startled two ducks from under the dock. One flew away and the other swam quickly away. I got a photo from a distance, but I’m not sure what I saw. I thought it was a Bufflehead which I have seen very few of this winter. But when I look at the photos, it looks more like a Merganser. I’m hoping my bird watching friends can help identify the mystery bird.
I’m hoping to complete the project I have been working on tomorrow and be ready for take-off by mid-afternoon. We will drive to Boston, have dinner, and stay in a hotel where we can leave the van while we are gone. The hotel shuttle will take us to the airport early on Tuesday morning, and if the weather cooperates, we’ll be in Puerto Rico by 2:30 pm on Tuesday. We can’t wait to see Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco and dig our toes into warm, white sand. Yum!!!
by Judy Handley | Feb 8, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 111, Year 9: Getting Ready for PR
Date: Saturday, February 8, 2014
Weather: Partly Cloudy with High in the Upper 20’s F
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, Massachusetts
The rest of the world is busy watching the Olympics while we are busying ourselves getting ready for our week of family fun in Puerto Rico. We would be watching the Olympics if we could, but without a cable TV connection, we can’t even watch it on the internet. We do get to see snip-its of this and that, so at least we sort of know what is happening in Sochi. But our attention is on Culebra. We spent a lot of today organizing, shopping, and packing for our mid-winter family vacation. Mark and I were able to get all of our clothes in one carry-on bag, but we’re packing a second carry-on with various food products and beach gear. We went to Heather and Jed’s to do the final packing of the snorkeling gear which fills a huge bag and weighs in just under the 50 pound limit. That tells you where we place our priorities. We are planning to do our food shopping at a Costco that is just outside San Juan once we arrive, but there are some things that we have to take with us. We have one more little shopping stint to do tomorrow morning and then we will be ready for take-off. So far the weather is cooperating. We might get snow tomorrow night, but Monday and Tuesday look clear. It will be a miracle if that really happens, so we’re definitely hoping for a miracle.
by Judy Handley | Feb 7, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 110, Year 9: Rays of Sunshine
Date: Friday, February 7, 2014
Weather: Beautiful, Clear Day, High Temp Around 30 degrees F
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, Massachusetts
Today was full of rays of sunshine in more ways than one. The sky was without a cloud and we totally enjoyed the deep blue sky and sunny day despite the cold. But the rays of sunshine came in more ways than one. Oliver provided the ‘other’ rays. He does not talk in sentences yet, but he has words for everything. Heather has tried to study his particular take on the English language, and when she figures it out, I’ll let you know! In the meantime, we’ll just enjoy it. Today’s new word (at least it is the first time I have heard it) was “thank-um.” Ollie needed help pulling a toy from the wood floor on the living room area rug. I helped him and he said “thank-um” totally unsolicited. I helped him with something else and he said “thank-um” again. I found it amazing that he knew to say thank you, but then I just enjoyed his version of the phrase. How ‘you’ turns into ‘um’ I don’t know, but that is Olliese. Sam and Jonah call me ‘oh-mah’ but Ollie has turned that into ‘ah-moo’ and Granddad is ‘gan-dah’—sounds almost like Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings. It seems such a small thing, but Ollie’s language antics bring us the greatest joy.
Ollie and I went to the library this morning. Once we got home, he had lunch and napped while I made granola and did laundry. After nap, we spent some time playing outside while ‘Gandalf’ went to pick up Sam and take him with him to West Marine to pick up Jed’s GoPro camera. Earlier in the week Jed decided to purchase a GoPro before we head to Puerto Rico on Monday, so Mark ordered it from West Marine and it came in today. So now we will have two GoPro’s and can hopefully get some great underwater video. We’ll put one on Sam or Jonah and the other on Ziggy and let them go. Can’t wait to see the results.
by Judy Handley | Feb 6, 2014 | Cape Cod USA, Sailing Logs Year 9 |
Day 109, Year 9: A Little Sunshine
Date: Thursday, February 6, 2014
Weather: Partly Sunny, Temperature Dropping
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, Massachusetts
With so many snowy and rainy days in the past few weeks, we cherish those days with sunshine. And this was one of those. But with the sunshine came a drop in the temperature. We didn’t quite get into the 30’s today and tonight it will be in the teens. The same is true for tomorrow and off and on for the next few days. Eighty degrees in Puerto Rico is going to feel mighty nice.
The marathon day went off without a hitch. Ollie was his usual delightful little person all day and all three boys had a great evening. When Sam gets home on Thursdays, I work with him to prepare him for his Friday spelling test. Tonight he had extra homework and he did it all without too much of a fuss. Once Jonah got home they played together without even one little dispute (which is quite unusual) and then we had breakfast for dinner, bath time, and headed upstairs to read. Heather and Jed got home before bedtime and the boys were overjoyed to see them both.
Tomorrow we’ll spend time starting the packing process for our trip to Puerto Rico. Snorkeling gear is a priority, so we’ll start there. We have a huge bag of gear on Windbird that we will take the Heather and Jed’s tomorrow and combine it with their gear. They have a big dive bag with wheels, so we will pack it all in that. The way I figure it, we don’t need much else. I plan to spend as much time as possible in the water.
