30 September, 2010. It has been quite a week already. Right now we are anchored at starfish beach – only boat in the anchorage and as soon as the last day boat leaves (should be any minute now) we will have the beach all to ourselves. Nice. So far, however, the week has been anything but quiet. Monday I went into town with Capt. Ron to get our Aeroperlas tickets for our upcoming trip back to US, but while I was waiting at the airport for them to finish loading the David flight before they could sell me tickets (small staff), I got a call from Capt. Ron saying that there was an emergency at the marina and they were asking for a doctor. Someone appeared to be having a stroke. I left the airport, walked back to the Rip Tide (the bar where Capt. Ron was with the boat) and took his boat over the the marina (only way to get there is by boat.) When I got to Pamela Jean, I found Bill nearly comatose. His eyes tracked, but he could only mumble and was sweating profusely (well, so was I for that matter, it IS Panama!) Mary, a retired EMT had taken vital signs, which were all normal, and was trying to check his blood sugar (he is a known diabetic). Unfortunately, the machine was not working. I examined Bill and determined that he did not at least have definite findings of a stroke and being an old ER doc, skipped the diagnostic part and went right to treatment. “Let's give him some sugar while you continue to try to get his blood sugar. If he is having a stroke there is little we can do for it here, but if he is hypoglycemic as I think, we can treat that even before we prove it as there is really nothing that a bit of sugar will hurt.” I then suggested that Pam (Bill's wife) get back on the VHF and ask someone for a diabetic meter. “Odds are there are at least 4 more boats in the marina with diabetics on board.” Sure enough, Dana showed up with his own meter, but that wouldn't work either. Growing more concerned, I gave Bill more sugar. I then discovered that the reason his meter was not working was that we had the strips from a different brand meter. When we found the right strips, we finally confirmed my suspicion with a blood sugar reading of 47. Now I really shoveled the sugar into him. In 15 minutes he was up walking, talking, and chewing gum all at the same time! I insisted that he go to the hospital in Changinola to be watched since the drugs he was taking were long acting and he might well crash again in a few hours. He was checked out at the hospital, stayed in Changinola over night (in a hotel, not the hospital), and was rechecked the next morning. All went well and he is back on his boat, good as ever. Yesterday on the morning net, Anam Kara responded to the “any emergency, medical or priority traffic” query that begins every net with need to speak with a doctor. I replied to the net and we went off frequency to talk. The woman explained that her husband was having severe vertigo and couldn't move without vomiting. After going through the usual questions to rule out more serious problems and confirming as best one can over the radio that his exam was consistent with simple vertigo, I queried about the contents of their ship's medicine chest. Fortunately, they were well stocked. I had her give him both Ativan and Bonine (which is meclazine, the same as Antivert). I advised that if this did not make a marked improvement, he would need to go to the hospital to be checked. When I check back later, he was doing much better. This morning one of my workers came to me saying his wife was having chest pains and would I see her. Of course, I agreed and he went home and brought her to our boat in his cayuga. (We were packing the boat for the trip we are now on.) She was clearly is a lot of pain, nearly doubled over. I knew that she spoke neither English nor Spanish, but only Ngobe. Her husband spoke Spanish, however, and through him, I determined that this had started after breakfast this morning. She had no respiratory symptoms or fever. She had been fine yesterday and, in fact, when she got up this morning. This young woman is mid twenties, heavy set and has had two children, the youngest about a year old. I gave her some Maalox which, as I expected, did nothing. By examining her, I decided that this was probably her gall bladder. I gave her some ibuprofen which she promptly vomited. I then gave her a shot of Toradol which she tolerated well (some Indians do not do well with needles, but she was in too much pain to object.) The Toradol started to help so I told her husband to take her home to lay down, but that if this did not go away completely, she needed to go to the hospital for tests and more treatment. I didn't mention the possibility of surgery as I didn't know the Spanish word for it (or for gall bladder, which I told him in English). Before leaving, I spoke to the contractor who is the worker's boss and told him the whole story and encouraged that he help them get into town if she was not, indeed, better. Unfortunately the hospital here in Bocas is pretty primitive, but I do know that they have an ultrasound machine, so – assuming they also have a tech working who can use it – they can at least prove or disprove my diagnosis if she is not better. If she does get better from just the Toradol, I am sure she will not get any medical attention until the next attack. I have seen her twice now since we have been living here. The previous time, she had Denge Fever with a temp of 104. The indigenous people here don't seek medical care unless they really need it. Yes, I really am retired and NO, I am not practicing medicine down here. I do, however, try to help where I can. This week just turned out to be a very unusual grouping of medical emergencies. Hopefully the rest of the week will be quieter and Deb and I can lay around in the sun, swim, and generally enjoy this paradise we happen to call Home.

