cruising on the Mary T

After visiting nearly every doctor in the Palm Beach vicinity over a period of five weeks, Kenny and I finally pressed on and are now in Fort Lauderdale. Although just 4o nautical miles south of our previous location it is refreshing to be moored in new waters.

Though still somewhat stiff and achy, Kenny’s knee is coming along and he is religious about his morning rehab exercises. As for me, neither the ear nose and throat doctor nor the gastroenterologist could account for the feeling of something being stuck in my throat, though the daily ingestion of Prilosec (an antacid/acid reflux medication) seems to have alleviated my symptoms, leading one to assume it was some kind of reflux issue.

My esophagram and endoscopy did not reveal anything out of the ordinary. The biopsy from the endoscopy was negative. The ear nose throat doctor was angling for a CAT scan of my throat, but I felt we’d poured enough money into the Florida health system and declined the invitation.

As for the celebration of Christ’s birthday, on Christmas eve, Kenny and I had a lovely lunch at his cousin Alex’s house in Delray Beach, which is midway between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale. Alex’s wife Sharon is an artist and has done a beautiful job decorating the house in Mexican style with beautiful tiles, bright paint and lots of Dominican and Mexican artwork. It was warm enough that day to eat outside on their patio. (We’ve had three cold snaps since we’ve been in Florida with temperatures in the low 30s). Later, Alex dropped us off in City Place in the Center of West Palm Beach, where we stared at the throngs and listened to free live music and watched fake snow fall from the sky.

On Christmas day we took the dinghy to Singer Island (a barrier island in Palm Beach vicinity) to look at the ocean. Although we were anchored only a short distance from the ocean inside the barrier islands, we hadn’t seen it for weeks. The pounding surf was mesmerizing as was an expert kite boarder flying over the waves at 45 mph and doing flips in mid air. We settled into Christmas lunch at a hotel poolside tiki bar and watched the variety of human shapes and sizes slither in and out of the pool. There was absolutely nothing Christmassy about the whole scene including the live music which was absent of carols. It didn’t take us long to realize we were probably the only gentiles present.

Last night we walked up and down the strip in Fort Lauderdale looking for the perfect venue for an after dinner beverage. First we tried the Big Kahuna, a 3rd story restaurant which which turned out to be full of screaming children. Not satisfied, we thought we’d try one more place and during our search we saw a bicyclist get hit by a car. Amazingly the young man popped up from the pavement and walked to the side of the road holding his face. The bike was demolished. The victim’s friends were there and the driver immediately stopped and leapt out of the car to check on him. Another bystander called 911 and ambulances were soon on the scene. I hope the poor boy is doing all right.

At the second after-dinner-drink-venue, Kenny ordered a regular margarita, but was given two fish- bowl-sized beverages. Apparently it was a compulsory “two for one deal” and I had already ordered a drink, so Kenny was stuck with the two giant margaritas. He didn’t complain.

Now we are just waiting for a weather window to cross the gulf stream and plant our anchor in Bahamian waters. We may move on to Miami tomorrow or the next day, to position ourselves for a crossing to Nassau or, the Berry Islands, as soon as the wind turns to the south or west. At the moment its east/southeast which is a bit too much on the nose for our taste. Gentlemen and ladies do not sail to windward.

Included are pictures of Christmas Eve in City Place and Kenny doing his best imitation of a homeless person, returning to the dinghy with groceries one day in North Palm Beach.

P.S. My oldest sister Leslie’s husband, Kevin, put together a smashing slide show of our wedding weekend in Massachusetts. You can watch it on YouTube.

We pulled in to the Riviera Beach Municipal Marina for another visit in anticipation of my procedure on the 6th. We were prepared to come back to the boat after the trip to the surgical center, but cousin George insisted we spend the night at his place in Jensen Beach. We are very grateful to him and wife, Peggy, for their help and hospitality. It would have been a bit tricky getting on to the boat in the groggy state I was in.

We went back to the doctor on Tuesday for the post-op exam and he declared it a success. I even went to my first physical therapy session that day.  The knee is a bit achy and a little stiff but I can walk around pretty good. We are back on board the Mary T and still in the marina, but hope to move back out to the nearby anchorage this weekend.

My left knee has been bothering me since late August. But, it only hurt when I walked any distance longer than a block or two. Amy kept asking me to get it checked out but, I didn’t think it was worth a visit to a doctor. It continued to bother me every time we went for a long walk, then would feel better when we stopped. We did quite a lot of walking while we were in North Palm Beach awaiting our life raft. On one walk, I saw an orthopedic clinic and thought maybe now would be a good time to have it checked out. I got an appointment very quickly and my cousin, Alex, kindly agreed to drive us. It was a good thing too, because they sent me to another town for an MRI. Turns out that I have a torn meniscus–the cartilage in the knee. The doctor said it would not heal itself and recommended arthroscopic surgery. Not wanting to miss out on all the hikes we expect to take, I agreed.

So, I’ll be heading into surgery Monday afternoon. We are parked again, at the Riviera Beach Municipal Marina and will be here until the knee is good enough for us to go back out to the nearby anchorage. Once it’s good enough for me to move freely about the boat, we’ll start heading south again.

 We celebrated “Pirate Saturday” with grand-daughter Trynity, last weekend. She spent the night aboard the Mary T and delighted us with her excellent reading and interpretation of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.” We went to Peanut Island on Sunday for a bit of exploring and digging. We all had a wonderful time. (Click on the pictures to see an enlarged version).