And Here We Are and Here We Go

Well, we made it to Jolly Harbour from Falmouth Harbour although still in Antigua. We have also provisioned the boat so the cupboard is no longer so bare. So what's next. Well, next is now slightly different than the next was before.

Quite often we get asked what our plans are for the next week, for the next month, for the next year so since changes are afoot, perhaps now is a good time for an update. First though, a re-cap.

For those of you who have been religiously following the blog (all of you of course), you will know that our original plan last fall was to sail west and eventually end up in the San Blas Islands in Panama where we would make a decision whether to go out the canal or to sail up the Western side of the Caribbean or something in between. Well, plans changed for various reasons and we made it as far as the Netherland Antilles (the ABC's or actually both Bonaire and Curacao). We spent a grateful Christmas with Rob, my oldest son who flew from Toronto and Julie, my youngest daughter, Graham, her husband and Alex and Amelia, the grandkids, who had flown up from Grenada where they were doggedly and very diligently working to get their boat ready for sailing. Originally they were to sail to the ABC's and and then join us for the western trip but major problems and slow marina workers were conspiring to prevent that. Thus the Christmas flight from Grenada to Curacao.

As an alternative to sailing west together we made arrangements to meet the Perrys in Antigua in January after we sailed up from the ABC's and they sailed up from Grenada. My baby sister Holly and her hubbie Joe had decided they would visit us in the Caribbean so since we were going to Antigua we arranged to meet at Jolly Harbour. We spent a really really enjoyable 10 days with them. Although we had bad sailing conditions most of the time, we were still able to take them to Deep Bay for a couple of days and overall the visit was great.

To back up a bit, coming up from Curacao we had broken our staysail T-ball connection (holds the stay in the mast) and discovered when the staysail was down that there was more wrong than we thought so we had to order a new furler. In the meantime the Perry's had finally launched Artemo but had quickly discovered that all was not well on their lovely French ketch. The work done in the marina had not fixed everything and they also discovered new problems on their sail from Grenada to Carriacou. More on that in a moment.

Our rigger's shipper had problems getting our new furler on the airlines so we were delayed in getting it in but were not concerned because due to Artemos further problems we had a bit of time to spare. Finally, our furler was up, our chart plotter fixed and we were ready to go.

Alas, it was not to be.

Again, to back up - the original idea of Mystic Journey and Artemo meeting in Antigua was so that we could sail down island together slowly, enjoying each island and eventually ending up in Grenada in early May, when the Perry's were to return to Canada for 6 months to make some money to cover the repair costs and have the boat on the hard for hurricane season. They would then return to sail west. We were of course going to stick around the Caribbean, location unknown, until they returned and then decide whether we were going to sail west with them or not.

Well, due to the ongoing problems with Artemo, lack of storage space in Grenada, increasingly short time left to get to Antigua and then sail down island and various and sundry other reasons Graham and Julie have decided to store their boat in Jolly Harbour for the 6 month return to Canada, which has now been postponed until June. This means that they will not be coming up to Antigua prior to June which of course means we will not have Artemo to sail down island with. We found this very disappointing as we were really looking forward to the sharing of the adventure. However, they are doing what they see as best for them and considering the difficulty they have been having with their boat it is probably the safest course at this time. This also gives them the chance to visit a few places in the Leeward and Windward Islands that they had missed last time when they had sailed from Antigua to Grenada

Back to us - we have decided to really really really focus on living in the now and not having expectations or counting on things that may or may not happen. At this point the only thing we are sure of is that we MIGHT go to St Kitts on Wednesday, we HAVE to be in Nevis on March 7 for Cheryl to have a follow-up doctor's check-up on her eyes (see below), we WILL be in St Lucia for Jason's arrival the first part of April and we definitely ARE grateful for being able to do what we are doing. Griff is done. You could probably tell it was me by the "lengthy" discussion above but what the heck - if I can't bore you in person, I will do it long distance.

I promise to make this short, but give you all the information needed to answer the question - why a doctor's check-up? During the past week I have been experiencing bright flashes of light in my right eye. I had a similar problem with my left eye a few years ago and knew I should probably have it checked out. Since Antigua is a larger island than the others we would be visiting we felt that check-up should be done here. I had noticed an advertisement in the paper for a walk-in clinic with an optometrist so I phoned and made an appointment for this morning.

We headed by bus into St Johns after getting directions from the clinic. It was about a 15 minute walk from the bus station and we had already walked in the area before so we only had to ask for directions once. After the optometrist had looked at my eyes she had an ophthamologist come and take a look too. He discovered that there were a small tear in the retina and this needed to be repaired. I must admit at that point I was wishing we were back at home with the doctors and healthcare system I was familiar with. However, not really having a choice I agreed to have the laser surgery required. We waited while the doctor saw some of his other patients and then he did the surgery. Very simple, took about 10 minutes and he actually found a second repair that needed repairing. Now the 'painful' part - no Alberta Health Care. The optometrist charged $150EC and the charge for the laser surgery was $1100EC (2.75ECD=1USD). Probably much cheaper than if I had to pay for it at home. Of course he wanted follow-up visits - one in a week and then another one two weeks later. When I told him we were sailing to St. Kitts and Nevis in two days he made arrangements to meet me at the Nevis hospital on March 7 for a check-up. How many doctors in Canada would do that - go to a neighbouring country or even province to do a follow-up. Actually he said he was planning to take his wife there for a holiday so he would do two things at one time. He also told me about an ophthalmologist on St. Kitts that I could see if problems arose.

One comforting thing was the diplomas he had hanging on his wall. I always knew there was a reason doctors did that. They showed that he took his undergraduate training at the University of the West Indies, but his surgical training was in Canada and he was a member of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. The same as any doctor I would have seen at home. So that was my experience with the medical system in Antigua. Oh yes, my eye feels okay. Still a few flashes of light, but those should settle down as the lasered areas heal.