Day 363, Year 10: Proud Grandparents
Date: Thursday, October 8, 2015
Weather: Yet Another Gorgeous Fall Day, Temp in the 60’s F
Location: AstraZeneca Hope Lodge, Jamaica Plan Neighborhood, Boston, MA

I’ll get to the ‘Proud Grandparents’ part of this log after going through a few details from today. First, I want to wish two special women in my life a very happy birthday—my walking partner Jane Woodin and Molly, the little girl that lives next door to Heather and Jed. Molly is like a sister to Sam, Jonah, and Ollie. Happy Birthday to Jane and Molly.

I’m back in Boston tonight with Mark. He had his first double whammy today—one general radiation treatment in the abdominal area and one very specific liver treatment. It is the liver radiation that is new and will continue through next week. So far, so good. He is doing fine. And the really good news from today is that a space opened up and Mark will be able to stay here at the Hope Lodge through next week, his last week of treatment. Hurray, hurray! That certainly makes life a lot easier. And the other really good news is that Mark’s sister Mary Ellen and her husband Lee arrive on the Cape tomorrow to spend the long weekend with us. They left Bonita Beach in Florida on October 1st on a road trip that thankfully included a trip to the Cape. We’re looking forward to the weekend.

And now to the proud grandparent part of today. I picked Sam up from school (Jonah was home sick) and he started telling me about a story he had written at school. He was obviously very proud. All the students in his third grade class were asked to write a story about the beach and they were allowed to type the story on a computer instead of writing it by hand. Well, Sam who doesn’t love writing evidently found his medium. He wrote a great story which I have copied below. It is entitled ‘The Reef’ and there is a photo included. I’ve never tried to paste a photo into a log before, so it might not come through. If it doesn’t, just imagine colorful reef fish in very blue water. Then enjoy a little side trip to a beach in Hawaii.

The Reef

by Sam Goldstone

“Come on,” I yelled to my brother as I ran with my flippers and mask to the water. I wondered what was in the water. I jumped into the water of the Pacific Ocean with a big splash.

The sky was a light blue with no clouds at all. I cupped my ear and heard a big wave crash against the sand and wash shells onto the beach. I squinted my eyes and noticed a dolphin with its pod. The beach seemed suny and warm.

I snorkeled out to the end of the jetty. It was high tide at the beach in Hawaii. The sandbar was still nice and shallow. The sand was thin and there were almost no shells in sight! There were a few beyond the sandbar but not many. At that moment I saw a friend. I asked him to snorkel with me to the coral reef. He said, “Yes.” So we snorkeled out to where it was far over our heads and looked down. There we saw colorful fish and huge mounds of colorful coral. When we looked up, there was a huge green sea turtle. It was coming straight at us! We quickly turned and swam for about a minute before it swam away. Then we swam back to our parents to tell them what we had seen.

I won’t forget that day at the beach! I hope we go back to that beach the next time we go to Hawaii. If we go there I will go back to the reef. When I got home I got on the computer and looked up the name of the beach we went to.

Day 361, Year 10: Mark Out of the ER and Doing Great
Date: Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Weather: Gorgeous, Gorgeous Fall Day, Temp in the High 60’s
Location: (Judy) Back Home on Windbird, Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, MA

Mark was released from the ER this morning at 5 am and he is doing great. The blood work and CT scans found no problems—no arterial embolisms (blood clots) and no blood clots in the lungs. There is nothing to explain his shortness of breath in certain situations except that he is undergoing chemo and radiation, but it is a great relief to have all of the dangerous causes eliminated. The 12 hours in the emergency room were no fun, but I picked him up shortly after 5 am and we were both able to go back to sleep until almost 10 am. I took him back to Mass General for a 1 pm routine appointment with his oncologist and by 2:30 pm he was headed to radiation and I was headed home. I took a shopping route home going to an outlet mall to buy some necessaries and stopping again at an L.L. Bean outlet to buy SmartWool socks. I had checked the price of things online and it was worth the stops to purchase them at outlet prices. Mark is back at the Hope Lodge this evening and I am aboard Windbird. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, so life is good.

