Day 303, Year 10: From Nyack to Cape Cod
Date: Sunday, August 9, 2015
Weather: Partly Sunny, 80’s in New York, Upper 60’s on the Cape
Location: Back Home on Windbird

Today we drove back to the Cape from visiting friends Ed and Lynne in Nyack, NY. It was a delightful weekend and we even enjoyed the drive the home. We had a little traffic at first due to a couple of accidents, but once we got to the Connecticut border, it was smooth sailing all the way home. We made a few stops, one to eat lunch, one to check out Yamaha outboard motors, and one to do a little food and clothing shopping. But we were still home just after 5 o’clock. The temperature in New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island was in the 80’s, but when we got out of the car to do food shopping on the Cape, the temp dropped about 20 degrees. The high here today was 69 degrees F, and by the time we stopped at the store it was only 63 degrees F. Brrrr! It felt chilly. But that’s the way of a Cape Cod summer. We have just had warmer than normal daytime temps and I had gotten used to that. Hopefully things will warm up again. I’m not ready for weather that feels like fall just yet.

Lynne and I got up before Ed and Mark, so we went for a nice walk down a tree-lined street with lovely old homes on either side. The homes on our right fronted onto the Hudson River and I’m sure each one had fantastic views from their backyards leading down to river bank. We probably walked a little over a mile and then had to turn around. But if we had gone on we would have made it to the park where Ed and Lynne love to walk. We hurried back because we wanted to see Ed’s grandson Frankie before he took off for a Yankee’s game in the city. He had friends in town this weekend and had been out and about and we hadn’t met him. When we arrived in his apartment, he had on his chef’s hat and apron and was fixing breakfast for his friends. His father, Frank and his two little ones, Sophia and Anthony, were also in Frankie’s apartment, so we got to see them again. And then everyone came to Ed and Lynne’s apartment to say goodbyes just before we left. Frank, Nicole, and little ones were headed to Pennsylvania to visit with Nicole’s parents, Frankie and his friends were headed into the city, and we were headed back to the Cape. After a photo session on the deck, we all headed in our different directions. I’m sure Ed and Lynne enjoyed a bit of peace and quiet today, but I know they feel blessed to be so close to children and grandchildren and will welcome the ‘chaos’ when they all return.

150809 Day 303 Cape Cod, USA–Farewell Nyack

And speaking of grandchildren and ‘chaos’, we are looking forward to seeing the Goldpebbles in the morning. We have another week and a half of Camp Oma before Heather, Jed, and boys head to Maine for a week. When they return, Mark and I are planning a sailing trip with the boys. When we return from that, we will have just a few days before school starts. Summer 2015 will be over before we know it.

Day 302, Year 10: Lovely Day with the Kirwins
Date: Saturday, August 8, 2015
Weather: Partly Cloudy and Warm
Location: At Home with Ed and Lynne Kirwin, Nyack, NY

It was a lovely day here in Nyack with the Kirwins—all of them. Well, at least we met all but one by the end of the evening. The day started with Lynne and I going out on a shopping trip for B, B, and B—baguettes, beer, and bananas—plus a few other things. Ed’s two sons, Ed Jr. and Frank, and their families were coming for dinner, so we picked up a couple of chicken alfredo ready-made casseroles at Costco. Then we went to a grocery store to buy beer and bananas, and finally to the World Food Market to get baguettes. While at Costco, I was able to buy oats and nuts for my next batch of granola, so it was a very productive shopping trip for me. When we returned, we had lunch and then went down to the pool to read and relax the afternoon away. The pool is right on the edge of the Hudson River and the views are fantastic. Then it was time for dinner and the families gathered. Ed’s youngest son, Ed Jr., his wife Gigi, and their three children aged 19 to 25, live in Scarsdale which is about 30 minutes from here. They arrived with a fantastic salad and tons of dessert options. Ed’s oldest son, Frank, his wife Nicole, and their children live here at the apartment complex, but we were actually gathering in the town house occupied for the summer by their oldest daughter Alissa and oldest son Frankie. Anthony (5) and Sofia (7) came with mommy and daddy. It was delightful to finally meet everyone that we have heard so much about over the years. Frank’s oldest son, Frankie, was absent, but he will be here in the morning for breakfast, so we will meet him then.

