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American Spirit II - Day 123; Laundry, Storm, Wind Turbine Free Wheeling, Doctor Visit and Survery; Tuesday, May 6, 2014



Woke up at 6:00 AM in a lot of pain. Got out of bed at 8:15 AM. Rain squalls, high winds, wind turbine really spinning. Like the propeller on an airplane. Two cruise ships had anchored near us during the night. One was a conventional cruise ship; the other had four sailboat masts and looked like an old sailing ship, but it was steel and probably catered to a more adventuresome client. Who probably paid more for the experience.

I turned on the navigation instruments to see how fast the wind was. The wind speed indicator was showing a lot of 25 knots - about 29 miles per hour. Seemed like the wind speed was higher. We think that our instruments are reading the wind at a lesser speed than it really is. When the wind gets too high for the wind turbine to charge the batteries, it starts to 'free wheel' and turns itself off. Overcharging the batteries is not good. Once the 3 blades stop turning, during a pause in the wind, we turned the device off and if its working properly,it shouldn't spin any more. We did and it stopped. Good. A half hour later we turned the wind turbine back on and it started charging the batteries again.

At noon we gathered up our laundry, including all the bedding we'd been using, and headed to the laundry a 10 or 15 minute walk from the yacht club. The price to wash and dry the laundry, but not fold it, was 11,280 francs, or about $125. What a rip off. The previous high was $80 on Hiva Oa in the Marquesas. In the Galapagos we paid $20.

We then stopped at the restaurant next store to the laundry, the Saint James, and I ordered a Lamb Knuckle and Joel had some sort of salad. My lamb was OK, but not worth the price. Very expensive. Whenever Joel and I have lunch in a restaurant that's our big meal of the day. It means dinner will be small, if at all.

I went back to the doctor at 2:30 PM. He was shocked or astonished when he took off the bandage and looked at my infection. He put me on an additional prescription drug, Pyostacine 500 MG; and gave me a prescription for the pain, something that dissolves in a glass of water that you then drink. He then said that I should have the largest abscess lanced with a scalpel and drained and if I was up for it. There were a total of 5 abscesses. I actually thought there were 9 a few days ago. I said to go ahead. He then injected me with 5 shots of Novacain, let the anaesthetic take effect, then went to work. Who knew that before leaving on this trip that I'd have a doctor poke me with a syringe in my arm pit? A sensitive area. After opening up the abscess, he then squeezed it like the pimples we all had as teenagers. Really hard; giving new meaning to the saying, 'no pain, no gain?.' I went to the pharmacy, where they starting to see dollar signs when I walk in every day; and then back to the yacht club. The codeine stopped the pain, but gave me an upset stomach.

At 6:30 PM Joel and I delivered Brian and Lorenzo to Vivo before heading to our boat.

At 9:00 PM I got a case of convulsive chills, so I put on my warm weather clothes - pants, shirt and a sweatshirt. I guess sitting at the computer in my shorts and no shirt was a bad idea. I didn't have a fever. I guess the wind blowing thru the cabin just caught me at the right moment and made me cold. Five minutes later I was fine.

At 9:15 PM we had a freeze dried dinner - New Orleans Style Rice with Shrimp and Ham.

I went to bed at 9:30 PM, while Joel stayed up playing with his computer. I woke up at midnight, then went back to bed.

My last thought for the night was that I hoped the infection will show signs of improvement tomorrow morning.

361 Days until home.

Brian Fox


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