Day 360, Year 10: Unexpected Visit to the ER
Date: Monday, October 5, 2015
Weather: Partly Sunny and Warmer
Location: AstraZeneca Hope Lodge, Jamaica Plain Neighborhood, Boston, MA

We made an unexpected visit to Mass General’s ER tonight and Mark is still there. The visit is probably just precautionary, at least that is our hope, but his oncologists insisted that he go to the ER for a CT scan looking for a possible blood clot in his lung. Evidently this can happen as a result of the chemo and radiation. We still don’t have the results of the CT scan, so Mark is still in ER and I am back at the Hope Lodge.

I’ll back up for a minute and explain how this came about. I drove Mark to Boston today for his late afternoon radiation treatment and weekly appointment with his radiation oncologist following the appointment. I was with him because I had made a last minute decision to stay with him tonight instead of heading back to the Cape. It’s a good thing I did. When he meets with his radiation oncologist, he first meets with a nurse, and then today he met with a resident that will be present for the liver radiation treatments that begin on Thursday, and then he met with Dr. Hong. By the time Dr. Hong came in, the nurse and resident had already grilled him about his report that when he eats, climbs steps, or bends over, he has a hard time catching his breath and his heart rate soars. He can walk on flat ground all day long with no problem, but if he just barely bends over, he has the problem. This started shortly after the radiation treatments. Dr. Hong had the nurse hook him up and go walking with him—no change in heart rate or oxygen level, but when he bent over, his heart rate soared. So they sent a text message to his primary oncologist, Dr. Kwak. After a bit of a wait, we were told that a visit to ER would be the prudent thing to do. So we headed there immediately. And we waited. And we waited. And we waited. It took only minutes to get registered and sent back to an examination room where he was told that he would have to have blood work done and wait on the results of that before the CT scan could be done. He was also forewarned that he might have to spend the night. He was sent from the exam room to another waiting room and that is where we waited for hours for the blood test and then the scan. After the scan, they took more blood and then wheeled him to another area called Urgent Care. A doctor and a resident met with him and explained that he would probably be in this area most of the night. I was getting ready to leave when a nurse came in to make sure he was comfortable and told me wait a bit longer while they made a decision on whether to keep him in Urgent Care or send him home as there were no beds in the hospital. Once it became clear that he had to have a repeat blood test at 4 am, I left and came back to the Hope Lodge. He will get the results of the scan sometime during the night and that will determine whether or not he has to be admitted to the hospital. If we are very lucky, I’ll get a call after the 4 am blood test telling me to come get him. It will be the first time in my life that I look forward to a call at that hour of the morning!

Day 359, Year 10: Sunshine Returns Earlier Than Expected
Date: Sunday, October 4, 2015
Weather: Some Sun, Some Clouds, Wind NE 20+ Early, Settling by Afternoon
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, MA

The big surprise this morning was waking up to sunshine. It returned earlier than expected, but by afternoon the skies were overcast once again. But the early morning was glorious. I love sunshine!

This was one of those “Where did my day go?” kind of days. I made chili for dinner and to freeze for our upcoming passage. Otherwise I didn’t get much done. I am reading Irving Stone’s The Agony and the Ecstasy about Michelangelo. Maybe that’s where the day went!

We did get an interesting email today. In October of 2005 when we left for our sail around the world, we were diverted into Lewes, Delaware with bad weather and transmission troubles. On the dock in Lewes we met Carl Stein and his 14 year-old son Alex. At the time, Alex was racing Hobie’s and had grand plans for boats in his future. Well, today we got an email from Alex saying that he is starting his first long passage on S/V Hafvalla going from Delaware to Key West. Having been introduced to our blog at age 14, he and his sailing partner are posting logs at knotworkingblog.wordpress.com. We’ll certainly be following their blog and might even catch up with them at some point on our trip south. Fair winds to Alex and his partner.

Day 358, Year 10: Ain’t No Sunshine
Date: Saturday, October 3, 2015
Weather: Overcast and Cool, Wind NE 15-20
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, MA

There was no sunshine today, but on the more positive side, there was also no rain. It was a little cool and windy and will probably be the same tomorrow, but maybe we’ll have sunshine again by Monday. It is a great relief to know that Joaquin is not going to be a threat, so we don’t have to do the hurricane preparations tomorrow that would have been necessary if Joaquin’s track had brought her up the coast.