Shortly after breakfast, we will start the trek back to Cape Cod. We want to get back across the Tappanzee Bridge before the traffic gets too heavy. Hopefully we’ll be as lucky with traffic on the way home as we were on the way here.

150808 Day 302 Cape Cod, USA–Saturday in Nyack with Ed and Lynne

Day 301, Year 10: From Cape Cod to the West Bank of the Hudson River
Date: Friday, August 7, 2015
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny Day—Cooler on Cape Cod, Warmer in NY
Location: At Home with Ed and Lynne Kirwin, Nyack, NY

Today we drove from Cape Cod to the west bank of the Hudson River in Nyack, New York. This is where our friends Ed and Lynne Kirwin are currently living in the West Shore Towers. There are loads of sailboats anchored and moored just offshore, so when we arrived we decided that we should have sailed here. But we drove and the important thing is that we are here to spend time with our good friends. Ed is undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer and he and Mark spent time discussing life while undergoing chemo treatment. This is certainly not a topic that we ever thought we would be discussing when we met in Malaysia in December of 2009. But here we are with both Mark and Ed battling cancer. We do have wonderful memories of our sail to India together and then south and west across the Indian Ocean to Madagascar and on to South Africa. So we’ll weave discussions of that time together along with our discussions of living with cancer. FYI—We had a great trip here today with very little traffic until just before the Tappenzee Bridge. It was a good day.

Day 300, Year 10: Sam’s Last Day of Class at CSS
Date: Thursday, August 6, 2015
Weather: Temp in the Upper 70’s, Mostly Sunny
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, MA

It just seems like yesterday that Sam and Jonah got of school for the summer, but evidently the summer is moving along because today was Sam’s last day of class at the Children’s School of Science. So before we know it, summer will be over and the boys will be back in school. And to punctuate the nearing of the end of summer fun, the weather turned cooler today. It was still in the 70’s, but when Jonah, Ollie, and I went to the beach, the boys got out of the water after only a couple of minutes. Ollie declared that he was freezing, so we spent the rest of our time on the beach and on the jetty fishing for crabs. Before the beach, we spent the earlier morning hours at Fiddler’s Cove. The boys really wanted to play pool in the club house, so we did that and played other games as well. Ollie found an ‘Old MacDonald’s Farm’ game that played the song when you made the right move. When the song played, he put on quite a show dancing to the music. After playing games in the club house, we went down to the boardwalk to eat lunch. There is an oyster nursery on one of the docks, and we arrived while the baby oysters were being packaged up to be moved further out into the bay to grow even bigger. The baby oysters were about as big as the end of my thumb. But it was the baby scallops that were so amazing. They were no bigger than the end of Ollie’s pinky finger and there were thousands of them that had been growing in a container the size of a kiddie pool. It was a fascinating luncheon show. Then we were off to Woods Hole to take Sam to class and to play at the beach while waiting for him.

Mark and I had a couple of disappointments today. The good news was that there was no dew overnight and I was able to put the first coat of varnish on the cap rail. I was trying to cheat and only varnish a couple of sections. But the disappointing news is that after the coat of varnish dried, it became evident that the patch job is not going to work. Next week, I will again start the sanding project and do the entire cap rail. I should have known better than to try the short-cut. The other disappointment was that Mark’s white blood cell count has dipped just below the normal range. He found this out when he went in for his chemo treatment today. This happened before when he started his first chemo treatments in the spring of 2012, but we were able to get the count back up by adding things to his diet. One of those things was Magic Mineral Broth. I haven’t made any for months, so I have to get back in the groove. The broth is just chicken broth with tons of veggies added to it and it seems to do the job. So next week will be healthy food week!

In the meantime, we are headed to New York tomorrow. We are really looking forward to our visit with Ed and Lynne. We hope to arrive mid-afternoon tomorrow and head home on Sunday morning. We’re hoping our early morning travels will avoid the major weekend traffic.