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We have created a new album (Our Home in Panama) with pictures of our home as we begin the process of unpacking all our belongings from the US that finally arrived (mostly safely). Check it out!

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OK, this hasn't been the greatest week. To start with, this is week 3 of my Efudix treatment. If you have not heard of it, Efudix (5-fluoro-uracil) is an antimetabolite used in cream form to fight skin cancer. Applied to sun exposed areas (face and bald head) it reacts with any skin cancers, pre-skin cancer, and sun damaged areas to 'cure' them before they get started. The unfortunate side effect of the process is like a bad sunburn. Now I never sunburn - too dark complected, but right now my entire forehead as well as isolated areas on my nose, ears, and top of my head are blistered and peeling like a second degree burn. Thankfully, Dad's "bee spit" cream is great at taking the fire out, but I can only put that on in the morning (after putting the Efudix on at night). So as a result, I have a sort of constant head ache, something I am not used to. Number two: last Sunday, I was walking over on Paul's lot, inspecting the work they had done at cleaning it up when I stepped on a board with two nails sticking up. They easily penetrated my chino-crocks and drove into my foot. I jumped onto the other foot and hit another nail, so now I have three puncture wounds involving both feet. They are coming along OK with not sign on infection and my tetanus is up to date, but walking is not my favorite thing these days. Number three: Several days after stepping on the nails, I was putting away tumblers when two bumped together breaking off a large shard that fell and sliced my second toe to the bone. I tried to quell the bleeding and just bandage it, but to no avail. I had to send Deb down to the boat to get the suture kit, then I sat on the seat in the shower (all tile so easy to clean) and proceeded to put four stitches in my toe after first giving myself a digital block with xylocaine. The sewing wasn't bad, but the digital block hurt like a bugger and it was hard forcing myself to do it. So now I have four stitches and two puncture wounds on my right foot and one puncture wound on my left. So I literally hurt from head to toe! But it is a good excuse to sit around drinking beer or rum and not doing much. (Like I really need an excuse?!) And all my 'injuries' are slowly getting better.

On an unrelated front, you may have heard about the strike and "riots" happening in Bocas del Toro province. It seems that the banana workers are striking because they claim they cannot live on the $10/day that they are paid by Chaquita and that the insecticides they are using is causing sterility (not necessarily a bad thing considering the general lack of birth control around here, but not very politically correct). Anyway, the striking workers have felled trees across the only road from Alamrante to Changinola (where most of the banana plantations are) and also to David (the road that connects to the trans-American highway and the rest of the world). Since everything brought into Bocas town comes via ferry from Almarante, that effectively cuts us off from all supplies. Supposedly their plan is to impact tourism as much as possible in order to get a quick response. When the taxi drivers in Bocas town went on strike about a year ago blockading the ferry, President Martinelli himself came to Bocas to appease them. We'll see what happens this time. In any event, none of this is really affecting us. We have plenty of food and are far away from any violence. Bocas town remains friendly and safe, though I have no intention of traveling to Almarante or beyond. The only real impact might be that if this drags on, it will delay our goods arriving from the US. They are currently in Panama City going through customs, etc. but should be shipped to us in the coming week - if the roads are open. We will have to wait and see.

