Happy Christmas and a terrific New Year to all our friends and family!
We are at our second home, Marathon, FL for a planned two month stay. We arrived after a wonderful weather window from Fort Pierce. Sorry to upset anyone but it's been blue skies and mid-70s for a while now. Hoping it stays that way for our entire stay. Okay, unlikely. We have had less than ideal winters here.
From Ft. Pierce we went down the ICW to Lake Worth, West Palm Beach. The air temperature AND the water temperature was 74 degrees. I took advantage of these conditions to go for a swim in crystal blue water to check the props and keels for any damage from our time aground at Riverside Marina in Ft Pierce. Just a little bottom paint missing from our port keel. 4 inches high - two feet long. Not bad. We've done that before! We discovered that we broke our new transmission on that side of the boat. The actuator shaft that goes into the transmission itself has a pin or bolt at the end of it to engage the power forward or aft. That pin is gone so the engine only goes forward and cannot be put in neutral or reverse. We're hoping it's an easy repair and covered under the waranty. We'll see. It's always something. From West Palm we went offshore all the way to No Name Harbor on Key Biscayne, Miami, FL. A very long day, 0645 to 1745. The great weather continued as we went to Islamorada area and then had a great sail in the Hawk Channel all the way to Marathon. So here we are as the outstanding weather continues.
We met people we've known from previous visits and have found that the mooring balls were all filled the day after we arrived. It's getting too popular here. Pass the word... it's boring here, nothing to do, no shopping or restaurants, unfriendly, just stay away!
I'm taking it a little easy as I recover from my prostate procedure but I've already played some softball with no major side effects. Just the usual early season soreness. Holding off on batting until next week. Yoga starts tomorrow for Carol and we'll be fully into the community here as we get through the holidays.
Heather arrives in a few days and boyfriend Mike arrives two days after Christmas.
Once again Happy Holidays to our friends and family! Please try to keep any news of bad weather up there off the internet. It tends to make us gloat and feel smug. That's not good for us.
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Friday, December 12, 2014
Fort Pierce
It's a few days away from the end of our stay in Fort Pierce, FL. What an adventure! BTW, we HATE adventures!
After Wrightsville Beach we went to an anchorage we've used in the past right on the NC/SC border. Then we went to a marina in Myrtle Beach for laundry, fuel, showers and a chance to meet with one of Carol's former co-workers for dinner. Carol inspired her to retire and they upped and moved out of Connecticut to Conway, SC in record time.
It rained while we were in Myrtle Beach but the weather improved after a gale blew through the next day. It forced us to find a new spot to anchor in the Wacamaw River, but that wasn't bad. Thanks Skipper Bob!
We stopped in a spot we used early in our ICW cruising just north of Charleston and then went offshore out of Charleston Harbor. Because we were not as close to the ocean as we usually are we got to the ocean and turned south in late morning instead of our usual early morning. We had a decent offshore and overnight passage with following 1-2 ft seas and 10-15 kts directly on the stern. Overnight we had a brief time when the wind shifted west and gave us some beam seas but all in all it wasn't bad.
We got to St. Augustine in late afternoon and picked up a City mooring. We got showers and fuel and got underway in the morning. Back in the ICW. The next day was an easy leg to New Smyrna and then the whole theme of this years' southern cruise changed dramatically. UGH!
About 0300 I awoke to extreme abdominal pain. Gas! Constipation! Food poisoning! Something! Something bad.
After several hours of delay for male stubbornness and denial we had Fire/Rescue and the USCG take us to shore and to the nearby hospital. Minutes from our boat to the ER. There I got pain medications and a CT scan. They were happy to tell me that of all the nasty possibilities I only had a kidney stone. ONLY! 5x6 cm. That's big. And no previous symptoms. This was the start of my 'procedures'.
A stent to my kidney. Lithotripsy to blow up the stone with sound waves. And then one more time under anesthesia to remove the stent and remaining stone pieces with a basket. A basket up in my kidney! I still shudder thinking of that one. Unfortunately all these body invasions left my plumbing very annoyed and swollen. I had trouble urinating and it was decided I finally had to deal with my long term prostate issues. BPH.
