I apologize for not keeping our blog up to date; as I mentioned in my entry titled Set Back, I’ve had some medical problems. For a month now, I’ve undergone test after test , seeing Doctor after Doctor. We moved to our home in Indian Harbour Beach FL leaving Bear securely tied to a floating dock way up the New River in Fort Lauderdale. The guys at Multi-Tech kept working on Bear, upgrading some of the systems. We can now transfer fuel from the starboard fuel tank to the port tank. The water maker will now fill bot the port and starboard water tanks. We now have an electric head, satellite weather system and Sirius radio system. We changed the name from Pause to Bear and installed art work on the hulls. Our other two heads were re-plumbed and that elusive head smell disappeared. We now have a volt meter installed on our wind generator, just like the one on our solar panels so that we can quantify our green power making. Now, its back to the reading of manuals so that we can use all this stuff. I’ve fallen behind in my studies of our boat’s systems.
For those of you who haven’t been in Fort Lauderdale in the summertime, let me tell you that it is very hot and humid. Keeping up with your hydration is important and it can easily get away from you. That’s what happened to me. I got dehydrated and that caused my heart to de-fibrillate. When my heart went into de-fib, it formed a blood clot which was pumped into my brain and I had a stroke. The stroke took away my vision, which took with it, my independence. I still can’t do much on my own but I do have Roz and we are managing. The Doctors seem to feel that, in time, I may get my vision back. In the meantime, I can see objects, kind of, but no detail. I also have some gaps in my memory and I am sleeping way to much. I have more tests next week.
This is the kind of stuff that can change a person’s goals. We could abandon our boating goals and move to a cabin in the woods on a mountain top or choose any other life stile. I don’t subscribe to giving up goals so this old guy with balance and vision problems intends to continue our life aboard Bear. Foolhardy, maybe but I’ll trust the good judgement of my partner in life with the knowledge that those who abandon their goals never experience the joy that comes from living their dreams. Saying yes to your dreams is the first step in making them come true.