Day 344, Year 7: Windbird’s Clean Bottom
Date: Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Weather: Sunny, High Temp in Upper 50’s
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Steve Murphy, a Falmouth firefighter, dove on Windbird this afternoon to
clean the bottom and the prop. Although Mark usually does this job himself,
the water temp was 59 degrees F and that’s too cold for Mark. We hired a
diver in South Africa to do the job for the same reason. I think my
Christmas present for Mark this year might be a 7 mil wetsuit. He has a
dive skin, but it doesn’t even keep him warm in tropical waters. So it is
time for something more serious. Steve reported that the bottom looks great
and that whatever paint the folks at Fiddler’s Cove put on our prop did the
job. Things had grown on it, but he could easily knock off the barnacles
without scraping. He had not experienced this before and wanted to know
what it was. We don’t know what was used but we will find out and report
that to those of you who might be interested. It looked like gray primer
paint and it wasn’t expensive like Prop Speed AND it did the job. That is
definitely a product worth noting.
Oliver spent his morning on Windbird with me while Heather worked and Mark
went to see Dr. Crook, his oncologist here on the Cape. He had blood tests
on Monday and got those results today. Everything looks great. This was
his last visit with Dr. Crook as he will do all of his follow-up at Mass
General with Dr. Kwak. His next scan will be on the 29th and he will meet
with Dr. Kwak the next day. We are hopeful that he will get another good
report and that we will head south knowing all is well for now. You can
never be sure with cancer, but all indications at this point are that he is
free and clear. Fingers crossed.
Tomorrow morning we will sail or motor to Falmouth to fill up with diesel
fuel and pump out the holding tank. When we return, we will pull into our
slip on the dock. At that point, we will be ‘almost’ ready to sail away.
Mark does want to go up to the mast to check the rigging and put up the
gizmo that helps to deflect lightening in case of a strike. Otherwise, the
captain feels like we are ready for the trip south. We will spend time
tomorrow and Friday getting ready for Justin and Jo’s visit and then on
Saturday we will head to Boston to pick them up. We are supposed to have a
cool and very rainy Friday and Saturday, but then the weather looks good all
the way through next week. That would be such a gift while Justin, Jo,
Ziggy, and Coco are here staying on Windbird.
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| 121017 Day 344 Cape Cod, USA–Windbird's Clean Bottom |
