Day 293, Year 10: Happy Birthday, Coco
Date: Thursday, July 30, 2015
Weather: Most Cloudy and Windy, Rain in the Evening
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, MA
Happy 3rd birthday to our granddaughter, Coco Annabelle. We talked to her tonight and she demonstrated her skill at riding on her new ZUM balance bike that we gave her as a present. She was three today, but Justin says she is already talking about getting her own apartment. She is one of a kind! Happy Birthday, Coco.
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| 150730 Day 293a Cape Cod, USA–Coco on Her ZUM Balance Bike |
Windbird is also one of a kind. She is one tough old bird. She was hauled out of the water this morning, and upon first inspection, she looked great. She had a huge amount of growth on her bottom and the bottom paint and a little fiberglass were rubbed off the bottom of the keel and rudder, but there were no major problems to be seen. That is, until Mark took a closer look. The back edge of the keel is actually split from the pressure of grounding on a rocky bottom. Otherwise, she just needs bottom paint. We might be underestimating the amount of work it will take to repair the rudder, but we are thinking we might be able to do the repairs ourselves and not even file an insurance claim. We will get an estimate from the yard here tomorrow and make a decision on what we will do after reading that. But we are greatly relieved that there was not more damage.
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| 150730 Day 293b Cape Cod, USA–Windbird Haul Out |
Sam, Jonah, and Ollie loved being here at Fiddler’s Cove this morning to see the boat hauled out of the water. We were three minutes late getting Sam to class at noon as the boys really wanted to hang around to watch the bottom being power washed. But I finally pried them away and left Mark to do the inspection. Poor Ollie and Jonah were in the car for an insanely long time today as we drove Sam to class in Woods Hole (about 20-25 minutes from here), turned around and drove back to pick up Granddad, drove back to Woods Hole to pick up Sam, and then drove into Falmouth to get some lunch. But they were troopers and there were no complaints. We had dinner at Heather and Jed’s tonight and then drove back to Fiddler’s Cove to spend the night aboard Windbird on land. Sleeping aboard is not a problem, but doing anything that requires running water is a no-no until Mark gets a drain hose connected to the thru-hull from the galley sink. When he gets that done, we can drain up to five gallons of water before having to empty the bucket. So we’ll only run water when absolutely necessary. We’ll eat out some evenings and eat at Heather and Jed’s some evenings. The bathrooms in the clubhouse here are great, so all ablutions will be done there. The biggest problem is going up and down the ladder. But it is only for a couple of weeks, so we’ll survive quite nicely.
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| 150730 Day 293c Cape Cod, USA–Windbird's New Home |
