Upon my return to the boat on February 3, I discovered Keith wasn’t feeling well. He said his symptoms had just started the day before with a scratchy throat, and a tickle in his lungs. Additionally, the area was bracing for another weather front to move through, with high winds expected from the north. So, we settled in for 5 days of bad weather, and during that time his cough got a little worse, and a stuffy nose joined the list of symptoms conspiring to make him feel terrible.
On Feb 8 things calmed down enough for us to start moving south again. With the girls back at home, it was time to put some miles behind us and get farther south. Our plan was to check out of the Bahamas, and check into Dominican Republic before the end of February.
White Point, Great Guana Cay
February 11 to Farmers Cay - Keith is still sick, and has moved to the recliner to sleep☹️
We don’t often see this, but I guess line of sight for the helms-person is obstructed.
Took a nice hike to try to find that cove, and eventually we did find it…sadly it was full of plastic trash.
While exploring we came upon this very cool cave, with a large pool inside.
Keith was still feeling badly, but we were hoping some fresh air and sunshine would help.
Found this beautiful anchorage near Darby Island
On February 13, we arrived at Georgetown, Great Exuma. Our original plan was to stay for 2-3 days to reprovision then continue south. However, we discussed the need to stay here until Keith was better, because this is the ‘end of civilization’ until we reach DR. Great Exuma is the southernmost Bahamian island that benefits from tourism. Crooked Island, Acklins Island, and Great Inagua are farther apart, involve ocean passages, and have a much lower level of resources.
After two more days of suffering, he finally went to a doctor in Georgetown, and was diagnosed with a sinus infection. On Feb 16 he started a ten 10 course of antibiotics, and by day 3 he was feeling a little better.
February 20 - We met up with our friends Eddie and Gail, and Keith was feeling well enough to take a walk on the beach.
Stocking Island is beautiful!
On February 22, we decide Keith is well enough to travel. He had been taking the antibiotic for a week, and was feeling much better. He still had a cough, and felt tired, but that was to be expected given the length of this illness. We headed into town one last time to get rid of our trash, and pick up a few pieces of fruit. Provisioning at this point is a delicate balance, because I don’t want to run out of freshies, but I also don’t want to overbuy and have to throw things in the ocean before checking into another country.
I was anxious to leave…I am not a huge fan of Georgetown…300+ boats when we were there😕
Access to the dinghy dock is pretty cool, and it is in the most protected spot ever…
On February 23 we traveled to Thompson Bay, Long Island. It was only 30 miles away from GT, in the event Keith’s condition changed, but got us out of the hustle and bustle of Georgetown. Watching the weather closely, we saw a potential window on Feb 26 that would allow us to cross the Crooked Island Passage. It wasn’t a perfect window, but the following week looked like a decent window would open to allow us to jump to Great Inagua (to check out of the Bahamas, and do an overnight crossing to check into Dominican Republic) so decided to take this opportunity to move farther south so we would be staged when the next opportunity arose. Keith still didn’t feel great, but felt much better.
On February 26 (the day Keith took his last antibiotic) we left Long Island for the Crooked Passage
I would call the conditions ‘sporty’, as we saw 3-4 foot waves on our port bow. The waves hit at a perfect angle to explode on the front of the boat and spray sea water all over the windows. However, it wasn’t a horrible ride, because we have stabilizers to keep the boat from rocking back and forth.
Crooked Island, and Acklins Island make a nice horseshoe shape to form an area that offers wonderful protection from ocean swell. On the evening of February 26, we crossed the Bight (shallow waters between the islands) and snuggled up closely to the shoreline to find good protection from the coming winds.
The red spot shows our anchor location, and for 7 days the wind screamed at 25-30 mph from the east and northeast. We were in a perfect place, and had excellent protection, but during our time there Keith’s condition deteriorated! He was still sleeping in his recliner, because of the persistent cough, and rarely moved from the recliner during the day due to exhaustion.
On February 28 he woke up calling for me, and when I got to the cabin he was on the sofa, practically, in tears because of severe pain in his knee. It was swollen, and he couldn’t bend it or put any weight on it. My first thought was tendinitis caused by the antibiotic. We started a hot/cold compress regimen, and he started taking OTC pain relievers.
Over the next few days, his cough was getting worse, and his knee was very painful, so we didn’t attempt to leave the boat. He slept a lot, while I worked on quiet sewing projects in the pilot house. Up until this point, he did not have a fever, and his blood oxygen was always in the 96-97 range. However, on March 3 he developed a low grade fever. He was exhausted and just wanted to sleep. At 6:00 p.m., after sleeping all day, he woke and called my name. When I got to his chair, he looked terrible. His color was wrong, his skin looked clammy, and heat was radiating off of him. His temp was 101.5, his oxygen reading was 90, and he was complaint of pain across his chest.
