It’s a strange life

We’ve been back on the boat for a few days now and we’re experiencing a strange sort of ‘between worlds’ existence.

Dignity is very much our home and we both feel really good being aboard. With some cruising friends nearby and being amongst so many boats we even have times when it feels like ‘old’ times. On the other hand repairs now progress and people are in and out of the boat reminding us of the challenging passage to Australia and what we still have ahead. At the same time we know I’m mid treatment and the Melbourne experience beckons.

A brief update on my own health. I’m feeling better than ever (at least since May). Certain capabilities I’ve not been able to do have returned. I won’t mention them all but one is enjoying more than a sip of wine in the evenings. Helen is both pleased and not so pleased about this return to health. I still feel like I’m walking around on Jelly legs and each day after I’ve done some exercise leaves me with aching legs. It’s all good though. I’m also need less sleep than before. I’ve been regularly out for 11-12 hours per night and sometimes needing a nap during the day too. Last night, for instance, I was up until 1am and was awake 7 hours later. I’m pretty sure a lot of this is due to having time away from chemo.

Tuesday was eventful insofar as we finally saw our first tranche of insurance money arrive. Unfortunately there was not the best communication between underwriter, insurer and ourselves resulting in our getting a little less than expected. Overall this is not an issue but it takes time to work around these things. Nevertheless I was able to begin paying some deposit money and get folks into action.

With improving weather we set about boat work. There’s so much to do. Helen has begun packing stuff for eventual shipment while I have taken on the local sales role for things we don’t need to keep ourselves or leave on the boat. Tuesday resulted in colour ads for some of our items.

In the evening we had Pam and John from Passages and Trish and Rob from Bristol Rose over for dinner. I enjoyed the dinner AND the wine.

On the subject of weather it really turned nice this week although a bit windy at times. Rarely a cloud in the sky we’ve been able to heat our water off solar and wind as well as run the fridge, lights and TV in the evenings. Fantastic. I’m glad I rewired the electrics a way back so that the immersion heater could run off the main inverter.

Wednesday saw much of the same during the day. The shipwrights came round and removed all the bent stainless steel so it could be worked on at their work shop nearby. On removing ceiling panels to remove the mast base we discovered damage to the top of the mast compression pole. I took pictures and sent them off to the insurer/underwriter who responded most positively. In fact, an earlier email with them to detail costs incurred during delivery resulting from the demasting resulted in them deciding to pay us more. Never expected that. I believe this is due to them appreciating the efforts we’ve been to to keep costs down. Much of this credit goes to Helen while I was out of play.

In the morning Trish took Helen out to shop further away than Manly. I managed to get my tools out and repair a small electrical fault with the windlass control. This again felt a bit like old times.

In the evening Trish and Rob met us. First to look at and eventually agree to buy our kayak. (Someone has since called and been very disappointed we’ve already sold it). Next they gave us a ride to and joined us at a nice fish and chip cafe beyond walking distance. We were able to sit outside with our own wine and eat very tasty F&C. We were the only ones there practically and we sat there for about 2 hours chatting away. The usual boat crap of course but we loved it.

We did have a discussion about my treatment and prospects. Trish pointed out how different I was to when she first saw me when we were first here. Then I was between chemos 4 & 5 suffering from a constant nasty headache. We had to point out that even then I was vastly better than at the start of chemo or even when we first arrived in Australia.

Thursday morning I spent some time putting together some of the online medical materials we’ve found on line in preparation for the meetings we’ll have with the specialists next week. I’ve begun highlighting key points and this process will help generate the questions we need to ask which we’ll document so as not to forget.

I’ve also put quite a few items on GumTree. Hopefully we’ll get some action. This took a lot more time than I expected.

Helen has continued to be extremely busy sorting things out around the boat. The shipwrights returned to remove the compression pole discovered faulty the previous day. This turned out to be extremely difficult. Everything else has come off really easily as access to the mounts was readily available. While we had access to the whole support and it was movable, the pressure between top and bottom as well as the size of access proved too difficult. Work has suspended while we seek advice from Lagoon. A plan B is ready in case the pole can’t be easily removed.

Sam has been pretty busy and we often don’t see him. He now has full time work (sometimes until the early hours) in Brisbane and more options in the pipeline. We’re pleased for him in this sense. He always planned to do this but we do feel sorry for him as he just didn’t get the trip on the boat we’d all expected equivalent to what his older brothers experienced.