Ouch!

Monday, March 16th, 2009 | Florida | Dallas

Several days of preparations have followed our first sail. Wes has just completed the only remaining major repair, fiberglassing the recently welded water tanks back into the hull.. We’ve made several final store stops at Wal-Mart, Lowe’s, West Marine, and several other places to stock up on provisions and close out our to-buy lists. We are currently planning one stop in the US before heading offshore, but we’re trying to get as close to fully stocked-up and ready as possible since we’re selling our land transportation and any getting around in the future will be by foot, bicycle, rental car, etc..

Wednesday we made the dreaded stop for immunizations by needle. The number of shots was reduced to only three (typhoid, tetanus, and hepatitis A) by planning to get the shots we need for Asia and Africa while we’re in Australia. This lessened the severity of our day of reckoning, but created a second one late this year. After a lengthy briefing on various diseases and health-related travel recommendations at a local travel clinic, Wes, Tiffany, and I each got the three shots, tetanus and the smaller shot in the left shoulder and tricep and the 1 mL shot in our right shoulder. We were sore for a couple of days, but other than that, no ill effects and they were probably the best administered shots we’d had, so not bad, all in all. The other valuable item we received was a prescription for Cipro which we could have filled for free at Publix. Apparently Montezuma’s revenge (traveler’s diarrhea) can now be eliminated in 3-4 hours with one Cipro and one Imodium. That’s good news, as we’re almost certainly going to have a hard time resisting the chance to have some good tacos in Mexico.

Speaking of Mexico, we’re changed our route for two reasons. Ken Liddiard gave us the idea and it seems to be a good one. Instead of travelling through the Bahamas and then through the windward passage to stop in Jamaica, we’re planning to leave Ft. Pierce and stop in Isla Mujeres (a Mexican island just off of Cancun) on our way to Panama. The route west of Cuba should have better winds overall and should be much faster as we’ll only be making one stop. It should also be much cheaper as the Bahamas have a much higher cruising permit fee and are more expensive in general. Time is a bit of a concern for a couple reasons. The first is that we’re a bit behind schedule and need to get through the Panama canal as soon as possible to make sure that we get to northern Australia before the hurricane season starts in December. The second is that we’d really like to find the time for Lauren and I to attend Brett and Aida’s wedding in Lima April 18th. We’re hoping to make it to Panama in time to catch a flight from Panama to Peru. We’ll see.

In the meantime, Ken talked us into getting a windsurfer (WEEND-suffa in Rhodesian). He explained its utility as a general diversion, alternate method of getting to shore, and as a vessel for fishing reefs (just tie a line to the mast, surf over the reef to catch dinner, throw it onto the board, and surf back). He found a place in Jacksonville where we could put one together from all used components so we went ahead with it. It will take up a bit of space lashed to the deck, but it’s already been a lot of fun. Lauren and I went to the community where Ken is staying while visiting his daughter and he’s given us lessons in the lake on the property. Windsurfing is apparently one of those things that a lot of people try and then quit in fairly short order. The learning curve is a bit steep, but once you’ve got the hang of it you progress fairly quickly. We’re still in the “getting the hang of it” stage, but we’re getting closer. After spending more time in the water than on the board yesterday, I was able to stand up and do much better today. The first hard part is learning to balance on the board while you pull the mast & sail up out of the water with a line attached to the mast just above the wishbone boom. Once you’ve pulled the 15 ft mast & sail out of the water with the sail pointed directly into the wind, you have to balance things upright then move your hands onto the wishbone, turn the sail into the wind, dip it forward to catch the breeze, and then pull it in or out as the wind dictates, using your body as a counter-balance. Any sort of balancing isn’t exactly my strong suit, but I’ve managed to sail a few feet and am said to be very close to actually moving forward through the water. At any rate, we’re now looking forward to windsurfing throughout the trip. Lauren got her turn to try today, our second day, and wasted no time in catching up. A seasoned dancer, her balance is much better than mine and she wasted no time in balancing on the board and pulling up the mast. With her trying her hand at windsurfing, I had to be patient, but I finally got it — a great shot of her trying to make me feel better about all the time I spent in the water yesterday by taking a head-first dive off the board. You can see Ken hanging out on my surfboard giving some instruction and staying well clear. He put on a good show as well. After assembling the windsurfer for the first time yesterday, he boarded it from the dock, sailed it across the lake, turned it around (no small feat in the light winds as it involves walking to the other side of the board while you swing the sail about), and sailed back to the dock, climbing up with only his feet wet!