I spent five days in Bert Fish Medical Center, an OUTSTANDING facility with amazing staff, and left on Thanksgiving Day. 10 am discharge, underway at noon. We had planned to be in Fort Pierce for Thanksgiving with our long time friends, Mike and Carol but we were a few days late.
We anchored in Faber Cove for about a week while visiting and Carol went off to work. Then we got a slip in a real crappy (but cheap) marina so we could drive back up to New Smyrna for one more procedure, a T U R P. It's a removal of parts of the inside of the prostate from the inside of the prostate. No external incisions. Figure it out. Just one night in the hospital which was cheating because it's supposed to be day surgery (NO WAY!) and one more night in a hotel in nearby Daytona Beach and we came back home to the boat. After a day we removed my catheter. FINALLY, after two weeks! This was a trade of one discomfort for others but the new discomforts are fading daily.
This we hope will be the end of our adventures (medical or otherwise) for a while. We get underway Sunday for Marathon unless other sh... I mean stuff happens.
Christmas in the Keys are still the plan.
this fine looking liquid is my urine between "procedures"
After Wrightsville Beach we went to an anchorage we've used in the past right on the NC/SC border. Then we went to a marina in Myrtle Beach for laundry, fuel, showers and a chance to meet with one of Carol's former co-workers for dinner. Carol inspired her to retire and they upped and moved out of Connecticut to Conway, SC in record time.
It rained while we were in Myrtle Beach but the weather improved after a gale blew through the next day. It forced us to find a new spot to anchor in the Wacamaw River, but that wasn't bad. Thanks Skipper Bob!
We stopped in a spot we used early in our ICW cruising just north of Charleston and then went offshore out of Charleston Harbor. Because we were not as close to the ocean as we usually are we got to the ocean and turned south in late morning instead of our usual early morning. We had a decent offshore and overnight passage with following 1-2 ft seas and 10-15 kts directly on the stern. Overnight we had a brief time when the wind shifted west and gave us some beam seas but all in all it wasn't bad.
We got to St. Augustine in late afternoon and picked up a City mooring. We got showers and fuel and got underway in the morning. Back in the ICW. The next day was an easy leg to New Smyrna and then the whole theme of this years' southern cruise changed dramatically. UGH!
About 0300 I awoke to extreme abdominal pain. Gas! Constipation! Food poisoning! Something! Something bad.
After several hours of delay for male stubbornness and denial we had Fire/Rescue and the USCG take us to shore and to the nearby hospital. Minutes from our boat to the ER. There I got pain medications and a CT scan. They were happy to tell me that of all the nasty possibilities I only had a kidney stone. ONLY! 5x6 cm. That's big. And no previous symptoms. This was the start of my 'procedures'.
A stent to my kidney. Lithotripsy to blow up the stone with sound waves. And then one more time under anesthesia to remove the stent and remaining stone pieces with a basket. A basket up in my kidney! I still shudder thinking of that one. Unfortunately all these body invasions left my plumbing very annoyed and swollen. I had trouble urinating and it was decided I finally had to deal with my long term prostate issues. BPH.
I spent five days in Bert Fish Medical Center, an OUTSTANDING facility with amazing staff, and left on Thanksgiving Day. 10 am discharge, underway at noon. We had planned to be in Fort Pierce for Thanksgiving with our long time friends, Mike and Carol but we were a few days late.
We anchored in Faber Cove for about a week while visiting and Carol went off to work. Then we got a slip in a real crappy (but cheap) marina so we could drive back up to New Smyrna for one more procedure, a T U R P. It's a removal of parts of the inside of the prostate from the inside of the prostate. No external incisions. Figure it out. Just one night in the hospital which was cheating because it's supposed to be day surgery (NO WAY!) and one more night in a hotel in nearby Daytona Beach and we came back home to the boat. After a day we removed my catheter. FINALLY, after two weeks! This was a trade of one discomfort for others but the new discomforts are fading daily.
This we hope will be the end of our adventures (medical or otherwise) for a while. We get underway Sunday for Marathon unless other sh... I mean stuff happens.
Christmas in the Keys are still the plan.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
