Date: 15^th May 2014

Position: 25:04.506N 77:18.767W

At first light we were up and breakfasted and making ready to sail on to Nassau.  To add to the tale of woe I noticed a bad smell in the head.  I opened the cupboard behind which the holding tank was stored and a thin jet of foul grey water squirted from near the bottom of the tank all over my shirt; it had developed a pin hole leak.  A stainless steel tank, less than three years old, should never have this type of problem and can only be the result of either faulty materials or bad construction.  But for now the problem will have to wait until the eye problem has been seen to.

We left Hawksbill Cay at about 7:00am and made our way across the Yellow Banks.  We had good depths all of the way and the water was crystal clear, but for a distance of about three miles, whilst in the vicinity of the banks, we took an extremely zig zaggy route through the coral heads.  Phil stayed on the bow and directing me at the helm as to which way to steer to avoid the coral.

By early afternoon we were approaching the eastern side of New Providence Island.  Unfortunately it was close to low tide and the water was shallow and somewhat less than clear.  The last few miles were more difficult than the Yellow Banks, and would have been almost impossible without Phil’s help.

By 15:00 we were tied up at Harbour Club Marina in Nassau and after a quick shower Eileen and I walked across to the medical facility near to the marina where the nurse from Staniel Cay had made me an appointment.  Unfortunately we discovered that this ‘medical facility’ was little more than a retail optician and they were both unable and unprepared to examine my eye.  But luck was on our side as the receptionist made a number of phone calls and was able to make another appointment for me to see a retina specialist. 

I was warned that I would probably have to wait until the next day to see this specialist, but after a further bout of phone calls it was agreed that I could travel to see her that evening. It took about 40 minutes in a taxi to get to her clinic but after an intensive examination she was able to give me some good news.  My retina was OK.  What I had had was something called Posterior Vitreous Detachment, a condition with similar symptoms to retinal detachment but with a far more benign prognosis.  What a relief!