Voyage 2017: Chapter 1

27 Jan 2017, A January to Remember, 33 55.842 N/ 077 59.79 W

The temperature in Southport NC was forecasted to drop into the teens on 5 January so we decided to winterize Jule III. Things did not go well. The Capt. got frustrated and angry. All of a sudden he was spilling things, droping stuff into the bilge, and not the sharpest knife in the drawer. We would not know the seriousness of the situation for two more days. As we were driving back from Florida, we decided that maybe we should contact our doctor. He was not happy! He was confident that I had a stroke. Bob got a CT scan as we arrived in ILM. Doctor was right. Within 15 minutes Bob went from emergency room to ICU at New Hanover Regional Medical Center (NHRMC).

It was late in the day, so we were waiting for a teleconference

with the on-duty neurosurgeon. Consensus was that Bob had a deep brain bleed. Maybe that is why his left side was weak and numb. The damage was done as a follow-up scan indicated that the damage had not spread. His brain was a bit wobbly but not bad. He was discharged on 8 January with the advise that he was extremely lucky and most of his symptoms would fade. They cautioned him not to take aspirin for a month to minimize the chance of another bleed.

On 24 January, we were driving from the boat back to Wilmington. About fifteen miles out of the city, Bob had chest pains, suddenly and most intense with lots of sweating. Ann called '911', told him the situation, and requested that NHRMC ER be alerted of our arrival. We got to the ER 15 minutes after the initial pain. It was really hurting now and nothing that they gave him helped. The doctor said "you're having a heart attack ('Widow Maker'). The world changed! There were green clad people everywhere. Bob was lightly anesthetized, carted to the Cath Lab, vaguely heard a doctor say "I got most of the clot". The pain disappeared! Bob thanked God!

It appeared that he had been without aspirin too long and one of his old stents was spawning clots. An echo cardiogram indicated that his heart has sustained damage. The hope is that it will heal in a short time. We should know before the May Shakedown cruise if everything is mostly OK. Bob was scared and he had serious thinking to do about life and cruising. As time marches on, he is hopeful that his diet, exercise, and prayers will give him many more years! Again, the doctors said that he was very lucky. Yep!

3 Mar 2017, Winter Mini-trip to Florida, 33 55.842 N/ 077 59.79 W

The Captain is feeling better, so the RV trip to Florida is still a go. We normally go on such a trip when we haven't done a sailing trip in the summer or fall. This trip was a little more than a two weeks where we pretty much stayed at two camp grounds, Fort Clinch (Fernandina) and Manatee Hammock (Titusville). Weather was perfect for the whole trip!

Manatee Hammock is one of our favorites. We were lucky to be there as the campground received damage from Hurricane Matthew. It was net certain that we could get reservations. But we did. The only difference we noticed was the South side of the grounds had a bit less foliage. One of the more original sites was a 6-monther that decorates her site for every celebration. Valentines Day was the latest she decorated for.

We were lucky enough to be at Manatee Hammock during a space launch at Kennedy Space Center. Though it was delayed once, the Space-X (Dragon 9) launched around 0930 heading for the Space Station (on our picture, you can see a little blob of light in the sky before it disappeared in the low clouds. About 8 minutes later, we saw another flash of light land nearby. It was the first stage of the rocket returning with a safe landing. Several minutes later we heard the supersonic boom from the re-entered spacecraft.

That same day, we attended St. Teresa of Avila Church in Titusville for Sunday Mass. This church is administered by a Polish order of priests that have close ties to this community. St. Teresa is a modern church with a mix of young and older parishioners. We had the opportunity of attending Mass twice while we were camping in Titusville.

Of course our main objectives for the trip to was visit friends and cruising buddies who were in the area. Our special friends, Harry and Sheila (and our god daughter Stephanie) were tops on our list as were Sally and Bob of SV Endaxi and Barb and Bob formally of SV Barbobasea. We also met up with Mary and David formally of SV Mon Amie and Evie and Jack of MV Eldridge C. for lunch. Finally, we attended one of the Happy Hour celebrations at the Vero Beach Marina and met many old acquaintances. Not bad.

Finally time to head back to ILM. We stopped off at Fort Clinch for a one night stop-over at Fort Clinch. We visited the Fort and checked out the facilities. Though it was no a day for tours, we could check out the varied exhibits there. They are still working on the Fort to clean up after Hurricane Matthew. The last day, we swung back to Beaufort SC to see Jinny and JW of SV Over Budget. Five hours later we were home.