Kassiopi

We had a few very lazy but enjoyable days in Fiscardo at the northern tip of Cephalonia. A very pretty little port, not entirely spoiled by all the tourists, but definitely not helped by the appalling food and outrageous prices. We left on the 8th May and motored up to Sivota Bay, where we spent another night, though our departure the following morning was marred by a failure of our charging system, which took some while to sort out. It turns out our so called smart-charging system is too smart for it’s own good, and once I put it in it’s place all was well. We then went up to Nidri, where unfortunately it was Mie’s turn to suffer some trauma.

As we were backing in to a rather tight gap on the pontoon, she had to move the RIB out of the way, and as she did so the wind caught the stern and Hygeia’s taffrail was about to hit the pulpit of the next boat. Inadvertently, Mie’s left hand became an impromptu fender, and her hand became the size, colour and consistency of a large boxing glove! Fortunately all the damage seemed to be soft-tissue rather than bone, and more fortunately it was the hand with the ankylosed thumb joint not the prosthesis.

We then moved up to Corfu via Levkas, and Lakka on Paxos island, a very pretty and beautifully enclosed bay.

We then spent a few days in Gouvia Marina in Corfu, trying to get all the jobs finished before the family arrived at the weekend. I re-sited and rewired all the main pumps (six of them), and spent a day bent like a safety pin in the engine room installing the “works” for the electric bog in the aft heads. Not good for my back, but certainly good for our bowels!

Gouvia was another well-equipped marina with prices to match and all facilities – some rather unusual, like the venomous snakes in the grass round the cricket-pitch (the Corfiotes are keen cricketers, a relic of the time the British ran the island in the 18th century. They are also addicted to ginger beer and fruit cake, so my brother would be happy here).

The English woman on the boat next to us was bitten by some sort of noxious beastie a few days ago and was rushed to the local hospital where she was given the full works, including some sort of polyvalent antiserum: so far, she’s survived everything, including the treatment!

Once Dag and Wendy and family arrived, we moved up the coast to Kassiopi and eventually managed to get a berth on the small quay: Turid, Keir and the children arrived on the 19th, and though it’s been a bit of a squash, we’ve had a lovely time together. (Turid’s lot had a small apartment, but Elsa and Finny slept on board with us). We’ve spent most of the time here in Kassiopi, though we did motor down to Ag Stephanou yesterday.

Medical update

Mie’s hand is definitely less swollen and less painful, so it looks as if we will be a fender short before too long.

My back and chest are undoubtedly less painful, my axillary wound is now dry (and about time too after six weeks) and I can now lie on my right side in bed – a considerable advance. David Harrison has seen my spinal films and CT scan, and has confirmed the crush # of T4. He has advised me of exercises I can do to speed up recovery.

Now that I am better and some distance from Turkish territorial waters, I have been ruminating on the care I received on admission to hospital. I have to say I think it was a shade less than first class. Given the nature of the incident, they really should have considered damage to my back. Furthermore, my principle symptom on admission was severe crushing pain in my back and chest, and my personal diagnosis as I was taken to hospital in the ambulance was that I had had an infarct, which had led me to fall over the edge of the boat. (But then my self-diagnosis has been a bit awry in the past!) It was only some hours later that night, after pressure from Harry and Dag, that I requested and was given an ECG. Although they were aware I had been concussed with LOC of several minutes, I had only a very cursory neurological examination, no skull-xray, and no subsequent neuro observations. I now recall getting out of bed every few hours during the night, pushing my drip stand to the bathroom so I could check my pupil reactions in the mirror.

But there were also some very good features to my admission. The surgeon and the nurses were individually competent and charming, and the system for post discharge liaison was excellent through an English woman whose sole job was to keep a tab on patients, and sort out all the bureaucracy as far as payment was concerned. And as ever, the American Express travel insurance system was terrific.

So I’m sure we should be positive and look on the bright side. All’s well that ends well.

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