Morning all

 

Yesterday on the various comms channels into Rhiann Marie was a little like the United Nations and I thoroughly enjoyed receiving messages of support from Thailand, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, England and Scotland.

 

Several of you have expressed disbelief or amazement at the speed of my recovery. However you have to remember I am telling you the things I have been able to do not the things, which of course is a much greater list, that I am unable to do.

 

The medical treatment and surgical procedure were very good and having steelwork in my back helps me from flopping around like a rag doll from just above the waist. I was also in fairly strong physical shape when the accident happened. However if you really want to know what the secret is to my progress it is not to do with vertibrae T10 through to L1. It is to do with the thrawn bit of pulp between the left and the right ear. Positive Mental Attitude. PMA.

 

First of all you have to understand that the mortification of allowing this accident to happen in the first place, closely followed by a strong sense of having let the side down is a tremendous motivator to get back on track as fast as possible and not to let my carelessness affect any of the plans that we had. I also felt I had to minimise the effect my accident had on other people.

 

This is overlaid on a strong aversion to lying down for anything anyway. So when the surgeon told me that if I could handle the pain I would be able to sit the day after the operation, stand within a couple of days and possibly walk after three days. What I read into that was "walking the first day and climbing all the stairs in the hospital the second day". Having escaped from the physio's wheelchair I did them all backwards the third day. Now obviously there is a limit to how hard you can push it until the bones, the screws and bone graft "bond" with each other but pain is a good adjudicator on that point. So in fact the most difficult thing that I reckon I have to do in this recovery process is lie down flat each day for two to three hours. That is tortuous but just like pushing at the pain barrier when exercising it has to be done and so it is. And because of that, it appears that my progress in recovery is strong. It is still early days though and there will no doubt be setbacks and that is the risk with pushing too hard. 

 

I have been "fortunate" that in twenty eight years I have never taken a day off Gael Force because I was "sick". In 1986 I stayed bed one morning till about 1130 with a bad dose of flu, but on analysis that morning, while lying in bed temporarily feeling sorry for myself,  I realised it was more to do with things not going well in my business than sore bones, a pounding head and streaming nose and eyes. So got up and went to work on one leg kicking myself up the backside all the way there with the other one. I vowed to never do that again (lie down for flu or any such thing) and that when trouble was afoot in the future, as it surely would be, I promised to get up earlier, dig deeper and work harder. And that's the way it has been.

 

I have a couple of funny asides to this ingrained attitude. When I was left "in charge" of the children once while Trish was away somewhere I got a call to the office from the school to say there had been an accident. Craig my son, had been sitting on the floor in assembly when someone lifted a chair with steel tubular legs (and no blanking cap on the bottom) backwards and sat down on it on top of his thumb. This crushed one of his fingers and his nail came off if I remember rightly. I was summoned to take him to hospital to A&E. About an hour later I deposited him back at school with a large bandage round his now large flat and bloody digit. He knew no better and just got on with things. The Social Work Department still has a warrant out for my arrest. At the same time as I recall the "headmaster" was off on long term "sick" on full pay, with "stress".

 

A few years ago I had to have some surgery on my back to remove a lump. I left the office an hour before the operation. While on the slab and under local anesthetic the surgeon asked if I was taking a few days off for this operation and recovery. "No" I said "I am just taking a few hours ..... so if you don't mind would you .......just finish the stitches so I can get back to work".  A total of two hours off.

 

Now I realise this sounds like blowing my own trumpet (and of course I accept it is to some extent) and though I didn't have to tell you about it I have no choice but to act like that because I have to maximise the hours I work in order to send as much of the product of my hard labour as possible to the government so that they can finance the widespread policy in the public sector of full pay for six months on the "sick" followed by half pay for the second six months. Those who know of cases like this also know that many of these people then have the audacity to take their full paid holiday allowance at the end of the period.

 

I had hoped that spending my time looking forward these next few days and planning for my onward circumnavigation would fully occupy me and take my mind off these iniquities but the couple of hours in the afternoon is deadly - and the mind wanders....

 

So here we go. The things you are actually interested in.

 

Thinking about my various choices. Unfortunately I cannot bring myself to consider having a professional delivery crew take the boat through to the Med - that would be sensible but would be like copping out and if anything went "wrong" on their passage I couldn't live with myself. Neither can I bring myself to consider shipping Rhiann Marie on one of the yacht transporter ships for the same sort of reasons. So that rules these two options out.

 

Given that the Doc said three to six months to let the back stick together it is probably unwise for me to think that I could depart when I had originally planned, in the first week of March, which would only be four weeks after my operation.

 

I had hoped to spend time at the Andaman Islands hiking up to the hunter gatherer tribes, spear fishing, game fishing, diving and generally exploring that rarely visited island group. If I am to sail west anytime in the next three months it is unlikely that I would be able to fully particiapate, if at all, in any of these activities. Therefore unless my departure has to be delayed till the end of the year, which is the case if I cannot leave Thailand by the end of March, the Andamans have to be ruled out. However if my back is not ready until three to six months then an Andaman visit would be something to look forward to. It may also be that the piracy issue has been brought under control by then also. So waiting is not a bad option.

 

However because I am keen to get back to business and because the piracy issue may not be sorted out by the end of the year, it is not my preferred option.

 

My preferred option is to sail to Sri Lanka in March, but only if the back is up to it. Sri Lanka would be a six or seven day passage for us. If the back is not ready then, say until the end of March, then I would sail directly to the Maldives missing out Sri Lanka. This is an eight to nine day passage.   

     

Then the decision to head south round South Africa or head up through the Gulf of Aden needs to be taken. If we go through the Gulf of Aden we would be following the route that the Vasco da Gama Rally took and subsequently followed by the Blue Water Rally. This route can be planned by plotting all the incidences of Piracy in the area, which shows a narrow corridor of safety up the Indian coast and then a "short" crossing across the entrance to the Persian Gulf to Oman. There is no assurance of safety however. As we have seen the Quest was taken near the Oman coast and not far from this route. Would we consider doing it without armed security aboard? Can they be contracted? Not sure yet. Anyway, if they are aboard you will not know, until we reach safety at say Massawa or Egypt.

 

So in sequence, the things I need to do are 1: get the back and body fit and tame down the head, 2: head west to Sri Lanka then Maldives or directly to the Maldives.

3: Continue to research and plan for a secure Gulf of Aden Passage 4: If not satisfied with security for Gulf of Aden leave the Maldives at the end of April for the 11,500 mile sail round Africa to Gibraltar.  

 

I have studied the weather patterns and for the most part the south-about route works within favourable seasonal conditions considering winds, currents and cyclone activity. The latter parts of the leg from Madagascar to Cape Town and the early parts of the passage from Cape Town to St Helena need a little careful planning but should not be too difficult. The run from Cape Verde to the Canary Islands and then Gibraltar may be variable but we are already close to home by then and the legs are 1000 miles and 600 miles repectively.

 

We are aware of news this morning that all four of the crew aboard the yacht Quest have been killed. We don't know any details yet and therefor should not make any comment other than to offer their families sincere condolences and further urge governments to take action NOW.