Day 194, Year 6 A Little Apprehension

Day 194, Year 6 A Little Apprehension
Date: Friday, May 6, 2011
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny Day
Location: Cayo Obispo near Fajardo, Puerto Rico

We are ready for take-off in the morning. We went across the bay this afternoon and filled all three fuel tanks plus four jerry jugs on deck in preparation for our 1200 mile trek from here to Little River, South Carolina. Unfortunately, the weather reports indicate that we will have no more than 10 knots of wind for the next seven days, barely enough to move Windbird forward, so we will probably be motoring for much of the trip. We have everything inside Windbird back in its place and we went to shore late this afternoon to do one more load of laundry and drop off the last bags of garbage. So we really are physically ready to head north. But both of us, me more than Mark, are very apprehensive about ending the Voyage of Windbird. The past five and half years have been magical and just the thought that this phase of our lives is coming to an end is almost unbearable. We are most certainly anxious to see family and friends and to be closer to our children and grandchildren, so I know all will turn out fine. But re-entry into the “real” world is a very scary thought!

Day 193, Year 6 Cinco de Mayo Successes

Day 193, Year 6 Cinco de Mayo Successes
Date: Thursday, May 5, 2011
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny Day
Location: Cayo Obispo near Fajardo, Puerto Rico

Cinco de Mayo was a day of successes for us. First we made the hard decision to not stop in the Turks and Caicos on our way north and to not stop in Florida to visit with Mark’s family. Instead, we will leave here on Saturday morning and head directly to North-South Carolina where my sister lives just minutes from the Inter-coastal Waterway and marinas where we could keep Windbird. With that decision made, we called good friends Leroy and Lynda who live in Little River near the North-South Carolina border and the Inter-coastal Waterway. We met L & L while living in West Virginia in the late 1970’s and have kept in touch. Leroy is into the boating scene and we knew he could find out if we could get a slip in a marina for Windbird if we arrive there in about twelve days. We called via Skype from the laundry room at Isleta Marina. I did load after load of towels and sheets while Mark talked. While talking to Leroy and Lynda, Mark explained his medical condition and asked for advice about urologists in the area. Before I had the laundry done, Leroy called back with details of an appointment for Mark with a urologist in Myrtle Beach on May 18 and of a slip at the Lightkeeper’s Marina for $275 for a month. We couldn’t believe they could actually get an appointment for us and we were ecstatic. Our job was to now go back to the hospital here and try once more to get a copy of all the testing done while Mark was in ER on Wednesday. We called my sister and told her that we would be arriving a couple of weeks early and we called Mark’s sister Mary Ellen in Florida and told here we would not be coming to visit. It was just too hard for us to think about leaving Windbird on the east coast of Florida while we traveled to the west coast to visit with family and get the medical attention Mark might need. In the Carolinas, we can live aboard Windbird while getting medical attention and visiting family. Both places are just about the same distance from here, approximately 1,200 miles, so we will complete our departure preparations and leave here on Saturday morning. With wind and a little luck we could arrive in Little River in ten days doing 5 knots. That’s what we need to do in order to make the May 18 appointment, but it looks like we could have very light winds. We’ll just have to get out there and see how things go.

Mark returned the rental car early this morning, so we spent the afternoon walking from the ferry dock to the hospital (and back) to try and get copies of Mark’s testing. We had tried this yesterday morning and were told that there was no way to get the records until May 18, but today we tried a different tack. We now know our way around the hospital and know how to find people who can speak English to help us out. It took persistence and assistance from some wonderful hospital employees, but by the end of the afternoon we had a CD with Mark’s body scan results and all of the blood and urine tests as well as a copy of the physician’s notes. So we can hand deliver these to the doctor in South Carolina which will speed up the diagnosis on that end.

I lied–not intentionally–in last night’s log. I said details of the past few days would be in tonight’s log, but that just isn’t going to happen. It is only 7:30 in the evening, but I am already fading. I’m looking forward to the ten day passage north. It will give us a chance to recoup and regroup.

