Monthly Archives: May 2017

Back in the USA — Southeast; May 5-15, 2017

Georgia

We flew in to Savannah on May 5, and the next day drove to Statesboro, GA to attend the cum laude graduation of Kristen Johnson, our granddaughter, from Georgia Southern University.  Saving seats for us in the football stadium were Danielle, Barb’s daughter and Kristen’s mother, and Abigail, Danielle’s other daughter.  Knowing that the restaurants in small-town Statesboro would be packed, we all returned to Savannah for lunch after the ceremony.    

On May 8 I kept an appointment with my Savannah dermatologist.  Last Fall she had removed a small basal cell carcinoma from a spot under a fold of my right ear.  By the time she called to say that the removed tissue was indeed skin cancer and that more needed to be excised, we were already back in Bonaire.  So the return visit on the 8th was to complete the removal.  This time, the tissue was examined as I waited, so I would leave knowing that “enough” had been removed.  But what to do about the cavity?  She fussed and fretted about trying to stitch it closed, but muttered that there wasn’t enough tissue in the awkward spot.  She fussed and fretted about a skin graft maybe being needed, but thought it would probably just eventually “fill in”, and finally settled on that plan after I told her I wouldn’t be in Savannah long enough to have a graft monitored and/or stitches removed.  She gave me a 24-day supply of antibiotic and a supply of “duoderm” thin skin patches to be placed over the incision site and replaced every three days.  After the second replacement (six days later) Barb noticed a hard white area in the middle of the site.  Oh oh.  Infection?

(Hang on to your hats, folks.  We are about to enter a fold in the time dimension and skip location and way ahead in time to “finish” the story of the ear.  Barb was able to sound sufficiently alarmed to get an almost-immediate appointment with a dermatologist in Bismarck, ND, who subsequently informed us that the white area was exposed cartilage.  Further, he opined that it was highly unlikely that the area would fill in by the neighboring skin growing over, and that if it did not, the cartilage would dry out and die, leaving an area vulnerable to infection.  He suggested that he monitor the site regularly and decide whether to attempt to find a plastic surgeon to do a skin graft.  Several days later, his office called to say he had made an appointment for me with a plastic surgeon.  Long story short:  the surgeon decided the best of several alternatives would be to remove the cartilage and replace it with skin harvested from my body elsewhere.  So there would be an area in my ear that would essentially consist of just two layers of skin:  one on the back of the ear facing toward my head, and the other the replacement skin facing in the other direction out from my ear.  

As I write this I have had the operation (under soft anesthesia similar to that used for colonoscopies) and am wearing an awkward contraption designed to protect the ear while the graft heals.

OK.  Back through the worm hole in the time dimension.  That is, back to our account of our activities in the Southeast.)

                                                                                                                                                                                                         

North Carolina

On May 11 we drove to Charlotte in a one-way rental car, where we changed to a round-trip rental and continued to Asheville to see Devi & Hunter, old cruising buddies formerly on Arctic Tern.  Hunter was in the hospital when we arrived.  He had a hip replacement some three years ago, and it did not go well.  Exploratory surgery revealed an infection, so the hip was removed and temporarily replaced with an antibiotic-saturated temporary replacement to occupy the space while he receives daily antibiotic shots over a period of months.  We visited briefly with Hunter and then accompanied Devi to a restaurant for dinner and then spent the evening with Devi in their home.  It was good to see them both; we just wish it had been in better circumstances.

Early on May 12 we drove to Boone, NC and had lunch with granddaughter Jessie.  We then went to a huge nearby Airnb home where we would spend the weekend in celebration of Jessie’s magna cum laude graduation and our mini-reunion, since we were joined by my daughter Nellie, her husband Michael, their two sons Michael and Connor, and Nellie’s other daughter, Katie.  Later that night Jessie’s girlfriend Deja joined us.  Staying at the house, as opposed to separate hotels or motels, turned out to be very good strategy.  It gave us much more time to socialize together as we prepared meals, cleaned up afterwards, watched TV, and so forth.  Great visit. 

The actual ceremony, held in the huge field house on the campus of Appalachian State University,  was on May 13.

On May 14 we drove back to Charlotte, where we eventually found a restaurant (Chris Ruth’s) not already fully booked for a Mother’s Day dinner.  We stayed in a motel that night, and early the next morning took a series of flights to Bismarck, ND.  But the details of that visit will have await the next exciting edition of our blog.

Omnibus Post — Bonaire and Curaçao; March 16 – May 5, 2017

Bonaire

Our experiences and activites during our last 5 weeks in Bonaire were to a large extent an extension of those discussed in the previous post.  We attended the Monday evening fish ID classes given by Kim White.  We exercised on weekday mornings at the Bonaire Health and Fitness Club, and then usually went for a local walk in the Kralendijk area.  We took the pickup to several more remote locations for extended hikes on established hiking trails, including one to the north near Rincon and another to new-to-us areas in the east.  And although Bill and I passed, Colleen and Barb enjoyed visiting the donkey sanctuary.  And of course we continued to dive, although Barb and Bill much less so.  I did most of my dives as a solo diver at night, enjoying the challenges of learning new techniques and new creatures. (I will hold back my underwater photos for another post.)