150806 Day 300, Cape Cod, USA–Morning Fun and Sunset at Fiddler's Cove

Day 299, Year 10: Bright, Shiny Windbird
Date: Wednesday, August 5, 2015
Weather: Temp in the 80’s; Partly Cloudy, Windy Evening
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, MA

While I was out and about with the grandkids today, Mark, Heather, and Jed washed and polished Windbird so that she is once again bright and shiny. We still need to polish the cabin top, but the jobs that are so hard to do when she is in the water are done. Thank you, thank you, to Heather and Jed. At the end of the work day, we all went to Woods Hole for an Open House at the School of Science. Tomorrow is Sam’s last day of classes. It is a wonderful opportunity for him, but we are all looking forward to a few summer days when we don’t have to be on such a tight time schedule. After the Open House we went to the Captain Kidd for dinner. Dinner was great, but even more than dinner, I’m sure the boys enjoyed feeding the ducks and striped bass from the restaurant dock. Then we walked to Waterfront Park and hugged the Rachel Carson sculpture as the sun went down.

150805 Day 299 Cape Cod,, USA–Seal Show at Woods Hole Aquarium

Back to boat work . . . Mark also got the SailRite sewing machine working properly this morning and he got two of the seven cockpit plastic curtains resewn. I didn’t get the first coat of varnish on the cockpit cap rail, but I will have to find a way to work that into tomorrow’s schedule. Mark has a chemo treatment tomorrow morning going into the early afternoon, but once he is done, he can watch the boys while I varnish. One coat will have to hold it until next week as we take off on Friday morning for Nyack, New York, to visit with our good friends, Ed and Lynne Kirwin of Constance. Shortly after returning from the Bahamas this winter, they found out that Ed has late-stage pancreatic cancer. Ed and Mark have been commiserating on the phone, but it is definitely time for a face-to-face visit. Any additional work on Windbird will just have to wait until next week.

Day 298, Year 10: Another Violent Rainstorm
Date: Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Weather: Temp in the 80’s; Early Morning Rain, Then Partly Sunny
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, MA

Okay. Enough is enough. We were awakened just before 7:30 am with wind strong enough to make the boat shudder—another violent rainstorm. We were jolted awake and before we could close all the hatches, the pouring rain began. The wind continued to increase from 30 knots to 40 and then to about 43 knots (50 miles per hour). And then a violent banging started. I thought the very tall metal ladder that is tied to the boat so we can climb up and down was the culprit, but when Mark went out he saw that the headsail was letting itself out and flogging in the wind. He said he couldn’t pull it in, but I insisted that he keep trying. I was afraid that if the whole sail unfurled, we would go flying . . . and then crashing. He tried again, and it rolled up easily the second time. What is with this weather? This is our fifth summer here and we have never had violent storms like this before. But now it seems that every time it rains, it pours, and it comes with wind way too strong for my liking. Go away!!!

By 8 am, all was calm and life was back to normal—all except my nerves which seem to be a bit frayed these days. But by 9 am Mark and I were at Heather and Jed’s and off and running with the boys. They built with blocks and played with Matchbox cars for a bit and then we went out for some biking. Sam decided to run instead of bike this morning, but Jonah and Ollie enjoyed their biking while Sam ran beside and in front of them. He is a VERY fast sprinter. Then we headed back to Highfield Hall so that Sam and Granddad could see the fairy houses. We didn’t have much time, but all three boys really enjoyed hunting for just one more fairy house. They are quite smitten with these little treasures. But all too soon, it was time to take Sam to Woods Hole for his School of Science class while the rest of us made a run back into town to buy a few supplies for making our own fairy houses. After class, we dashed back home and spent the afternoon constructing fairy houses for the backyard. We had so much fun sawing, hammering, and gluing. The boys are learning that it takes a little patience to build things, but they are definitely having a good time—each with their own style.

150804 Day 298 Cape Cod, USA–Second Visit to Highfield Hall's Fairy Houses

Tomorrow is a work day on Windbird. Heather and Jed are planning to take off work in the afternoon and spend time working with Mark to clean and polish the topsides. The boys and I will help when we can and will be off messing about in small boats (the dinghy and the kayak) the rest of the time.