We are in a very bad location for this to be happening. There isn’t really a town on this island, no hospital or emergency services, as we might be used to having access. The very first thing I did was make an all call on the VHF for any vessel who could hear me. I got no response! There had not been another vessel in sight for many days. Next, I started by searching online for Acklins Island resources, police or medical number. I knew everything would likely be closed by this hour, and now it was getting dark. I went to my Bahamas FaceBook group and posted a brief description of the situation, and asked for help.
At the same time, Keith gave me a number for the USCG in Miami Florida. I didn’t expect them to come get us, but I thought they might be able to help me with communication with local authorities. They confirmed they couldn’t help, and didn’t really have any contact info, but they were able to put a USCG flight doctor on the line to talk with me.
His first question was, “what medical supplies do you have onboard?” I believe I carry a very comprehensive first aide kit, but I didn’t think any of my supplies would help with this. He asked if I had oxygen??? I told him I never even knew that was an option. He said every cruising boat should carry oxygen, “…given that it is cheap, easy to get, and almost always the first thing we reach for to stabilize a patient.” I have done some research since, and it seems neither cheap nor easy to get🤷♀️. Anyway…
Then he asked about drugs onboard. Did I have antibiotics…YES!!! Thankfully, when my finger met the anchor chain last summer, I asked the doctor who stitched me up to give me a prescription…just in case. I ran to the medicine cabinet to retrieve the bottle, and once I shared the info, he instructed me to give Keith one immediately. He said the doctor in New York really did us a favor by prescribing such a strong and broad spectrum antibiotic. It is listed as the best option for severe lung, bone, and skin infections…yay…something went right.
Once I got off the phone with him, I returned to the FaceBook post, and was overwhelmed by the incredible response. As I scrolled through helpful ideas, I came upon one post the gave me the cell phone number for the police officer and the nurse on the island. I started with the officer, who answered right away and ensured me they would do everything possible to help us. He instructed me to call the nurse, and together, they would find resources to help.
Nurse Judy also answered her phone immediately, and agreed that Keith needed to be seen. I established that I could launch the dinghy and bring him to a dock, and she was working to find someone pick us up at the dock to drive us to the clinic. She said, “usually I would have no problem getting someone to pick you up, but right now, the island is out of fuel. Most cars have not moved for a few days, and our earliest hope of getting fuel is Saturday (this was a Sunday). I told her that I would load extra fuel into my dinghy, and would happily put 5 gallons of gas in the tank of whichever car picked us up!
We agreed to meet at the dock at 8:45, however, at that point I realized that once I left the boat I would have no cell service (because we use Starlink) so I triple checked that we were picturing the same meeting point. Thankfully, we launched the dinghy, and I was able to navigate the total darkness to get him safely to the dock, where none other than nurse Judy herself picked us up.
At the clinic, she was able to stabilize his breathing with nebulizer treatments, and his oxygen level came up to 93. He did have a gurgling sound in his left lung, so everyone was thinking pneumonia.
We returned to the boat at 11:30 that night, with a wide array of medicines, and the agreement to meet her at the dock again the next morning to return to the clinic. Again, she took him to the clinic where he was seen by a visiting doctor. Steroids were added to his medication list, and the difficult task of trying to get him off the island began.
The wind was still uncooperative, producing 8-10 foot waves in the passage, so the possibility of returning to Great Exuma by boat, was out of the question! As I previously mentioned, this island is remote. It does, however, have a runway, but is only visited by a plane two times each week…on Saturdays and Wednesdays…so I needed to get him on Wednesday’s flight out. And of course, Wednesday’s flight was booked. Nurse Judy to the rescue again…she contacted the airline representative for the island, and was able to get him on the plane.
It was unnerving to have him ‘stuck’ on the boat in this condition, for two more days, but his oxygen was holding at 93 and the antibiotics were, once again, making him feel a little better. The steroids were helping both his lungs and his knee. The time spent also allowed for me to have a crash course in all of the things that usually fall into Keith’s wheelhouse…
* engine room checks
* water maker
* pump out
* battery status and energy management
It just so happens a weather window was opening on Friday to allow crossing the Crooked Passage, and I was going to move the boat ‘back to civilization’ to await his return. At this point I must tell you that I had many wonderful offers of help, but if someone would have flown into Acklins on Saturday (the next possible opportunity) we would have missed the weather window and could be waiting another 7-10 days…not an option.
On Wednesday morning (March 6) nurse Judy picked him up at the dock to drive him to the airport. Without a doubt, Nurse Judy was our angel!!
With Keith flying toward medical care in Atlanta, it was time for me to return to the boat and prepare for departure.