We continued to fuss and fix the pickup, including replacing two broken rear windows after suffering a bit of random vandalism.  (Actually, it turned out to be cheaper to just replace the whole rear doors with ones obtained from a local salvage shop.)

When the 7-yr old 25 hp Yamaha outboard developed problems — it would not stay in reverse — we investigated and found worn gears and worn linkage.  Unfortunately, we could not find a replacement motor with electric start.  Barb was especially concerned.  In the end, we decided to purchase a new 30 hp Yamaha motor, manual start notwithstanding.  All of the exercise at the gym is paying off:  Barb can indeed start the beast.  Fortunately, the Yamaha dealer was willing to serve as a broker for the old motor and we got a good price when it sold “as is” almost immediately.

We did a fair amount of socializing with a local resident of Dutch descent:  Paulien Wijnvoord.  She is keeping our pickup on her property while we are gone.

 

Curaçao

Tusen Takk II and Dolce Vita made the 50-mile passage from Bonaire to Curaçao on April 25. (Celilo had crossed about a month earlier in order to be free to accept an invitation to crew on a vessel that was going to visit Cuba.)  Long time readers will remember that we leave the boat in Curaçao because there is not suitable facility in Bonaire.  

When wind and sea conditions resulted in Dolce Vita not being able to keep up with TT2 on sails alone, she switched to motor sailing.  Alas, after a time she developed fuel problems: clogged filters due to dirty fuel.  A change of filters did not suffice to clear the problem.  This was worrisome, because the final leg of the trip to Curaçao Marine past the Queen Emma swing bridge and then down the relatively narrow channel through Willemstad could not be done under sail.  We slowed down to stay with them, and readied lines in case we would have to tow them to the Marina.  Colleen sailed while Bill spent most of the trip trying to combat the problem; there was so much “snot” in the fuel that the lines clogged as well as the filters.  He ultimately resorted to disassembling the filter assembly and to using compressed air to clear the lines.  Shortly before we neared the opening Colleen announced on the VHF that the engine was running again.  We sent DV in first, and we all held our breath as we made our way to the Marina.  They just made it!  How do we know it was “just”?  Because the engine wouldn’t start some days later when it came time to move from slip to haul-out dock.  

Tusen Takkk II also had issues on the trip from Bonaire to Curacao.  Several hours into the trip we noticed that the engine temperature as indicated on the pilothouse gauge was running a bit high.  We went down into the engine room and took direct readings near the temp sender with an infrared gun thermometer.  The readings looked fine.  So the question became:  was the method of measuring internal temp with the infrared gun flawed, or was the pilothouse gauge wrong.  We consulted with Bill via VHF and he urged that we test the system by increasing our RPMs to see if the temps would continue to rise, and if so, would they level off at some point.  So we kicked the RPMs way up, and watched the two conflicting indicators as they both rose.  We stopped the experiment when we got a “high temp” warning alarm on the console at a temp that would presumably be OK but high on the infrared gun.  Lower RPMs brought the temps down to “just slightly” high, and we continued the rest of the way without incident.  After we got on the hard I removed the heat exchanger and found that it was indeed partially blocked.  Conveniently, MRC, which has a shop adjacent to the Curacao Marine offices, was able to flush the exchanger with muriatic acid and render it squeaky clean.  I reinstalled the exchanger before we left Curacao, but will have to wait until we splash again next Fall to see if that has completely resolved the problem.

Kings Day

On April 27 we suspended our chores early and drove downtown to join the throngs celebrating Koningsdag or King’s Day, a national holiday in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The date marks the birth of King Willem-Alexander.  Up until 2013, when Queen Beatrix abdicated and was succeeded by her son Willem-Alexander, the holiday was known as Koninginnedag or Queen’s Day and was celebrated on 30 April.

The streets and stores were packed — every citizen of Curaçao must have come downtown!  And to do what?  Strolling and eating and drinking and people watching and shopping at the vendor booths and stores, many of which featured special prices for the day.  (We bought a sound bar for our TV at a price better than what is available in the USA from discount houses!)

Visit to Museum Kura Hulanda

On April 29 we took another break and visited the Museum Kurá Hulanda – the museum with the largest African collection in the Caribbean.  Opened in April 1999, the museum is the vision of Jacob Gelt Dekker who founded and privately funds (initial investment $6 million) it through the Jade foundation. Museum Kurá Hulanda is an anthropological museum that focuses on the predominant cultures of Curacao. It offers a world-class chronicle of the Origin of Man, the African slave trade, West African Empires, Pre-Colombian gold, Mesopotamian relics and Antillean art.

Back at the Marina

For a number of years we have been using, with only limited success,  PropSpeed to protect our rudder and propellor from fouling.  But it is quite expensive, and so last fall we decided to try priming and then applying bottom paint.  See below for some impressive modern art.

Foggy Flight Home

We flew to Savannah on April 5.  I guess there was a lot of moisture in the air.  See below.