Today we spent a quiet morning on Windbird and went to Heather and Jed’s shortly after noon. I am starting to cook for the passage south and for the company we will have next weekend, so we spent the afternoon there with me cooking and Mark playing with the boys. The entire afternoon had a science theme with Sam and Jonah doing everything from searching through sand for fossils to digging through Oma’s science box in the basement to experimenting with electrical snap circuits. Sam also recreated an experiment that he had done at school and showed Jonah what happens when you put drops of food coloring in milk and then touch the drops of color with a Q-tip soaked in dish detergent. Mark also spent some time with them learning about thermal expansion—trying to fit a steel ball through a ring and using heat and cold to make it happen. I don’t know about the boys, but Mark had a great time doing this. When it was time to prepare dinner, I turned the kitchen back over to Heather. She called last night and invited us to dinner this evening, and in a short time she produced a fantastic dinner. And while she cooked, Mark and I built Lego Duplo with the three boys. At first we were just building with Ollie, but then Sam and Jonah joined us. Again, we had a great time playing together. For dinner we had chicken tikka masala and rice, curried cauliflower, kale, and corn-on-the-cob. Everything was yummy. So thank you, Heather!
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151003 Day 358 Cape Cod, USA–Building Lego Duplo with S,J&O

I haven’t talked much about our upcoming travel plans, but they are coming up quickly. Mark completes his radiation treatments on Monday, October 19, and almost immediately, weather permitting, we will be sailing south to South Carolina. We will be taking Sue and John Reed’s 18 year-old grandson, James, along with us as crew. Sue and John are Jed’s aunt and uncle and are the folks who have so graciously hosted us so many nights in their home in Cambridge over the past four years. We are very excited to be able to offer this travel opportunity to James and to have the help along the way. Once we get to Lightkeepers Marina in Little River, South Carolina, and get Windbird settled in a slip there, we will be flying back to Boston for Mark’s post-radiation scan. And just a couple of days later on Thursday, October 19th, we will be flying to Puerto Rico to spend two weeks with Justin and Jo. Heather, Jed, and boys will join us for the first week and we just can’t wait to see all five grandchildren together again. Jed will already be in San Juan for a conference when we, along with Heather and the three boys, arrive. We just booked a room tonight in the same hotel where Jed will be staying for that Thursday night. The Caribe Hilton has lots of swimming pools, so on Friday while Jed is still in meetings, we will play in the pools with the boys. After Jed’s meetings end, we will all head to the west coast of Puerto Rico to visit with Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco in Aguada. We can’t wait.

Day 357, Year 10: Cold and Rainy
Date: Friday, October 2, 2015
Weather: Rain All Day, High low-50’s F, Wind NE
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, MA

It is cold and rainy here, but it is very good news that Joaquin looks to be headed out to sea and not up the coast. Well, at least it looks that way right now and we can all hope that trend continues. Last winter when we were in the Bahamas and listening to daily weather reports from cruiser weather guru Chris Parker, he often mentioned that forecasts based on the newer Euro model were proving to more reliable than the US Global Forecast System (GFS). That proved to be the case this time as it was the Euro model that kept telling us that Joaquin would not turn to the west and hit the US coast. Our computer programs have lagged behind the European model due to funding issues. Sure wish we could get the government funding to bring the model used by the National Weather Service up-to-date.

I drove to Boston this morning, took Mark to Mass General for lunch and his treatment, and then drove back to the Cape. It is supposed to go down into the upper-40’s tonight. Brrr. We baked dinner in the oven which added a little heat inside Windbird and right now we have the propane Mr. Heater turned on. We’ll turn that off before going to bed, but it sure is taking away the damp chill.

Our hearts are with the people of Rosebud, Oregon tonight. Those of us who believe that we need stronger gun control laws in this country need to speak out . . . NOW. We’ve remained silent far too long.

Day 356, Year 10: Weather Watch
Date: Thursday, October 1, 2015
Weather: Overcast/Misty All Day, Rain Tonight, High mid-50’s F, Wind NNW 10
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, MA

It is the first of October and we have all been put on a weather watch. What will Hurricane Joaquim do? I’m going with the model that says it will go out to sea rather than up the coast. If we are lucky and it does this, we’ll still get some wind and moisture, but better that than a direct hit. I think we’ll all know more tomorrow when Joaquin exits the Bahamas.