My first challenge was to get Alma Joy onto the top deck and strapped down. This has always been a two person job, so it took a little planning, but all went well. Thankfully, the wind finally stopped blowing and conditions were very calm making the task much easier than it could have been.
My plan was to tackle the trip in three legs, trying to cover no more than 50 miles each day…with the (green) passage day occurring on the good weather window, Friday, March 8. The first two legs went smoothly, but on the third day, during an engine room check, I discovered a raw water leak on my port engine.
At first, I saw the water droplets, then I noticed the salt residue…it took a more careful inspection to see the tiny pinhole stream of water shoot out from the oil cooler (can you see it?)…UGH!! I immediately ran back to the pilot house, grabbed my phone and climbed back down into the engine room to get some pictures. My first call was to Keith…no answer😬.
My next call was to my son Matthew (retired USCG Chief Engineer) who happened to be driving to work. He thought it was safe to keep the engine running, as long as the temperature remained in the normal range. He also suggested I drop a rag over the leak to stop it from spraying all over the place (that was a very helpful tip). He promised to look closely at the pics and video I sent, when he got to work, and call me back. In the meantime, I reached out to several other mechanically inclined family and friends, who confirmed I could keep the engine running. Special thanks to Eddie, Allan, and David for giving me reassurance that morning, because heaven knows I certainly didn’t want to blow an engine on my watch!
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Keith update: when he arrived in Atlanta he went for a chest xray. The xray showed fluid in his lungs, but no pneumonia. He was then sent for a CT, and was admitted to the pulmonary observation unit of the hospital to undergo a variety of tests in an attempt to determine the cause of the fluid and inflammation. Eventually, he was diagnosed with angioedema (inflammation of the upper respiratory system) caused by a ‘rare’ side effect of the ace inhibitor, lisinopril, which he had been taking for 5 years.
He was released from the hospital on March 8. They said it could take up to a month for his lungs to heal. Keep in mind, at this point he was just finishing the antibiotics prescribed in Acklins. He was feeling better, but his oxygen level was still hovering around 93-94. By Wednesday, March 13 he was back at Urgent Care with a severe sinus infection…round three of antibiotics.
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When I was finally able to reach Keith, he confirmed that it was fine to proceed to my next anchorage using both engines. The next day (March 10) after the engines were cool, and I had a chance to scrub away all of the salt, I FaceTimed with Keith so he could walk me through a temporary repair.
Step one was to go down the line to the next heat exchanger and make sure there was no clog causing pressure. Once that was confirmed, I reassembled everything here, and moved to the repair.
After sanding and cleaning the surface, I applied a two part epoxy putty, which worked very well! The boat has traveled about 300 miles since this repair, and the area remains dry!
During the third leg of my trip, I decided to change my destination from Georgetown to Thompson Bay. If I was going to sit, for a week, I wanted to be in a place I liked. Still close enough to easily access the Great Exuma airport if needed, but far enough away to protect my sanity😉
After the engine repair, my next agenda item was to get some fresh fruits and veggies onboard. Again I had to wait out some strong winds, but on March 12 I headed to the store. At that time, I hadn’t been to a grocery store (other than the two apples and two lemons I bought on our last day in Georgetown) for over three weeks. However, I didn’t want to deal with launching and reloading Alma Joy so I decided to launch a kayak.
It was a little challenging to exit and enter the kayak from a dinghy dock ladder, but I made it work.
Heading home with my freshies😋
The next day, March 13, is when Keith was prescribed his third course of antibiotics, and I knew sitting in this location to await his return was no longer an option. It was time to start moving the boat north. Again, it really didn’t make sense to try to fly someone in to help. I wouldn’t expect someone to arrive with an open schedule of ‘however long it takes’ and I didn’t want the added concern of having a schedule to meet, to get people to and from airports. It just felt easier to go it alone. However, I so truly appreciate all of the offers of help! So many people were willing to drop everything (some were quite insistent;) and come to my rescue. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
Since leaving Acklins, I have traveled almost 400 miles. This pic shows each leg of this journey…the yellow dots are where I anchored. I am happy to report I arrived in the Berry Islands on St. Patrick’s Day. Perfect timing to join friends for an evening beach party.
Hanging with my tribe…now I can relax a bit, in the safety of being among friends.
At the moment, the plan is for me to remain here and wait for Keith to heal enough to join me. We are hopeful he will be here in a week or two!
Sadly, our plan to hop down the Caribbean chain have been cancelled, for this year. It will be too late for us to start the trip in April, due to hurricane season, and quite honestly I want to really be sure Keith is fully recovered before we get too far from the U.S. That just means some other adventure awaits for this summer, and we will start planning now, for an early start down the islands in the fall!