We got what we hope is good news from the insurance company today. It was six weeks ago tonight that we had the microburst hit Windbird and sent us dragging into shallow water with a rocky bottom. The insurance company contacted us today and they are ready to settle for what seems like a reasonable amount for the dinghy motor and the repairs to the bottom of the keel and rudder. We will have to kick in for the sizable deductible, so this is not a free ride for us. But at least the insurance company seems to be playing fair. TowBoat US is settling for around $9,000 for the towing operation. That is almost more than the amount for replacing the dinghy motor and for the repairs. Maybe we need to go into the towing business.

Day 297, Year 10: Playground Demolition and Fairy Houses
Date: Monday, August 3, 2015
Weather: Temp in the 80’s, Partly Sunny and a Little Humid
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, MA

Today was planned to be low-key with no beach time to give Jonah a day to recover from his tummy bug. He rallied around dinner time last night and was fine today, but probably best that we weren’t out in the hot sun for long periods. I walked and the boys rode their bicycles to the bank on the corner to pick up information about the summer reading program they sponsor. For every book you read and then write something about it and draw a picture, you get $2.50 put into a savings account. You have to read at least four books, but they encourage reading ten books for a $25 savings account. The boys have been reading all summer, so we will start writing the book reports tomorrow. You have to be able to read the books yourself, so Ollie doesn’t qualify. But we won’t tell him that and we’ll put the $25 in a savings account for him. Jonah reads books to him, so Ollie can do his ‘reports’ on those books. It’s a great deal all around.

East Falmouth Elementary where Sam and Jonah go to school is just beyond the bank, so we headed there next to ride bikes around the track. Sam got a new, fancy bike last week and he sped ahead to the track. When Jonah, Ollie, and I reached the school we saw two men taking the triple slide off the playground. One of the men turned to us to say that it would be the last time we’d see that slide. The whole playground was being dismantled to make way for a new one. This is the kindergarten playground. The older kids got a new playground last year. A machine something like a backhoe with a special attachment for crunching up wood and steel started to work demolishing the playground equipment. Both boys were fascinated and there was no way I was going to get them to move on. I knew Sam would be concerned, but I figured he would backtrack and find us. He did and he enjoyed watching the playground demolition derby as well. The equipment no longer met safety codes, but I found it difficult to watch it being destroyed. I guess we’ll just all have to look forward to watching the new equipment being installed.

We got home just in time to eat a bit of lunch and get Sam to Woods Hole for his School of Science class. After delivering him, I took Jonah and Ollie back into Falmouth to Highfield Hall. This now public venue was once the beautiful summer home of the Beebee family from Boston. The mansion was built in 1878 and over the years went through a succession of owners. But by the 1990’s it was on the docket to be demolished. A group of citizens worked to save the old mansion and had it totally renovated. Today it stands as a lovely home surrounded by fantastic gardens. And this summer the grounds are home to 32 fairy houses. There are three in the mansion and 29 out and about on the grounds. We only had time to find 17 of the fairy houses and Sam didn’t get a chance to see them at all. So hopefully tomorrow morning we can return to finish the fairy house scavenger hunt. But this afternoon after picking Sam up, the boys were anxious to get home to build fairy houses of their own. They saw some fairy houses in Maine last summer and spent time building some of their own there. So they launched into the activity with a little experience and had a great afternoon.

Heather and Jed invited us to stay for dinner tonight. We had local Bluefish, salad, fried green tomatoes, and grilled fingerling potatoes. And then we walked to Smitty’s to get ice cream. A summer dinner doesn’t get any better than that.

