Day 352, Year 6: Back to Daily Life
Date: Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Weather: Partly Sunny and Cooler
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Early this morning we took off with Kitty and Tom to take them to Providence. Kitty got off at the train station and we took Tom to Budget to rent a car to drive to Maine on a business trip. I had only met Tom once, and very briefly, many years ago at a public radio conference and I had never met Kitty before this weekend. Yet it was hard to say farewell this morning. We had such a wonderful time sailing together with them this weekend. And we know that it might have been the last good sail of the season. So in a way we were saying farewell to them and to the sailing season. We’re hoping that is not the case, but I don’t know how we can expect another perfect weather weekend like this one.
We stopped at Kingman Marine on our way home. Kingman is where we will spend the winter and we have been having a back and forth “conversation” about getting our boat covered for the winter. We did this ourselves in Boston, but Kingman won’t allow us to do our own work. They require that we use their contractor and the cost is really outrageous. They want $33/foot to do the work, and that won’t give us a cover with doors and headroom. We have found a contractor who will do the work for $11/foot if we build our own frame, but Kingman will not allow him to do the job. It is a most frustrating situation, but we refuse to pay their price. So it looks like we will be using tarps to cover the boat. It will be less than ideal, but it will work-and cost a fraction of what they are asking. Once back in Woods Hole, I picked up the boys from school while Mark parked the car and walked over to Woods Hole Marine to find out when we will be able to bring Windbird to the dock. It is going to be another week, but the weather is supposed to stay in the upper 60’s/lower 70’s for the rest of this week, so that should be fine. We don’t need heat with those temperatures. Once on the boat, the boys played for a bit and then went down for naps. They surely do look like little angels when they are asleep, and today they were especially endearing. During their nap, Mark packed the stuffing gland around the prop shaft as it had started leaking more than usual and that required some pretty loud tapping. But Sam and Jonah slept right through it. When they did wake up, they wanted to know what Granddad was doing, so he took them back to look into the engine room and give them an introductory lesson-Engine 101.
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| 111011 Day 352 Cape Cod, USA–Sam and Jonah Get Engine Intro |