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OK, so we haven't added to the blog in ages. Of course, that is because we haven't been cruising and this is a cruising blog about our adventures aboard our boat, Always & All Ways. We won't be cruising again until after hurricane season unless we go back to Veraguas or somewhere else in Panama, so to satisfy those who are looking for an update, I decided to add an entry at least now and then. Life in the jungle is amazing. In the morning, we are awakened by screaming parrots as they leave their roost for the day. Once they are gone, it quiets down a bit until the cicada and other insects take over. (Of course on weekdays the generator at the nearby construction site starts up about 9:30 or so.) Days are usually sunny and hot. Humidity is high and any strenuous activity gets you soaked in sweat immediately. You learn to move slowly and deliberately without excess or unnecessary movements. By cocktail time in the evening, the parrots return and they and the oropendula provide our evening entertainment as we sit on the deck with a drink and watch the day end. We usually don't make dinner until well after dark when it has cooled off. If we need things in town, we either catch a ride with Capt Ron who stops by on his way in to town a couple times a week, or we take the dinghy. As long as the seas are flat, the three mile ride to town is fine in the dinghy, but if a chop kicks up, it can get rough. So far we have had no real exciting trips as we choose our days carefully. Fruits are cheap (limes or oranges are a dime a piece, pineapple $1.50, etc.) We got a ton of mangoes from our own trees. Avocados are 'in' now and delicious. Other groceries are often more expensive than in US - especially if it is an item imported from there. We have given up on trying to buy tortilla chips - they are very expensive and always stale. Now we just by a big stack of flat corn tortillas and Deb cuts them up into chips and fries them as we want them. Imported US meat is outrageous ($20-30/#) and local beef is tough, but we have found that we can buy an entire tenderloin of local beef for ~$3.50/# and cut it up into several filet mignon and several stir fry meals. Local pork is excellent and reasonable as is the chicken. Veggie selection is limited. You can always get carrots, peppers and onions; usually broccoli, potatoes and lettuce (though quality of lettuce is often not so good) and cabbage. We are starting to grow our own which will help. In town, we can get internet (free at the Golden Grill as long as you buy something - usually an iced tea.) When we do not go in to town, I take the computer down to the boat and use the SSB to check and send email once a day. Keeping the jungle at bay is a constant effort. Everything grows so fast. This is good if you want to transplant and grow things - to get a new hibiscus, just cut off a branch and stick it in the ground. It will grow just fine. On the other hand, if you want anything resembling a lawn, you have to get it cut (by an Indian with a machete) at least once a month. Otherwise the grass/weeds are a foot deep. We have started a compost bin with the cuttings and vegetable wastes and have put mulch down for an eventual garden plot. All around the house, Deb is growing more different ornamentals than I can begin to name. She has also started a tree nursery with limes, papaya, avocado, soursop, breadfruit and others so that when our neighbors finally move in, they can have good sized trees to plant if they want them. This is in addition to the 100+ coconut palms that we have planted all about the Discovery Bay area. This is the rainy season so even though most days are sunny and dry, we get rain nearly every night. Usually thunderstorms. Last night we got more than 4" of rain in about 3 hours. It keeps the water tanks full and the sunny days keep the batteries full - can't complain about that. Living off the grid has really not been a problem. We have just over 2.4kWatts of solar panels on the roof feeding a battery bank of about 35.5 kWH. We use about 5-7 kWH/day so have about a 3-4 day window that we can survive without much sun (you don't want to pull the batteries down below 50% so only ~18kWH are usable). So far the batteries have never gone below 75% and we have never gone more than a week without getting them filled back up, and have NEVER had to use our back up generator. For water, we have two 1250 gal. tanks that collect water off the roof. A "roof washer" system collects and discards the first 1/8" of rainfall to be sure that what is collected is clean. We then pass it through a 25 micron and a 5 micron filter before going to the house. For drinking water, we use an additional PUR filter on the kitchen tap and keep a 1/2 gal. jug in the fridge, but we also drink the tap water just as is without problems. Of course we have a septic system and that is no different than in the US except that we separate black and grey water and only the black goes into the septic, the grey goes directly to the leach field. This helps keep the septic healthier as no detergent, etc. goes into it. Bugs are a modest problem. We do have scorpions and the frequency of seeing them seems to go up and down for no apparent reason. Deb got stung once (hurt like hell for a couple hours, but no system reaction) and then we did not see any for a couple months. In just the past two days we have seen a couple - both dead and in crevices where you might expect them. Other than that, we get flying insects attracted to the lights at night, so we try to minimize light usage - TV doesn't seem to attract them. They are not really a problem as they go to the light and leave us alone anyway. There are few mosquitoes although a friend just cam down with Dengue fever, so one does need to be careful. Chitras (no-see-ums) are probably the biggest problem although at our house they are really only noticeable at dusk and dawn. Mosquito coils keep them away as does our Thermacel. When our container arrives from the US (any day now), we have a Mosquito Power Trap coming that uses propane to attract and kill both mosquitoes and chitras. It turns on and off automatically at dusk and dawn (runs a couple hours each time) and should improve things even more. Propane down here is subsidized by the govt. so a 30# tank only costs $7.40. We have a gas stove, water heater, drier and barbecue. The fridge is standard frost less refrigerator / freezer accounts for about 1/2 our electricity use. OK, so there is an update on our life in the jungles of Panama.