150803 Day 297 Cape Cod, USA–Playground Demolition and Fairy Houses

Day 296, Year 10: Beautiful Summer Weather
Date: Sunday, August 2, 2015
Weather: Temp in the 80’s, Low Humidity, Gentle Breeze, Not a Cloud in Sight
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, MA

If we were having a contest for the most beautiful day of the summer, I think today would be the winner. The weather was just perfect. The sky was blue, blue, and blue without a single cloud. The temp was in the mid-80’s and there was no humidity. Add to that a gentle breeze and you have a winner. It was definitely a day to be out on the water, but unfortunately, we are landlocked and this was a boat work day. The marina here was busy, busy, as so many people were going out in their small power boats. Many of the boats here are stored on land and launched on demand. So boats were going in the water all morning and coming back out all afternoon. I spent my morning sanding the cockpit cap rail while Mark went into town to West Marine to get some things we needed for our projects. It would have been a perfect day to start the varnishing, but unfortunately the Epifanes Rapid Clear I ordered from Amazon won’t arrive until tomorrow afternoon sometime. Tomorrow is supposed to be a repeat of today, so I guess there is slim chance that I could get one coat on tomorrow afternoon, but Tuesday is not a varnishing day as there is a threat of rain in the early morning and again late at night. So realistically, it will probably be Wednesday before varnish touches the cap rail. But progress is being made.

After a mid-day rest, Mark and I drove into town to get more supplies. We needed about 250-feet of hose to get water to Windbird. We needed the water so we could do a wash down prior to starting the AwlCare polishing. I remembered that we had one 50-75 foot hose at Heather and Jed’s that they have not been using, so we first stopped there to pick that up. They offered an additional 50-foot hose and then we went to Aubuchon Hardware and bought a 100-footer. We then went to West Marine to get a cleaning product and found that we could buy two 75-footers cheaper than the 100-foot hose from Aubuchon. So back to Aubuchon to return the hose and then back to the boat. I got the cabin top and cockpit washed with AwlWash and sprayed the top sides as best I could. I also got the cockpit cushions cleaned. Mark worked on cleaning the prop and trying a new cleaner on the back of the boat where it gets stained from ugly exhaust fumes.

When we were at Heather and Jed’s they volunteered to come out on Wednesday afternoon and help with the cleaning and polishing. Hallelujah! We definitely need help and really appreciate their willingness to take off work to pitch in. Tomorrow morning Mark will stay here and work on the sewing projects. He is going to try to make a cover for our kayak to protect it from the sun and restitch the cockpit plastic curtains. But he definitely wants me and the boys to stop by and pick him up on our way home from the School of Science in the afternoon. He wants to get boat work done, but he also wants to spend time with the boys. Every day is an adventure not-to-be-missed with the Goldpebbles.

Poor little Jonah has a stomach bug and spent his day in the bathroom and in bed. I sure hope he bounces back by tomorrow, but I have planned a low-key day, just in case. And I really hope that the other two don’t get the bug. That would be no fun at all.

Day 295, Year 10: Beginning Boat Maintenance
Date: Saturday, August 1, 2015—Can’t believe it is August.
Weather: Another Lovely Summer Day
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, MA

“Bob the Builder, can we fix it?
Bob the Builder, yes, we can!”

‘Bob the Builder’ is a British animated children’s television show that has been very popular with little ones for a number of years. Bob is a building contractor who always gets the job done. I hear Ollie and Jonah singing the ‘Bob the Builder’ song all the time and today I needed their enthusiasm to convince myself that we can do all of the maintenance projects that need to be completed while we are out of water. Over the past few months, we have just not kept up with regular maintenance, so it is time to get our lazy selves moving and get things done. We’ll just have to replace ‘Bob the Builder’ with ‘Mark and Judy’ and sing that little ditty until all the jobs are done!

