What in the World is on Peter's back? Creeping Crud!
Peregrina's Journey
Peter and Margie Benziger
Tue 20 Mar 2012 05:25
07:53.0N 98:24.0E
What in the World is on Peter’s back?
Creeping Crud!
Here’s another example of “a
day in the life of cruising sailors” up close and personal.
The attached photos are
pretty graphic but they illustrate the everyday challenges we face in the
blistering heat of Thailand and how a simple boat maintenance project can go
horribly wrong…
Here is Peter…hot and sweaty
and very dirty after helping our Thai work crew apply anti-fouling bottom paint
to Peregrina’s hull. This is a special
chemically-treated green paint that keeps algae and other marine life from
attaching itself to the bottom of the boat.
Actually, this is the 4th day
in a row that he wore that very same, very dirty tee-shirt to work on the boat
despite my strenuous objections. Three times, I threw the shirt in the dirty
laundry bag and three times he retrieved it saying there was absolutely “no
point” in washing a work shirt! Another
one of those tough guy “men are from Mars” moments!
Coincidentally, three days
ago, we noticed a huge, ugly raised rash just beneath his right shoulder. Over the course of the next two days, it spread
even further and became very hard, swollen and extremely painful.
He was adamant that it must
have been a “heat rash” so we doused it with a Prickly Heat powder as well as
hydro-cortisone cream with aloe. But,
nothing worked and it continued to grow and was looking downright nasty. I actually had visions of some flesh-eating,
bacterial monster gobbling up his entire body!
Everyone we showed this
strange rash to urged Peter to go to the hospital but he refused saying that he
would stop at a pharmacy and have someone take a look at it. The young female pharmacist he finally approached
last night had a momentary fright as Peter peeled off his shirt, right in the
middle of the store, so that she could get a better look at his affliction but
she quickly regained her composure. She
handed him a tube of Eperson’s Cream for dermatitis repeating the words “very
good” over and over. I’m still not sure
whether it was the cream or the thought that Peter might leave her store
immediately that made her so enthusiastic about this remedy but we took the
medicine and raced home to administer the cure.
However, this morning there was no appreciable change.
But, my bull-headed husband
was back at work today - still in the same tee-shirt - assuring me that we just
needed to give the medicine a little more time to work when I noticed an
unusual splotch of green paint on the back of his shirt.
It was easily identifiable.
The paint was from the bottom of Peregrina’s hull. Peter and the Thai workers had spent the
first two days stripping off this layer of green paint which contained a HIGHLY
toxic metallic compound called cuprous oxide.
If you look below, you’ll see
the big splotch of green paint on his shirt closely mirrors the shape of the
irritated skin underneath!
Turns out, Peter was actually
poisoning himself over and over again every time he put on that same dirty,
sweaty tee-shirt allowing all that cuprous oxide to eat away at his skin!
So, the lesson here
is???? Don’t go all “man-ly man” when
your wife wants to wash your work clothes.