Day 288, Year 10: Messing About in Boats
Date: Saturday, July 25, 2015
Weather: Sunny, Windy, Cooler—High Temp 72 degrees F
Location: Quissett Harbor, Falmouth, MA
Today was all about messing about in boats . . . breakfast in Windbird’s sunny cockpit, early morning kayaking and “dinghying” around the harbor, and just generally enjoying life on the water. The morning got off to a good start thanks to me and to Jed. Sam is notorious for getting up EARLY and when you are in the confines of a 42-foot sailboat, keeping an eight year-old early riser quiet while everyone else sleeps can be quite a challenge. Add a six year-old brother who sometimes gets up early as well, and you have double trouble. Last night I told Sam and Jonah that if they got up early this morning they could play Minecraft on our phones if they were very, very quiet. This is a video game that is very popular with the young ones. Sam and Jonah are allowed to play it once in a while, and since they love playing it so much, it is a treat to get time to do this. So I figured this morning was the perfect time. They were up sometime between 6 and 7 am and were fairly quiet for over an an hour without any adult intervention. I got up just before 8 o’clock and started fixing breakfast. Shortly after that, Jed got up and he ‘policed’ the crowd while they were eating. Heather and Ollie slept in a little longer and finally, just before 9 am, Mark got up. By this time Sam was off to the beach in the kayak and Heather and Jonah swam to shore. At least I think that was the order of events. Whatever, Ollie wanted to go in the kayak, so we took the dinghy to shore for the big boys and Heather and we took off in the kayak. It was a beautiful, quiet ride and Ollie really did hold his own paddling. We paddled to the rocky islet in the middle of the harbor that the Goldstone boys claim as their very own island (only visible at low tide) and we watched three strikingly beautiful birds, American Oyster Catchers, using their long, bright orange beaks to feast on clams for breakfast. The last time I saw oyster catchers was in New Zealand, so this was a special citing. Sam and Jed went to the dock in the dinghy to do a little fishing while Jonah and Granddad played chess and ate pretzels in the cockpit. As I heard Heather saying at this point, it was a most civilized morning. But it had to come to an end as the whole gang was invited to an 11 am birthday party. The Goldstones took the dinghy to shore and left Granddad and I on the boat. They were having such a good time that they wanted to return after the birthday party. Mark and I both actually took naps and then regrouped for the afternoon. Heather and Jed had offered to do the work if Mark wanted to go out sailing, but he really didn’t feel up to it. This new chemo treatment is much harder on him and he just needs more rest. So when H, J, and boys returned, we headed to the beach, leaving Granddad to rest. The temperature today was only about 72 degrees F, a good 10-15 degrees cooler than the past few days, so Ollie and Jonah eventually got cold and wanted to go back to Windbird. Jed and I stayed on the beach with Mr. Energy, one Samuel Goldstone, who moves so fast that he wouldn’t know if he was cold. And just as I was thinking of going back to the boat, Brian Keefe, H & J’s next door neighbor, arrived on the beach with his two little ones, Molly and Joey. Eventually we all ended up on Windbird for an impromptu party of sorts. The five kids were a bit rambunctious at times, but I thought they played amazingly well together in such a small space. At one point they were all on deck and Jonah started singing the sea shanty, “What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor?” Heather had just said something that prompted Jonah to sing, “Put her in the brig with the captain’s daughter”—and Sam immediately retorted by saying to Jonah that she (mommy) WAS the captain’s daughter. We all got a good laugh out of that one and then the pirates continued marching around the deck singing the shanty. Before the Keefe’s headed back to shore, Molly was doing some art work with Jonah and she wrote a thank you note to Mark and I—totally on her own. She and Jonah are the same age and I was pretty impressed that a six year-old would think to write a thank you note just for having her onboard the boat. And four year-old Joey hugged me when he was ready to leave. I see him almost every day at Heather and Jed’s, but this was my first hug. Good kids.
So it was a delightful day in Quissett Harbor messing about on boats. Many of the smaller classic sailboats that call Quissett Harbor their home were out and about this afternoon, so we enjoyed watching them as well. All in all, it was just a good day.
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| 150725 Day 288 Cape Cod, USA–Sunday in Quissett Harbor |