The first big job is stripping and re-varnishing the cockpit cap rail. Somehow moisture got trapped under the varnish and it lifted around the winches. So today Mark and I started peeling and sanding away the lifted varnish. We have decided to start by stripping the varnish only in the areas where it lifted. We will try to fare in new layers of varnish and hope the old and the new will melt together seamlessly. But if not, we will strip the whole thing. The last time I varnished I did not have Epifanes Rapid Clear which is what I always use for the first five coats. It is not available here on the Cape, so I just used Epifanes Clear Varnish and thinned it for the first coats. Evidently that was my problem. So I have ordered Rapid Clear from Amazon and it should arrive on Monday. Hopefully sometime this week I will have time to do an experimental coat to see how the old and the new will look when blended. But as with everything, there is always something else that needs to be done before the main job can be tackled. So today, in order to get ready to strip the varnish, we needed to take down the side and back curtains in the cockpit and store them away while we are working. These ‘curtains’ are clear plastic sewn into canvas (Sunbrella) frames. Both the canvas frames and clear plastic needed to be cleaned before storing them away, but I decided to just polish the plastic and leave cleaning the canvas until later. I polished the plastic and Mark got the side curtains stored away neatly in the v-berth. Then we started the varnish stripping job. It took all afternoon to do just the two small areas and we are still not quite done. Finishing the stripping and preparing to varnish will be tomorrow’s jobs. The Rapid Clear will arrive on Monday, so maybe sometime Tuesday I can get the first coat on. The other two projects that need to be done are polishing the top sides and re-stitching the plastic side-curtains. The thread in the side curtains has deteriorated and there are places where the stitching is just no longer there. Polishing the top sides means waxing the sides of the boat from the deck down to the water line and that takes lots of energy. Between Mark’s shoulder issue and his sensitivity to the sun from the chemo, he really can’t do this job. So I will give it my best shot while he works on sewing the canvas. But the next problem is finding the time to do all of this. Next weekend we are going to New York to visit our good friends, Ed and Lynne Kirwin. We thought we would go to Maine and New Hampshire the following weekend to visit friends and family, but we are going to cancel that trip so that we can get the boat maintenance jobs completed before Windbird goes back in the water. I’ll just keep humming that ‘Bob the Builder’ song, emphasizing “We can do it.”

On the brighter side of life, we enjoyed our overnight at Heather and Jed’s. Heather made a fantastic breakfast for us, and after breakfast, we returned to Windbird. But Heather convinced us to return for dinner. Matt, a new post-doc that works with Jed, and his wife Cristie, were also invited to dinner and we had a delightful evening. Matt is quite the fisherman and we are hoping to get him and Cristie out on Windbird sometime in September to give us some pointers on fishing in Cape Cod waters.

Day 294, Year 10: Blue Moon
Date: Friday, July 31, 2015
Weather: Beautiful Day
Location: At Home with the Goldstone’s in East Falmouth, MA

Tonight is one of those “once in a blue moon” nights. We are having the second full moon in one month which gives it the title of blue moon. The next time you will see a blue moon will be in January of 2018. So this occurrence doesn’t happen very often. Hope you are enjoying this one.

I’m sitting at my daughter’s dining room table while writing this log and I can see the full moon through the window . . . beautiful. And as with any full moon, today’s low tide was particularly low. Sam, Jonah, Ollie, and I spent the morning at home, and then we took Sam to Woods Hole for his science class. Jonah, Ollie, and I went on to Stoney Beach in Woods Hole and found the lowest tide we have ever experienced there. Even little Ollie could walk all the way out to a sand bar and over to Paradise Rock. Jonah dreams of jumping off Paradise Rock someday, but he didn’t quite have the nerve today to climb up. But at least he got to touch it. Normally the water between shore and rock is too deep for Jonah. So today was special. We walked to meet Sam when he finished his class and we all went back to the beach for a bit so that Sam could enjoy the low tide as well.

150731 Day 294 Cape Cod, USA–Jonah and Ollie at Stoney Beach

Tonight Mark and I are spending the night at Heather and Jed’s. They went to hear Naomi Oreskes, author of Merchants of Doubt, speak on the topic of why people should trust science. Heather has interviewed Naomi and really wanted to hear her talk–thus the reason we are spending the night. We encouraged Heather and Jed to go out afterwards as they rarely get a night out. Once we return to Windbird tomorrow, we begin a weekend of work. I am hoping to strip the varnish off the cockpit cap rail and start the arduous process of reapplying layer upon layer of varnish. The current varnish has lifted around both big wenches so I can’t just sand and varnish. It has to be stripped all the way down. Ugh! We did get a quote for the work that needs to be done on the bottom. The split in the rudder means that we will need to file an insurance claim. Fun, fun, fun.