2024 Life Logs, Day 189: In Honor of Mark
Date: Sunday, July 7, 2024
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Humid: High Temp 81, Low 70 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth, MA
Mark would have celebrated his 82nd birthday today if he were still with us. Justin called from England today to let me know he was thinking of his dad. And Heather decided to do a little celebrating in his honor. Heather, Jed, Ollie, and I went to Quissett to do a little “messing about” on Ardenna and then motor her from Quissett to Great Harbor in Woods Hole. This will be her home for this season, but the mooring ball wasn’t ready until Friday. So, making the move today was the perfect thing to do to honor Mark. And if you have to mess about in a boat, it might as well be in beautiful Quissett Harbor with the Knob as a backdrop.
The first part of “messing about” was sending Ollie up the mast to put a line through a block in the mast. He wanted to do this, but when he got up there, he was afraid to let loose to the do the job. They lowered him, but then he decided he was no longer afraid of heights, so back up he went to get that job completed. He is now an experienced mast monkey and if his granddad were here, he would be super proud of him.
Next the jib went on, then the headsail. But we dropped the mooring and raised the headsail as we were motoring toward the Woods Hole cut. They got the headsail raised, but the line to roll it up seized up in the drum and the sail had to be lowered once, then twice. While Heather, Jed, and Ollie were busy with this, I was on watch to make sure the auto pilot kept us moving into the wind. When it was apparent to all that we had to abandon the idea of getting headsail on today, we headed for the “hole”. The current was with us as we started in, and Heather handed the wheel over to me while she helped Jed get the headsail bagged and put away. I haven’t been at the wheel of sail boat since March of 2016. At first, I was unsure that I could do it, but once I got going, I felt right at home. I was at the helm of Bruce and Jane Woodin’s sailboat about four years ago, but not for long. I am fine on a sailboat with a wheel, but not one with a tiller.
I got us into the mooring field in Great Harbor, but when it became apparent that we were going to have to weave through the whole field to find mooring ball #31, Heather took the helm. It took a while to find it, but we were finally successful. Sam and Jonah came down to Woods Hole to join us. Ollie drove the dinghy in to pick them up. They were on the boat only a short time before we got the notice that our table was ready at The Landfall. We had dinner with a toast to Granddad and then home for cheesecake (Mark’s favorite) and a happy birthday song. Mark, we all miss you so much and carry your memory with us every day.
Another day, another disaster. That’s my mantra these days. Today the disaster was Sam’s hand. Last night his fist hit the back of a padded office-type computer chair. By this morning the pain and swelling made it pretty evident that he had broken something. Heather took him to the ER today and sure enough, he has what is called a boxer’s fracture in his right hand. He has a temporary cast on until tomorrow when he can see an orthopedic surgeon who will put on a permanent cast of some sort. Sam is hoping it will be waterproof so he can still be in the water this summer. I don’t know if there is such a thing, but that would be nice.
