Day 195, Year 9: Sunday Fun Day
Date: Sunday, May 4, 2014
Weather: Mix of Sun and Clouds, Dibble Dops of Rain, Temp Near 60 degrees F
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, Massachusetts
Mark works at West Marine on Sundays, so he was off to work today while I spent my Sunday as a fun day with SJ&O. Jed left early this morning for meetings in the Raleigh/Durham, NC Research Triangle and he drove the car to catch the bus to Boston at the Bourne Bridge which goes over the Cape Cod Canal. So Heather and I took off with all three boys and headed to the bike path that runs along Cape Cod Canal for some biking fun and to pick up the car. Neither of us had really noticed how very windy it was, but by the time we got to the bike path, the wind was blowing a steady 20 miles per hour with gusts as high as 40. Sam is a strong biker, but even he could not go far when biking into the wind. So we decided to change course and go have lunch. Then Sam, Jonah and I headed for Windbird while Heather took Ollie home for a nap. Sam and Jonah really wanted to play on and around the boat, but again the wind got in the way of some of our activities. Sam wanted to take the dinghy out to practice rowing, but I was afraid the wind would sweep him out to sea. I attached a very long rope to the dinghy which allowed him to go out pretty far and then he could pull himself back by the rope. While Sam did this, Jonah used a tennis ball and one of the little fishing nets to play lacrosse. Later in the afternoon, I got in the dinghy with Sam so he could row to the other side of the marina. Jonah decided to walk as the wind was just a little too wicked for him. Once on the other side of the marina, we walked to the beach and played for a bit. But the wind was chilling, so even that activity was cut short. When it was time to row back to Windbird, Sam gave it his best go, but he was rowing straight into the wind and just didn’t have the strength to fight it. I’m a terrible rower, but I did have the strength and Sam gave me great directions. “More on this side, Oma. Now more on that side.” I could trust his directions explicitly and didn’t even have to turn around to see where I was going. Maybe he can teach me to be good rower.
Mark and I meet with the marina staff at 8 am tomorrow morning to discuss the haul-out and then we’re off to take care of Jonah and Ollie for the day. It is still going to be very windy in the morning, but possibly by tomorrow afternoon they can haul Windbird out of the water and get the bottom painted on Tuesday. Tuesday and Wednesday look like low wind, sunny days which will be good for painting. The wind returns on Thursday. So hopefully we’ll be back in the water before then. If the weather permits we’ll leave here on Saturday and head for our new summer home in Quissett Harbor. We’re beginning to wonder if we have made a mistake by not returning to Eel Pond in Woods Hole for this summer. It was such a great place, so protected. But the constant worry about hitting other boats because the mooring balls are just too close together and the hassle of finding a spot for the dinghy every time we went to shore caused us to make the move. Quissett Harbor is beautiful, but it won’t be as protected. We’re anxious to get there and see how it is going to work out.