Day 192, Year 6 Another Long Day

Day 192, Year 6 Another Long Day
Date: Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Weather: Mostly Sunny with Sprinkles Here and There
Location: Cayo Obispo near Fajardo, Puerto Rico

I just reread the log I wrote last night and it made me realize just how tired I was. I tried to recap the activities of the last few days, but none of the beauty and excitement from those days came through. And it was 9:30 pm when we got home tonight and once again the energy to write a coherent log is just not here. Long story short-we spent the day chasing down doctors and driving many miles inland to find a urologist who could see Mark this afternoon. The end result is that we will head straight back to the US sometime later this week. The doctor confirmed that leaving the catheter in buys us enough time to get to either Florida or South Carolina where we can have the necessary testing done to fully diagnose the problem. So tomorrow morning we return the rental car and go into the marina to do piles of laundry. In the afternoon we will go to a different marina to fill up the fuel tanks. We will get the boat ready and then be on our way. Ten to twelve days later, we should be in the US. Interesting, we will not have to check in there as checking into Puerto Rico serves that purpose. In fact, Mark has been able to use his Medicare and Blue Cross-Blue Shield Supplemental insurance here as well as his prescription card. So the two days of medical services haven’t cost a penny yet. I know we will have to pay some once everything is processed, but we were lucky to be in US territory.

I have so many other points of interest I would love to share from the past few days, but I keep falling asleep. Details will have to follow tomorrow.

Day 191, Year 6 Lonely Oma and Granddad

Day 191, Year 6 Lonely Oma and Granddad
Date: Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Weather: Partly Sunny
Latitude: 18 20.194 N
Longitude: 065 37.410 W
Location: Cayo Obispo near Fajardo, Puerto Rico

The children have all gone home and Windbird seems so empty. Saturday was our last full day in the beach house on Vieques and we ended our time together on the beach watching the sun go down. On Sunday we took Justin, Jo, and Ziggy to the ferry at 5:45 am so they could get back to San Juan and enjoy the afternoon there before flying home on Monday morning. Heather, Jed, Jonah, and Sam spent a last hour on the beach on Sunday morning before the rain came down. We checked out of the beach house by 10 am and stopped at the fort in Isabel Segunda before traveling on to Esperanza and back to Windbird. After loading Windbird to the hilt, HJJ&S climbed aboard and we set sail for Green Beach on the west end of Vieques. We continued to have rain off and on for the remainder of the day and unfortunately had to motor most of the way to our destination for the night, but we were so excited to have Heather’s crew onboard that we simply ignored the yucky weather. Sam designated himself co-captain and busied himself following granddad around and learning about Windbird. Once we reached Green Beach we went for a dinghy ride to the beach and Sam did the driving. Sam is so into boating that Jonah is going to have a hard time competing, but once we are back on Cape Cod, we’ll certainly give Jonah his fair share of boat time. Monday morning was much nicer with a mix of sunshine and sprinkles all at the same time but we took the boys out in the dinghy while Heather and Jed had a delightful snorkel. We got photos of nudibranchs eating a sea fan and a conch eating an urchin. Then we pulled ourselves away and headed to Cayo Obispo across the channel from Fajardo. It had been a calm morning, so we were taken by surprise when we found ourselves bashing into twenty knot winds and two to three meter seas. The initial bounciness caused Jonah to be truly seasick and the rough conditions continued for the first two-thirds of the trip. Finally we got to a place where we could head more westerly and things settled down so we could enjoy the a little sailing.

