The End Of The Road

June 9, 2023

This is just a brief update on where we now. It has been an eventful week. Jinhee had flown out the previous week and returned on Friday to St. Lucia and the fun was set to begin again.

Last Saturday, while we were in Rodney Bay (St. Lucia), we had the opportunity to meet Paul and Renee aboard Puffin Quest an N68, and spent some time getting to know them. What a pleasure.

During that time, I began having ‘unexplained’ cramps in my back. At first I thought just a little too much work on the bike. Over the past week and with the remote help of another Nordhavn owner, Malcolm, who happens to be a trauma ER doc, we narrowed it down to kidney stones. I have never had kidney stones, or at least never had pain from them before this week, but now I know why it is considered to be an introduction to childbirth pain for men.

In any case, we still moved the boat to Saint Vincent and then Bequia and tried to be as normal as possible. By Wednesday, the consensus was that getting to a hospital in Grenada was probably the safest course of action. We made it here this morning.

Early in the week I was also informed of the passing of my Uncle Jim and was unable to fly home to see him laid to rest today, simply due to lack of travel options to Canada from this part of the world. My father’s brother gave me a cottage to visit as a child and a way to experience some of the fun of the world when I was younger. He helped me get my first job as a programmer at the Royal Bank of Canada and he gave me a place to live when I arrived in Toronto with just a bag. He will be missed. I also will miss the opportunity to reconnect with cousins that I haven’t seen in a long time.

With Jinhee aboard we made some friends in Elizabethtown Bequia (Cindy and Ed aboard Wave Dancer and reconnecting with Kim and Pam aboard Kemana from Mimico Cruising Club our old sailing club). This is a little village that could have been a great place to visit, but much of my time was seeking out painkillers and writhing around on soft surfaces.

Again, we decided to head to Grenada and cut the Grenadines out of our cruising.

One of the questions that gets asked a LOT about cruising is “what happens if you get sick”? Well, I can’t say that I have great experience but my experience may be instructive. Today I went to the local private hospital, St. Augustines in Grenada. The cab ride to the hospital was 50 ECD (about C$25) and 40 ECD back (C$20).

While there I went through intake, had a doctor consultation, urinalysis and a final doctor consult. That took perhaps 60-90 minutes. The total cost was 115 ECD or about (C$60). Now I have a US based Trauma ER doc to compare to, and the process was similar (but not the same) as he recommended.

A key area of difference is that I need an ultrasound (and arguably this is the most important bit), and they can’t give me one until Monday, because they only do them on Mon, Tue and Thu. I don’t know what would happen if I REALLY needed one desperately. I will return on Monday for an ultrasound exam and more will be learned about the ridiculous pain in my mid-section.

Notably though, the cab rides of $45 almost eclipsed the medical expenses of $60. I’ll tell more as my issue progresses.

For now, we will stay tied to a dock (safety and convenience) while I figure out what ails me, and start putting the boat to bed for the summer. We are essentially, at the proverbial end of the road for this season and starting to look forward to returning to Amherst Island for a little Canadian solitude without the rocking.

This brief post eliminates the wonderous sightings of birds, whales, turtles and even more friendly people that we are meeting along the way. Perhaps I will come back to all of them when I am finished writhing on the floor!