Monday December 8th,  2014

Le Marin Martinique  14 27.7N 60 52.7W

 Today's Blog by David (Time zone: UTC -4.0)

A single handed sail to Le Marin,  Martinique on 24^th heralded the start of my  experience of the French healthcare system.  On arrival, I was greeted by  a stark reminder of the need for diligence:

To visit a GP in France - or in Martinique at least (which is a Departement of France – a  Paris to Fort de France flight is a domestic flight) -  everyone pays Euro 25.  It is old style UK service – you arrive unannounced and wait your turn, perhaps two hours after arrival.  The purpose of the visit was to get an appointment with the ENT specialist -  my schoolboy French not being good enough to get past his secretary.  Armed with and appointment and an address, I just needed transport.    I decided to take a taxi – and then discovered the usurious pricing system for these dilapidated jalopies whose antiquated meters are  still able to clock up Euro 80 on the 15 mile outbound trip (and Euro 85 for the return).

The lugubrious doctor  basically told me  I would permanently be deaf in that ear  unless I went immediately to hospital and even then there was little chance …… (“lugubrious” doesn’t really call  it!).

Anyway, the rest is history.   I am out,  my hearing is better than it was (but still 60% impaired).  I have found a crew (George – he arrives tomorrow) to stay with  us until we leave in January  and Phil May (from Anastasia) has agreed to help us get to Antigua  so that I can meet the family arriving from the UK for Xmas.

I am now enduring 10 days convalescence  in Le Marin before we go.  I found a very helpful Frenchman (Lionel Laurent) who does Guardienage and looked after the boat at anchor while I was in hospital and he has since helped me get stuff done while I am convalescing.  So I have bought a small flubber dinghy and had the old  outboard serviced.

I have also been back to the GP three  times because of an infection in the I/V line site (“ching ching”!) and been to the Pharmacy  for various prescriptions  (“ching ching – ching ching”) and for an MRI scan and a blood test (Euro 105 “ching ching”!). I did crack transport though – a car rental is only Euro 30 per day!