It is now about 10:30 on Tuesday night. Heather, Jed, Jonah, and Sam just sent a text message saying they have arrived in Boston and are in the van headed home to Cape Cod. After dropping them at the airport this morning, we headed to the hospital emergency room to have Mark’s urinary tract infection checked out. The good news is that the antibiotics he has been taking have cleared up the infection, but that is not the primary problem. After seven hours in the emergency room, we found out that Mark has an extremely distended bladder. After much testing, the doctor decided to insert a catheter and drainage bag to drain backed up fluids from the bladder and the decision was made to leave the catheter in place until we can get an appointment with a urologist. We have a referral to a doctor here, but if he cannot see Mark in the next couple of days, we will simply leave here ASAP and head straight for the US leaving the catheter in place until we get there. Mark is enjoying his new status as the “bag man”

110503 Day 191 Cayo Obispo, Puerto Rico–Saying Farewell to HJJ&S

Day 190, Year 6 Vieques to Cayo Obispo, Puerto Rico

Day 190, Year 6 Vieques to Cayo Obispo, Puerto Rico
Date: Monday, May 2, 2011
Weather: Partly Sunny
Latitude: 18 20.194 N
Longitude: 065 37.410 W
Location: Cayo Obispo near Fajardo, Puerto Rico

We started our day with an underwater explore off Green Beach. Actually Sam drove the dinghy with Granddad’s help and dropped Heather and Jed off to snorkel near the shore. I was in the dinghy holding Jonah who decided to nap which gave Heather the chance to escape. Eventually Mark got in the water and Sam tended the dinghy while I was still holding Jonah. Jed came back to the dinghy to report that he had found some Flamingo Tongues, a type of snail, chomping away at a sea fan. This type of snail actually has a white shell that looks much like a cowrie shell, but when they are feeding, the soft parts of their body cover the shell. The soft parts are off-white with well defined brown circles filled with yellow-quite beautiful. Jed also found a live conch eating a sea urchin, so Mark and took the boys back to the boat to get the underwater camera while Jed went to get Heather so she could take a look. They had both been snorkeling in different areas and both really enjoyed the sights. We got a couple of photos and then decided it was time to head back to Windbird and sail away to Puerto Rico.

The sea was a little rougher than we had anticipated and we ended up with a sea sick Jonah. But after one up-chuck, the seas settled a little and everyone except Mark and I napped their way to Cayo Obispo. We returned to the same place we had anchored over a week ago and Mark and Jed took the boys to shore for an explore while Heather packed and I fixed dinner. We called to reserve a car for tomorrow morning when we will take H, J, J, & S to the airport in San Juan. Then we head to the Emergency Room to see what we can find out about Mark’s plumbing issues. He doesn’t feel like he has an emergency, but there is no way to get an appointment with a doctor, so the ER will have to do.

110502 Day 190a Vieques, Puerto Rico–Underwater Off Green Beach
110502 Day 190b Cayo Obispo, Puerto Rico–Vieques to Cayo Obispo

Day 189, Year 6 Back to Windbird

Day 189, Year 6 Back to Windbird
Date: Sunday, May 01, 2011
Weather: Partly Cloudy with Sprinkles
Location: Green Beach, Vieques, Puerto Rico

With tears in our eyes, we said farewell to Justin, Jo, and a sleeping Ziggy at 6:15 am as they walked out to the ferry. We then returned to the beach house and started packing up. Sam was such a help. He literally carried or drug every single crate and bag of food from the deck to the front door. Then he and Jonah went to the beach with Jed while Heather, Mark, and I completed the packing and cleaning process. The beach crew got rained out, so we left a little early and headed into Isabel Segunda to visit Fortin Conde de Mirasol, the last fort built by the Spaniards in the Caribbean. We then drove to Esperanza to unload the rental car. While Heather and I were packing things away on Windbird, Mark, Sam, and Jed drove the rental car back to Isabel and got a ride back to Esperanza. As quickly as we could, we took off for Green Beach on the western end of Vieques. We got there in time to do a little exploring on the beach but there were just toooooo many mosquitoes. So it was back to Windbird for dinner. Tomorrow we will do a little underwater explore here and then head on to Cayo Obispo, Puerto Rico.

110501 Day 189a Vieques, Puerto Rico–Fort in Isabel Segunda
110501 Day 189b Vieques, Puerto Rico–Back Aboard Windbird with HJJ&