It’s New Year’s Eve and another year has flown by on Vanish. The above photo was taken on sunset in the islands of Kuna Yala in Panama a couple of months ago. It reminds us of all that we enjoyed and achieved in the last few months, from passage making to snorkelling, swimming, peace, sunsets, people, new lands and great adventures. With Vanish safe and sound in the Bahamas and Maynard out of hospital, we decided to fly back home via Virgin Australia for a couple of months. However, Maynard’s vertigo was still causing debilitating problems. It turns out he had a condition called BPV which stands for Benign Positional Vertigo (but the best way to remember it is Beer Parties & Virgins!), something neither of us had ever heard of. As it can reoccur, possibly at sea in a remote area, I decided to try a treatment called the Epley Manoeuvre. This should be done by a specialist, doctor or physio and only takes a couple of minutes. In layman’s terms, by moving his head in a certain sequence, it moves the culprit of the vertigo, a loose crystal in the inner ear to a place where it doesn’t cause the brain to have conniptions. We were lucky and after a day, Maynard had no more vertigo.
We’re enjoying our time with family and our 12 year old Australian Cattle Dog Bindi. The wild red-necked wallabies on our property have reproduced and have definitely enjoyed their time while we’ve been away with so much grass to eat and few predators. There seems to be well over a 100 on our land.
Vanish will be undergoing routine maintenance which Mike will oversee with Maynard’s guiding hand. I will post anything we find interesting for you and thank you for following us in 2013. Have a very Happy New Year and we’ll see you in 2014.