Drugs

Being self sufficient onboard doesn’t just mean enough food, water, and beer for 40 days. We also need to be prepared for medical emergencies. After a lot of research I found a great company in the UK called Medical Support Offshore (msos). They provide medical kits and telehealth services. The hard part with gathering medical supplies is that you need prescription medication onboard and that can be hard to get from you local doctor. Msos shipped us many types of antibiotics, prescription pain killers and calmants. In addition to all the apparatus needed for minor operations, sutures, etc. It’s a good thing. I developed a nasty case of swimmers ear and after a quick email to the msos doctor he replied with a drug number and instructions on use. My ear was unbearably painful, without ear antibiotics we likely would have e had to make a detour. We hope this is the worst of what happens on this last leg, but it’s comforting knowing that we have drugs and a doctor a phone call away.

Tchau Fernando

We’re here for a good time, not a long time. Today we said bye to Nadine and Alizé and set sail for the Caribbean. We absolutely adored Fernando, a volcanic island created 1.5-2m years ago and is now a protected national park. The scenery is plucked from an Avatar movie, or likely the inverse. I’m sure an Avatar director visited Fernando and stole her geology as inspiration for Pandora. Our stop started with some high visa drama, and there was talk of Ray and I not being able to set foot on land. Brazil has a new visa requirement for Canadians, Americans, and Australians. Brand new, it started a month ago. The online application tool is terrible and both our applications seemed stuck in the “system”. The local police would not let us in. Nadine did some digging and we found a phone number to call, a few minutes later we’re on the phone from an Indian call centre and they let us know that our passport photos were not good. I kept her on the phone… we snapped new pics, uploaded and she pushed our applications thru to the Brazil immigration. By now it’s 430 on Friday and she said it could take 10 days… we were sad. But by miracle, at around 6 we got an email confirmation that our visa was approved and ran to meet Douglas the police 👮 friend who we got to know very well. And we’re in the country!!! The rest of the few days was hikes, buggy rides, and tons of swimming. It was so nice to hang out with Nadine and Alizé, I needed the morale boast given the news of my friends passing. Now we’re off “somewhere” in the Caribbean. The plan is that we get to the BVIs and I’ll be able to fly to my friends funeral for a few days, then continue the last leg to the Chesapeake. This leg is the most tricky, we’re crossing the equator in a few days and that’s part of the ITCZ (intercontinental convergence zone). This convergence leads to rising air, frequent thunderstorms, and heavy rain. The ITCZ is responsible for the wet and dry seasons in the tropics and shifts seasonally, following the sun's overhead position. There’s a serenity about being out sailing again. The rhythm of being in the hands of Mother Nature is calming. The shifts provide a backdrop of cadence. This leg is approximately 2100nm. Off we go!