We were all set to sail north today. Then at 5:30AM I heard a knock on the hull. Hmmm. It was our friend on the boat next door and she looked concerned. She was in the process of taking her husband to the hospital and asked us to watch the kids.

We were very concerned because it sounded like appendicitis, and you wouldn't want to have surgery in the Solomon Islands if you could avoid it. Not even in the Honiara, the capital. The main hospital in Honiara is call #9, an anachronism from the WWII USA occupation. They call the graveyard down the street #10.

Though worried about our friend, we had a great time with the kids. It was a gray and rainy day so we watched Disney movies, made pancakes and ran the air conditioning as the genset brought the batteries up. We did a little bit of scrambling to identify flights to Honiara and possibly on to Australia in case things required it.

After some pain killers and a belated doctor examination everything seemed to clear up. The doctor didn't arrive until 8:30, even knowing there was an emergency room call. Our patient was released late in the day with a renewed bill of health. Chalk it up to local food.

These kinds of events make you step back and think. What do you do if your appendix bursts and you're in the middle of a two week passage? There are options, but taking a 5 minute ride to the hospital is not one of them. Maybe it is a good idea to get your appendix out in advance...

The bottom line is there are people all over the world who live everyday of their lives far from quality medical facilities. Many without even the option of flying somewhere sophisticated should it be called for. If they get really sick in some of these places, they just stay in bed and hope to get better.

Internet access is good here but health care has a way to go.

Needless to say we did not leave today. We will probably leave on the 2nd now, with Angelica and Whistler after the customs guy comes back.