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Fri, 19 March. Wednesday morning we left the Zapatillas about 8:30 and motored toward Crawl Cay Canal. There was a slight wind (on the nose, of course) but I wanted to motor through the Canal anyway as I remembered seeing some VERY skinny water (like 5'+) on the way out. I plotted an alternative route that according to the chart plotter, had at least 10' all the way. As we approached Crawl Cay, Deb stayed on the bow. Despite the overcast, it was actually very easy to see the deep water channel and the shallows. We ended up taking a direct route through the area and were able to stay in 50' or so of water most of the way. We never saw less than 18'. I had my “bread crumbs” turned on and converted the Track to a Route, so we now have all the way points to lead us through the channel, no worries. Once we were safely in deep water of Bahia Almarante, we raised sail and turned off the engines. We were only going 3+ kts, but we had plenty of time. As we crossed Dolphin Bay, the wind actually picked up to where we were making 5 kts. Nearing Ron & Cynde's house, we dropped sail and motored up to their dock to tie off. While Deb joined the women in Majhong, Ron & I off loaded the kayaks and the other things they had left behind. We then pulled the outboard off dink and put it in his boat to take to Almarante tomorrow. That night we had meatloaf with Ron, Cynde, & Capt. Ron. Thursday we left early to go to Almarante. Ron & Cynde had an appointment with an itinerant veterinarian to have their two old dogs and their new puppy checked and get shots. This vet has an office in Changinola, but travels around in a specially outfitted van to make house calls, or in this case meeting them at the fuel dock and treating the dogs right in his van. Pretty cool. While they were doing that, Deb & I got groceries to restock out larder at home. We also refilled all 4 gerry cans with diesel (we used about 50 gallons total for the whole trip.) and dropped off the outboard to be repaired. Back at Ron & Cynde's house, we went swimming and floated on floaties again. That evening was their traditional Bar-B-Q and we had ribs this time. Capt. Ron and Marianne, a lady from Bavaria who lives in Tierra Oscura now, joined us. It was truly the end of the cruise as I used the last of the mojito juice (simple syrup with mint), the last of the rum, and the last of the ice to make the first two drinks form Ron & myself. (He had more rum so we could continue the mojitoes.) This morning there was a pretty good wind from the W, which was about 90* to our course home. (Finally the wind gods decide to favor us!) We raised sail as soon as we were off the dock and had a great sail all the way home. Fairly slow (3-4 kts.) through Dolphin Bay, but up to 7+ kts. in Bahia Almarante. I hadn't forgotten how to dock at Discovery Bay (It invloves coming in and doing a 180* turn to end up port to the dock with the aft half of the boat against the dock so it is easy to get on and off.) Our house is in good shape and now we are unloading. Deb's dogs all came to greet us. They are painfully thin again, but that won't last long now that Deb is back! I guess the trip is really over. It has been great, but it also feels good to be home.

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