Category: 2022-02 (February)

Tuesday February 1, 2022 Punta Salagua

Up late, we don’t feel great. So, we are going to move either to Carazelle or Santiago for one more night, then we plan to go from here to Ixtapa (about 188 miles south) which will be an overnight to get there. 

Wednesday February 2, 2022 Ensenada Carazelle

This was a sick day for me. The only thing of interest today, was watching the classic “Groundhog Day” with Bill Murray 

Thursday February 3, 2022 Ensenada Carazelle

If you have a sick captain and you need to just chill, you’d want to hang out in Ensenada Carrizal.  We’ve been here two nights.  Only 3 boats here both nights.  Oh, did I mention this is a very small anchorage?  I made chicken soup for Neil.  I was just itching to snorkel but with our rule, “Neither of us goes in the water alone.”, I didn’t think I’d get to go.  Well, fortunately, there is a single female sailor on another cutter, S/V Mcani.  She and I took her dinghy to the dive spot this afternoon and wow! The snorkeling was fabulous!  I found myself in the middle of a school of large purple fish with orange tails, yellow fins and dark blue noses.  I wish I’d brought a camera. I managed to lose one of my water shoes and was too tired to get back in the water to look for it.  While I was playing in the water, Neil rested.  Thank goodness he is starting to feel better.

Two more boats joined us in the anchorage at sunset, Liberty and S/V Liahona.  So it’s a bit crowded.

Friday February 4, 2022 Ensenada Carazelle 

Saturday February 5, 2022 Ensenada Carazelle 

End of the day the generator failed, so we will return to Barra tomorrow rather than head south. Low on water, clothes to wash and no generator to run the watermaker or the washer.

Sunday February 6, 2022 Ensenada Carazelle to Barra de Navidad

I got sick Jan 31. We went to church on Jan 30, it was held at an mid to upscale restaurant and we had lunch with everyone from the service afterwards. Both Reneé and I had shrimp dishes and a berry lemonada (probably made with local water). This was the last really good meal for me for a while. We checked with the people at the church and no one else had any issues with the food, so I probably did not get here.

The next day both of us were at little out of sorts, upset tummy sort of thing. No diarrhea for either of us, no vomiting just a bit of nausea.

I got progressively worse, with occasional days where it seemed like everything was normal. I went to the pool one day at Barra de Navidad and the whole day was fine, the next day was horrible.

We went into town and saw a local doctor, who treated me for Acid Reflux. The next day we called our doctor in San Diego and started the first round of antibiotics.

We moved up our flight back to the states (our Daughter in Law is/was due on 3/14, no baby yet as I am writing this on 3/19). We flew in on 2/16 Wednesday, I saw the doctor on Thursday and we got blood tests and stool samples ordered.

It was an effort to get through this (BTW, I was on my second round of antibiotics at this point). Apparently I have a parasite, but the research on the internet says treatment is up to the patient and the doctor as many people have this one for decades with no problem.

This is what I wrote up on 3/7:

What’s going on as of today, 03/07/2022

I have been dealing with a parasite and maybe something else, since January 31 this year.

We travel a lot, and we were in Mexico when this started. Initial symptoms included night sweats, followed by shivering with a temperature of 98.6. The night sweats would soak the bed.

We came back to the states by way of San Diego 2/16. I saw my doctor there who after seeing my blood work prescribed an antibiotic for the parasite. I will finish those at dinner tonight. 

He also referred me to an oncologist/hematologist.

My significant symptoms include:

• Night sweats (I think I am done with these)
• Exhaustion 
• Slight headache 
• Fever 97-100 usually low 
• Unusual weight loss, I stepped on the scale this morning (2/27/22) at 209. That’s down from approximately 235 in January. Lowest  have weighed since about 1977.
• Slight upset tummy 
• Slight tightness in chest
• Low appetite 
• Minor cough

What I am not experiencing:

• vomiting, diarrhea, and nausea
• Runny nose, clogged sinuses etc
• Open sore 
• Sore throat 

Please refer to the blood work attached, as you can see, up until the February labs everything was pretty stable. Note I had a physical in October 2021, so only 4 months ago.

I am really tired all the time.

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So, to describe the night sweats, about a gallon of water out of my body soaking the bed and pillow all the way over to Reneê’s side of the bed, followed by shivers for a half hour.

As of today, I have had a follow up blood test and stool samples. The parasite did not show up in the stool samples. The blood work is returning to normal. It has been about 7 weeks, my weight is back up to about 220 (about when we got married in 1982). I tire very easy and can’t walk very far compared to what we are used to. Hopefully I am getting better day by day. We are supposed to be back on the boat, April 6th. We will resume the blog then.

 

Monday February 7, 2022 Barra de Navidad

Our time in the Barra de Navidad has been bittersweet.  We’ve enjoyed meeting some new boaters.  We met Del and Barbie on Timeless and Bill and Susan Birschoff on a Trawler that has a long name beginning with A.  We got to see old friends, Steve and Denny on Brendan, Walt and Shelley on Dune, Greg and Christine on Sonrisa, Eric and Kim on Gladiator.  This has been Cruisers Week here with all kinds of festivities and a race on Friday.  We didn’t participate in any of the activities.  Neil continues to be sick, quite lethargic.  I’ve gone to water aerobics and on two fabulous walks (one to secret beach and the other to the point at the end of the peninsula).  I went to the Thursday market in Barra and took a cab ride to Melague to shop at the Hawaii store.  We got Neil to a local doctor who gave him meds for acid reflux.  Neil had a telemedicine call with our San Diego doctor who recommended meds for a stomach bug.  Yet, Neil continues to have no energy. So…we made the hard decision of going back to the states earlier than originally planned.  We have a flight out of Puerto Vallarta on 2/16.  We will stay with the Miller’s for 2 weeks while Neil sees the doctor.  We will leave our boat here in Barra de Navidad under the care of Pancho.  He will oversee the bottom cleaning, repair of the generator, and any other boat needs that arise.   While here in the marina we got our laundry done.  We had all of our fuel pumped out because it appears to be dirty.  Sadly the fuel clogged up the generator filter and that may be part of the reason it isn’t working.  On Friday we motored over to the fuel dock and spent close to $1000 to fill up the tank again.  Tomorrow, Sunday, 2/13, I plan on going to church at Costalegre Community in Melague.  Denny Pepper is going to join me.

Saturday February 11, 2022 

We motored over and got fuel, a lot of fuel.

We have a 160 gallon tank, and two 5 gallon Jerry cans on deck. The tank had been pumped out completely, we put both the jerry cans of diesel in our tank, and one more 5 gallon jerry can to make it more likely our fuel pump would get a suction and then motored over and put 161 gallons in to our tank. 

Oh and the cost? 15396 pesos for the fuel plus a 15% dockage fee (getting fuel at a fuel dock rather than in town) 2309.4, (17705) and 3% if you pay with a credit card 531.15. If we chose to pay with USD then the conversion rate is 18 pesos to the dollar ($983.61). We paid in cash in Pesos 17705 (about $861 US at the current rate).

Sunday February 12, 2022 

We started prepping the boat to leave it for a month. We arranged with Pancho to watch the boat and fix the generator while we were gone. Also to polish the stainless and the boat and clean the bottom. This was quite an effort for me, as I am really sick.

Pancho drove us to the Puerto Vallarta airport and we flew back to Tijuana on 2/16. we walked across the border using the CBX, it costs $20 US per person, but it was 48 minutes from when the wheels touched down until we were standing on the curb in California waiting for our ride.

From here we enter our normal no blog updates while in the states. But, I will tell the story of this sickness on the next post.