Day 317, Year 8: Fall Weather Has Arrived
Date: Monday, September 16, 2013
Weather: Overcast with Light Rain Early, N Winds Increasing to 20-25
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
The north winds are blowing tonight and with them comes that chill that tells you fall is here. I’m sitting here with my polar fleece on. We still have the boat wide open, so even though it is 65 degrees inside, the wind blowing down the companionway is ten degrees cooler. We heard from Chris and Geoff on Shambala today and Chris said it is very ‘cool’ in Nova Scotia and that they are definitely not going to sail on to Newfoundland. All she said was, “What were we thinking.” It looks like we have a couple of more days of this and then it warms up a bit. But it is that time of year, so those warm days become treasures.
Mark put the thinking about dinghies on hold today and went back to rebuilding the floor in our aft cabin. He is making progress, but it is not a simple task. We’re hoping to have the work done this week, but refinishing the floors in the aft cabin and head will have to happen later. This puts extra pressure on Mark to do the job as neatly as possible so we can live with it for now. We picked up 33 pounds of organic heirloom tomatoes this morning from Peach Tree Farm and I spent part of the afternoon starting to process them. That job will continue tomorrow. When they are all blanched, peeled, deseeded, and pureed, I can then start cooking them down to make sauce. The actual canning will probably happen on Wednesday. Mid-day we met EJ, the dinghy repairman, to exchange dinghies. He returned our dinghy and picked up his dinghy which he loaned us while he was trying to repair Baby Bird. He was able to slow the leak down a bit, but she still deflates enough over a few hours that we have to pump her up every time we get into her. This is probably going to push the dinghy decision back to the forefront pretty quick.
We had an early dinner at Heather and Jed’s this evening and then kept the boys while H & J went to meetings. They both went to a 6 pm Parent University meeting to learn about the school system’s new math program. Heather came home after that, but Jed had to stay in town for a Board of Selectman’s meeting. Jed is the current Chair of the Board of Health for the town of Falmouth and they are still dealing with a wind turbine issue. Long story short, the town bought two wind turbines that are a bit outdated and the vibrations and noise level from them have caused health issues for citizens who live near-by the installations. After a long heated battle and a public vote to keep the turbines running, tonight the Board of Selectmen made the decision to run the turbines during the daylight hours and to extend the hours they are run overnight. We were all sharing the one car today as H & J’s van is in for some body work and a rental is not available until tomorrow. This meant that Mark and I had to stay in town until Jed’s meeting was over and he could bring us back to Woods Hole. Two families trying to share one car is difficult, especially with all of our crazy schedules. The crazy schedules continue tomorrow. We will again have dinner at Heather and Jed’s and then keep Jonah and Ollie while Heather, Jed, and Sam go to Sam’s elementary school for a “Meet the Teacher” night. Those lazy days of summer are gone.
