Day 313, Year 8: Windbird’s Pharmacy
Date: Thursday, September 12, 2013
Weather: Another Beautiful Day
Location: Eel Pond, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
I spent most of my day dealing with what I call Windbird’s ‘pharmacy.’ When we started out in 2005, we signed onto the WorldClinic. This is an organization based in New Hampshire that outfits world cruisers, mountain climbers, and ‘crazy’ people of all kinds that will be out of the reach of conventional medical care while out adventuring. They specialize in telemedicine. “WorldClinic is the only concierge physician practice that provides immediate emergency telediagnosis and medical treatment at any hour, anywhere in the world, with just one phone call.” At the time, we had our satellite phone activated and we did need to call for help a couple of times in the first year of our voyage. And they do answer the phone after just one ring at any time of the day or night. Dr. Carlin at the WorldClinic outfitted Windbird with enough medicines and medical supplies to deal with almost any medical situation. We still have the big blue medical bag and most all of the original medications. We did have to use a few things, but there are about 25 prescription drugs that we didn’t use that are now way out of date. I had an appointment with my doctor this afternoon for a physical and he had told me to bring in the meds so we could sort through what should be updated. Basic antibiotics and an Epi-pen were at the top of the list to be renewed, as well as Scopolamine patches for seasickness and an Albuterol inhaler just in case. It was a good use of time to go through all of the things we have and to get the basics renewed.
Our friends, Geoff and Chris of Shambala, reached Shelburne, Nova Scotia at 7:30 am this morning, just 30 minutes shy of 48 hours for the total passage. Check-in was very easy and it didn’t cost anything, so Canada gets a thumbs-up for this. They can stay until October 30 and then they can get an extension, but the temperature might dictate a sail back south before then. The yacht club in Shelburne was very welcoming, but they were told that they would have to get off the dock by morning and take a mooring or anchor out due to the high winds expected tomorrow as Tropical Storm Gabrielle brushes past Nova Scotia. Here’s hoping that the next few weeks are warm enough to allow Chris and Geoff to enjoy sailing the Nova Scotia, and possibly the Newfoundland coast.
Mark continued his rebuilding of our aft cabin flooring. He has taken out some of the teak floor boards and has reinforced the sub-flooring. Refinishing the section of flooring is going to be real challenge, but he has a plan and in a few days we’ll find out if the plan works. If not, we’ll go to Plan B. The only problem, however, is that we don’t have a Plan B. But we’ll develop one if needed.
