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.

June 30, 2011

Dahlia and I watch Deason from the jetty.

Deason's group in the Flying Scot in Vineyard Sound with Nobska light in the back ground.The Flying Scot on the left, sailing with the 420's.

Deason has started sailing lessons this week! He was reluctant to go, why, I am not sure! At first he was refusing to go, but we told him he only had to try it for a week. If he liked it, he could continue or if he hated it he could stop after the first week!
On the first day when Chris was walking him down to the yacht club, (it is only a quarter mile down the street at the end of Falmouth Harbor....conveniently close) Deason said "how many days do I have to do this?". On the way home he said, "what time do I get to go tomorrow?". So he loves it!
He is doing the "learn to sail" program right now, which has about ten kids in the group and they learn knot tying and rigging, and they all sail together with two instructors on a 19ft Flying Scot. Once he and the instructors feel that he is ready, he can go to the Opti sailboats.
On Fridays they have a free day for kid and adults they call it "Funky Fridays", they do bail-out races, sculling races, and the kids get a chance to try out the different sailboats. I told Deason that Chris and I were going to go, and he said we couldn't (but his undertone was that he didn't WANT us there), I think he is starting that phase where he is embarrassed by us?????

June 26, 2011

I know I did a lot of complaining about the weather over the winter, and this is what makes it almost worth it. I really can't think of a place I would rather spend my summers. Maybe it is because it is home, but I really think the beaches here are some of the best I have been to. Dahlia is much more fun to bring to the beach this summer too, she no longer tries to ingest everything on the beach. Deason didn't share my same opinion, because Dahlia kept trying to walk through the harbor he and Aidan were creating in the sand!

June 21, 2011

We went out on our second trip of the year! Deason was off on adventures with my Dad visiting grandparents, so we kidnapped my friend Kristin for the trip. Wasn't a far trip, we just wanted to get out. We motor-sailed over to Vineyard Haven, dropped the anchor to have some lunch and bask in the sun. It turned out to be our first swim of the year too. I had no intention of going in the water (the water temps were still in the low 60's from the poor May weather), but as I was scrubbing the crud off of the transoms with a cleaning brush, Dahlia decided that she wanted to help. The brush that I was using was of course too big for her hands so as she was cleaning it fell in the water. And because Chris had insisted that shouldn't give her the brush, refused to go in after it.
I have to say that it wasn't that bad once you were in. There was that initial "take you breath away" feeling, but by the time I had gotten the brush and gotten back to the boat it didn't feel that cold, granted I wouldn't say it felt warm either. And because Dahlia wants to do everything I am doing lately, she had to come in too. Although, she was in and out, in and out, in and out. Every time she got in, she would try and climb up my body trying to get out of the water saying cold, cold, cold...over and over again until she was out, then want to get back in as soon as she was back on the transom. After Dahlia came in Chris had to come in too, and we harassed Kristin so much that she finally went in just to quite us down!
Kristin is graduating from PA school in August, and hopefully she will be joining us on our trip down south before she has to start working.