Today was a quiet day. I did a little ‘house’ cleaning, caught up on some correspondence, and headed into town to pick Sam and Jonah up from school. Heather had to go to a dinner in Boston tonight, so I stayed and fixed dinner for Jed and the boys. I’ll go to Boston in the morning to take Mark to his Friday afternoon radiation treatment and then we will head home to the Cape. It is raining now and the forecast calls for rain all day tomorrow. I’m not a lover of rainy days, but we do need the moisture . . . in moderation. When I talked to Mark tonight he wanted to know the wind speed here. At that time and until just a minute ago, the wind was fairly steady at 10 knots. But after I wrote that in the heading of this log, the wind started to pick up with periodic higher gusts. Rain, wind, cold . . . not my favorite kind of weather.

Day 355, Year 10: Happy ‘Real’ Birthday to Our Daughter Heather
Date: Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Weather: Overcast and Rainy, Very Warm Today, Cooling Down Tonight
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, MA

The year was 1975. My first child was due on September 27, but that day passed and no baby. Then came September 28 and still no baby. We were living in the Washington, DC, area at that time, so on Monday, September 29, I decided to go down to the banks of the Potomac River and stare at the water. I was sure that would do the trick. And it did. When I returned home at 4 pm and was starting to fix dinner, I had the first pangs of labor. A very long 31 hours later this amazing child entered our lives. And 40 years later, she has grown into an accomplished, .beautiful woman, a wonderful mother and wife, and the best daughter in the whole wide world. Heather, you have had a couple of wonderful celebrations leading up to today, but you still get to enjoy the official day of birth. Ma and Pa love you and wish you a very Happy ‘real’ Birthday.

It was definitely a soggy September 30th. The rain started early and continued on into mid-afternoon. We have had only drizzle since then, but it will be coming back tomorrow or Friday for sure. The wind is now coming out of the NE and the temperature is dropping quickly. The high today was in the 70’s but will be in the 50’s tomorrow. The weekend is supposed to be more of the same and we have the threat of Hurricane Joaquin coming our way the first of the week. July, August, and September were beautiful, so I guess we deserve a rude October wet chill. Mid-afternoon when the torrential rain calmed down, I went to shore. I picked Sam and Jonah up from school, delivered them to Woods Hole to celebrate WCAI’s 15th birthday, and then I headed to meet friends for dinner. As soon as dinner was over, I went back to Heather and Jed’s to ride herd on the boys while Heather was on an hour-long conference call. The boys engaged in building Legos and were amazingly good. I’m back on windy Windbird now, doing a bit of rock and roll in the gusty winds. I talked to Mark tonight and he is doing great. Heather has to be in Boston tomorrow night for a dinner and she is going to spend the night with her dad. He’s really looking forward to that. And then on Friday he returns home to help with hurricane prep. At this point it is impossible to tell what Hurricane Joaquin is going to do, but best to be prepared . . . just in case. Note: Since we are three days past a full moon we are having extremely high tides (spring tides). Add to that all of the rain, and you get super high tides flooding the road from the boat yard to the yacht club. I have never seen such a high tide here. My photos don’t quite capture it, but the water was half way up the tires of the cars on the road.
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150930 Day 355 Cape Cod, USA–Extremely High Tide in Quissett Harbor

Day 354, Year 10: Focus on the Weather
Date: Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Weather: Partly Cloudy, One Rain Shower, Wind SW, Temp upper-70’s F
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, MA

Today, and for the next few days, I think the focus is going to be on the weather. Today could have been rainy, but it wasn’t. The forecast for tomorrow looks like rain all day and evening, but we’ll just have to wait and see what really happens. But by Thursday, the winds will switch from coming from the southern sector to the northern. And the daytime high temperature is forecast to plunge down to the 50’s F. That’s a 20 degree drop from today, it will feel quite chilly. And the rain is forecast to continue until Saturday or maybe even into Sunday and Monday. We have had such an incredible run of gorgeous weather from July to August to September. We’ll just have to wait and see what October throws our way.

This week I’m spending my mornings doing a little boat cleaning. So this morning I attacked the forward closet and head. After that I headed to Woods Hole to pick Ollie up at 1 pm. He was fast asleep by the time we got home and then I spent some time talking to Heather. I see her on most days, but rarely do we get a chance to talk. We worked through the next couple of weeks so I would know when I was needed to help out with the boys. Tomorrow is an incredibly busy and complicated schedule, but I think we got it worked out. So I’m going to head to bed early and get ready for a busy tomorrow–another morning of boat cleaning and an afternoon and evening of helping out with the boys. And in between, I’m going out to dinner with friends. Sounds like a great way to spend a rainy last day of September . . . and the last warm day for the next week or so.