Day 295, Year 9: Quissett Harbor to Fiddler’s Cove Marina
Date: Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Weather: Partly Cloudy, Temp in the 80’s
Latitude: 41 38.864 N
Longitude: 070 38.187 W
Location: Face Dock at Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, N Falmouth, MA
Today we made the move from Quissett Harbor to Fiddler’s Cove Marina and the theme of the day was ‘alarms’. We left Quissett at 6:05 am and by 6:20 the high water alarm was screaming. Mark ran down to the engine room. I gave him a few minutes and then went down to ask, “Is it an emergency?” His answer was a quick, “Maybe.” Great! But without words, the tone of his voice told me to get back up into the cockpit to handle the boat and wait for a report. We did not have any sails up as there was very little wind and we had a strong adverse current. So were moving quickly back to where we started. I was able to change our direction so we were drifting out into Buzzards Bay instead of toward shore, so I then relaxed and waited for the next report. After 15-20 minutes of waiting, Mark reappeared and reported that the problem was not a true emergency and that he would have it under soon. A rusty hose clamp had given way and water was gushing from the engine into the bilge when the engine was running. With the engine off, we were no longer getting water in the bilge, but Mark was having a very hard time getting the hose back onto the engine fitting. By 7:15 am I got the go-ahead to start the engine and head toward Fiddler’s Cove. We had an 8:30 ‘date’ at Fiddler’s with Heather and Jed. They were delivering the boys and the van to us there and then heading to Woods Hole as Jed had a 9 am meeting. We made it with about 5 minutes to spare. Whew! Sure glad Mark suggested we start out early. You just never know what issues you are going to encounter.
Mark’s fix on the hose lasted until we got into port, but then it came off again and he needed peace and quiet to work on it. So I took the boys for a walk. We took water, chips, and books and planned to explore and snack and read. We found a picnic table by the water with a grassy area for Ollie to run in while we read. It seemed perfect. But eventually all three boys ended up running in the grass and then Sam found some old dock posts to climb on. Of course, the other two joined him and I was taking photos of them when I realized that Sam was up on a post with beautiful green leaves surrounding him. ALARM. Through the lens of my camera, those green leaves looked a lot like poison ivy. I ran over to the posts to check out the greenery, and indeed, it was poison ivy. I panicked. Heather, Jed, and boys are headed to Maine tomorrow for a week’s vacation with Jed’s family. Three little boys itching from poison ivy would be no fun at all. So I rushed them back out to Windbird, had them all take off all their clothes, and started dumping buckets of salt water on them. Mark came to help and I ran into the boat to find a bottle of castile soap that has been in the cabinet for years. Either Heather or Justin brought it aboard and it has been there ever since. Today I was glad that I had kept it as it is the perfect thing to wash off the oils of poison ivy. Combined with the salt water, hopefully we have averted a miserable vacation. BTW–Castile soap is olive oil and sodium hydroxide (lye). In order to get Jonah to let me put the soap on him, I had to tell him it was magic soap. And sure enough, when I looked up Dr. Bonner’s Pure Peppermint Castile Soap on the internet tonight, it is advertised as ‘magic’ soap. So let’s hope it works.
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| 140812 Day 295 Cape Cod, USA–Fun at Fiddler's Cove and in the Yard at Home |
The weather report for tomorrow looks miserable with heavy rain and wind. I doubt that they will really haul the boat out of the water tomorrow if the forecast holds true, but we are continuing to prepare for that. In any case, Mark and I will leave in the morning and head to Kennebunk, Maine to visit my sister-in-law Sue and her husband Brad. We will let the crew here at the marina deal with Windbird. Hopefully she will be hauled tomorrow or Thursday, have the bottom painted by Friday, and sit on land for the weekend to dry. Then early next week, she will be back in the water. In the meantime, we will stay at Heather and Jed’s while they are out of town.
