Day 257, Year 10: Day After
Date: Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Weather: Mostly Sunny Day, Windy, Temp in the Upper 70’s F
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, MA
I feel like I have a ‘day after’ hangover. Last night was quite a scary experience and it is going to take a while to recover. But TowBoat US did dive on Windbird today and the underwater photos show that the damage is really minimal compared to the experience. The rudder obviously ground itself on rocks for a couple of hours and the bottom edge is badly frayed, but otherwise there are just scrapes and gouges along the bottom of the keel. Lucky, lucky, lucky. We had to row to shore this morning since our dinghy engine spent time underwater last night and as we rowed in, it was obvious that the rest of the harbor went basically unscathed. The boat beside us lost its dodger and one other boat drug on its mooring, but Windbird was definitely singled out. Why us? Probably because we were directly in the path of whatever and we have so much windage—the cockpit enclosure and the stack pack for the mainsail provide great places to catch wind. But I think it was more than that. There are trees and large tree limbs that were downed in this area last night and the electricity was off for some time. The National Weather Service is gathering data from last night evidently thinking we had some sort of unusual occurrence, and I would definitely agree that it was unusual—not quite a tornado, but almost. Sure hope we never have to live through that again! Rick, the harbor master here, is going to help Mark out with the dinghy engine tomorrow morning and he is going to move us into the inner harbor for the next month to give us a chance to recover. Rick and Weatherly work hard at making sure all of the moorings here are well maintained and after talking to Rick today it is obvious that he feels terrible about what happened to us. But it was not his fault. It was a freak of nature that couldn’t be prevented. Regardless, he wants us to move Windbird into the inner harbor for the next month to a mooring that is available until late July. He also wants Mark to bring the dinghy motor in early tomorrow morning and he will have someone haul it ashore and will provide a place to soak it in fresh water. After that, we will have to find someone who can check it out and hopefully get it running again. He also shared with Mark how frightening it was to be in a house last night when the wind was at its height. Rick and Weatherly live just across the street from the boatyard and every lot on that street lost huge tree limbs that came crashing down. Rick said he just went to the chimney and held on tight as the house vibrated from the strong winds. Once they subsided, he got in his tender and came out to help us.
Mark had a full day of chemo treatment today. This was the first treatment with Irinotecan added to this regimen and it took six hours. I had no idea it was going to take that long and Mark was not answering my phone calls—not intentionally not answering, but just not hearing the vibration mode. So I was worried sick by the end of the afternoon. Heather stepped forward today and was my super hero for the day. Sam and Jonah had their last morning of school. Sam went home with a friend, Jonah went to the beach with next door neighbors, and Heather, Ollie, and I drove out to Quissett Harbor at 2 pm. I stayed in the van with a sleeping Ollie and Heather got in the dinghy to row it out to Windbird to be there when TowBoat US arrived to dive on the bottom. The wind was strong from the SW which meant she was rowing right into it. I would never have been able to do that, and even she was struggling. But all of a sudden the TowBoat US boat was coming into the inner harbor. She waved them down and explained that she was our representative and Dan invited her aboard and towed the dinghy out to Windbird. He dove on the boat, reported back to Heather, and she called me on her cell phone to give me the updates. It soon became obvious that the damage was not disastrous and soon Dan returned to the boatyard dock with Heather and Windbird’s dinghy in tow. He then showed me the photos and I was quite relieved. Little Ollie slept in the van while all of this was going on, and when he woke up, he wanted to see the tow boat. Heather took him out on the dock to see it and then it was time to hustle back to East Falmouth to pick Sam and Jonah. Heather then insisted that we head to the oncology center to check on Mark. He was walking out of the building as we drove in, so I got out to drive him back to Heather’s. There we finished an email he had started to the insurance company and got it sent off before the 5 pm deadline and Heather carried their 4 hp Mercury motor out to the car. She was convinced that Mark was going to further injure his shoulder rowing out to Windbird in the strong winds, thus the loan of the motor. It hadn’t been started for a few years, but once we got it on the dinghy, it started right up. And she was right. It would have taken us forever, plus strained muscles, to get out to Windbird rowing against the wind. Thank you, Heather, for all of your support and help today.
It is too soon to tell what kind of side effects Mark is going to have with his new treatment, but he is fast asleep already tonight—exhausted. He was supposed to go to a 6:30 am meeting at West Marine, but instead he will get our dinghy motor to shore to start the repair process. He will then go to work at West Marine at 9:30 am and hopes to be able to make it through the day. I’ll be off to the beach with S, J, and O. It is the first day of Camp Oma.
Note: Today’s photos show Ollie getting a set of ‘big boy’ Legos as an end-of-the-school-year present. He opened his present when we first arrived in the morning and Granddad helped him build before taking off for his treatment.
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| 150624 Day 257 Cape Cod, USA–Ollie with Legos; Heather Hitches a Ride with TowBoat US |
