July 28, 2011

I can't believe Deason has already completed 5 weeks of the 8 week sailing school. We knew he was going to like it, but we didn't know that he was going to love it. He races down to the yacht club everyday, and hates to have to miss a class. He even likes rigging and de-rigging the boats. He knows more about sailing than I do...just ask him!
He is now in the Opti-1 class. They sail these little Optimist sailing dinghy's, which are designed to be a single hand sailboat for kids, but when the kids start out they double up, one kid on the tiller, and one on the main sheet. They sail out in Vineyard Sound, but to get out of the inlet of the harbor the kids get towed by a powerboat that the instructors drive. The kids who sail the 420's get to sail out of the harbor, but I am sure they don't want a bunch of eight/nine year old kids clogging up the inlet as they try to tack back and forth on their way out of the harbor. Its much faster and safer for everyone if they get towed.

July 28, 2011-Post by Deason

In sailing school we sail opti's and prams. There are 25 kids in my class. Sometimes the rigging is hard and sometimes it is easy. When the lines are tangled in the sail the rigging can take a while. We get towed out of the harbor by a motor boat. When you get out of the tow line you have to clip in the mainsheet to the bridle on the boom before we can sail. We sail out to the buoys and race around them. When we sail we go 6 knots on a windy day, or 4 knots when it is not so windy.

July 27, 2011

Dahlia would be completely happy if someone would read to her all day!
Chris's shoulder is healing faster than he or I expected, his range of motion is almost back to normal, and he has even able to swim. Thank goodness for small miracles...it would have been a bummer if we were held up by him not healing. As of right now, we are planning on leaving around Labor Day. My last night of work will be August 21, and then we will spend some time just tying up some loose ends, and be ready to leave on any nice day.

July 24, 2011

In the beginning of the season, when Deason started working with the dock staff again, he came home with a pocket full of money one day. He informed us that the dock staff was tipping him for helping them. We told him that he was not to take money from the dock staff because they work hard for their money, but if a customer or boat owner wanted to tip him, that was fine. We made him return all the tips that day to the staff who had given him the money, but apparently they have found a way to give Deason tips anyway. When he came home with this envelope filled with cash....all I could do was laugh.

July 23, 2011

Deason has taken really well to the sailing lessons. He wakes up every morning looking forward to going. The other day he said "I wish there was sailing lessons on Saturday". Which is funny, because we practically had to drag him there the first day. He has also been using his dinghy that he and Chris built more often too. He rowed all the way from our boat to the end of the harbor and back the other day, which is at least a quarter of a mile each way. I am not so sure I could do that.

July 19, 2011

Dahlia and I killed time at Ben & Jerry's, while Chris was in surgery.
Chris had surgery on his right shoulder today, it has been bothering him for the past year, and it has slowly been getting worse. He had surgery on his left shoulder a few years back and now has more range of motion in it than he ever had, even when he was a kid.
So, he decide that while we are here on the Cape he had better get the right one fixed too. He had to be to the hospital by 10am, and was out by 2:30. He had the same surgeon that did his left shoulder, which was a relief. Plus, he was even able to get him in for the surgery in less than a week after his initial office visit.
Everything went really well, he had some calcium deposits that needed to be cleaned up, and some inflammation of his rotator cuff muscle, and that should heal without any problems now that the impingement is gone. He starts physical therapy in a few days and should be back to normal in no time.

July 11, 2011

The Flying Scot!

July 10, 2011

My Aunt, Uncle and Grandmother came down from Fitchburg for a visit, and we couldn't have asked for better weather. It was warm and dry with a light breeze. If we hadn't just got back from Tarpaulin Cove we would have taken the boat out for the day with them. As it was, we had a great day. Thank you Grammy for the delicious desserts, they didn't last long!

July 9, 2011

Deer in the morning!






We finally got out for an overnight trip. We motored over to Tarpaulin Cove for the night, we could have sailed, but our new stack pack (sail bag) doesn't quite fit right and needs some modification. We are awaiting an extender to attach it to, because currently it is attached to the topping lift (which is the line that holds up the boom). The pack is designed to stay open when the sails are raised having the topping lift as a support, but when we sail, we adjust the topping lift. This particular stack pack is designed to attach to the topping lift assuming that it won't be adjusted. Hopefully, the extender will be an easy solution.
The motoring went well, we have had no problems with overheating since last year. Which is a wonderful thing! We did however have some trouble with our windlass. When we tried to lower the anchor the windlass just wouldn't work. It wouldn't go up or down, it just kept clicking with no action at all. It took about ten minutes of motoring around while Chris inspected it, and finally got it working (the solution: hitting it with a hammer). It sounds absurd, but more often than not that seems to be a solution to fixing things on the boat. I am not sure how or why that works....maybe some equipment just needs to be shown who is boss.
Once we got the anchor set, it was paradise. Deason and I swam ashore, while Chris and Dahlia met us on the beach with the dinghy. The beach on the island is beautiful, sandy and not crowded.
One of the many things I like about anchoring is that we usually go to bed early and wake up early, both Chris and I were awake before six and had the benefit of seeing the small deer that was grazing on the beach right off of where we were anchored. Very peaceful!

July 7, 2011

Deason is positively thriving here at MacDougalls, and all the dock staff still insist that he is an asset. So, he helps them out almost everyday. He has been helping wash boats, and helping on the fuel dock, and his favorite...of course, is driving the pump-out boat. He has become very good at driving AND docking the boats. I feel like we are getting more than we pay for, Deason has basically been doing an apprenticeship for free.