The remainder of our time in Bonaire was a whirlwind blur, marred by Elaine’s dad taking a turn for the worst after being rushed to hospital with a bacterial infection in one lung, pneumonia in the other, both leaving him gasping to breathe, and gangrene that had set in in some of his toes of one foot. How he got into such a state when he was under the care of a pulmonologist and a podiatrist at the time will never be explained, but being told by the emergency services at the Ulster Hospital in Belfast that it was touch and go as to whether or not he would pull through was the worst news to receive. Making matters worse was that Elaine was unable to visit him, given her susceptibility to the infections he had. For the first time since being diagnosed, she absolutely hated her disease, realising just how cruel it had become.
So, instead Keenan and the grandsons hopped on a flight and prayers were answered when they made it without their granda / great-granda passing away before he had the opportunity to see Keenan again for the first time in ten years, having become a husband and a father in the intervening years, as well as meeting his great-grandsons for the first time; a very emotional reunion needless to say, but one that brought immense joy to everyone. Fortunately luck was on their side in more ways than one; they managed to get the last four available seats on their connecting flight out of JFK airport, which placed William in Delta One; what a fabulous memory for a child on his first international adventure, while Keenan and the twins got to sit in coach next to the toilets. Murphy’s Law!
By Friday, 25 April 2024, Brooke and Capri were able to travel to Ireland too, making for a wonderful supportive environment for Elaine’s mom and sister. By Thursday, 2 May 2024, Elaine’s brother from South Africa had arrived just as Keenan and the family were returning to the US. More prayers were answered; although Elaine’s dad had continued to deteriorate, her brother was able to spend quality time with him and the family under the worst of circumstances. To be honest, no one thought Keenan and the family or Elaine’s brother would see him alive; it was such a relief when they all got there. We really didn’t want any of them going through the agony of being too late; that would have been simply awful and would have made a bad situation far worse.
Sadly, although Elaine’s dad managed to fight off the infections, while possibly suffering a stroke in the process, the ordeal and struggle left his lungs severely scared, weakened his heart further, affected his ability to swallow and has left him bedridden.
Thankfully a request for a transfer to the local Down Hospital in Downpatrick was granted, making him more comfortable in a familiar environment; one he has always preferred, given that all the clinic staff who have monitored him over the years are at this facility and know him. It also made visiting much easier for the family as apposed to having to drive to Belfast.
While a number of difficult goodbyes had to be said over the past weeks as visiting family flew home, Elaine’s dad remains in hospital, undergoing treatment for the gangrene and further tests to determine the underlying reason for his sudden memory loss and delirious behaviour that developed overnight a week ago. The good news is that a vacancy at a local nursing home has become available and the placement is being kept for him while the doctors unravel the latest baffling symptom. In the interim, children and grandchildren from across the world, who have been unable to make the journey to see him, are continuing to keep his spirits high with video calls made during evening visiting hours and scheduled so as not to overwhelm him. So, onwards we all go, acutely aware of the bleak prognosis. However, regardless of the reality we all face and to the amazement of all the medical staff involved in his care these past five weeks, it’s fair to say, if nothing else, he has the heart of a lion with his will and determination to live, against the odds, one that has left the family in awe. A remarkable man he remains indeed!
Trying to come to terms with this traumatic and heartbreaking new reality, while struggling to keep her emotions under control to prevent a major flare up, an attempt she failed at dismally, Elaine spent her mornings either sleeping in, swimming or attending her noodling sessions, while Roy enjoyed his early morning walks and enjoyed a swim from time to time too, although snorkelling was kept firmly out of the mix to avoid any further upset at the devastation of the reefs we’d witnessed soon after our arrival. Having to have emergency dental surgery for a wisdom tooth extraction, however, was definitely not something either of us expected when Roy paid a visit to the local dentist after developing a toothache. To add insult to injury, during all this mayhem Elaine experienced a complication, requiring an appointment with a dermatologist which was only available in Curacao.
By Saturday, 27 April 2024, after the island had just celebrated Rincon Day, Kralendijk was definitely rocking; it looked like the entire population of the island had descended on the capital to celebrate the King’s Birthday. Enjoying a birds eye view of proceedings while sipping on a cold beverage on the patio of the Sunshine cafè, our cue to leave the celebrations occurred when the booming nightclub-style music, which nearly blew our eardrums, started in earnest.
While we awaited our departure for Curacao, efforts continued on the creation of all our outstanding videos as did our participation in our online Irish lessons, while coffee mornings, sometimes accompanied by our new favourite, Dutch pancakes, lunches, sundowners or dinners, interspersed with gelato treats, helped fill the remaining hours in our day, although these outings were dictated by whether or not a cruise ship was docked. There were also some highlights during the remainder of our stay, in particular, a lovely coffee morning with Onyx (Noelene and Geoff), whom we met soon after our arrival in Bonaire before their departure to Columbia and an unexpected invite to Peggi and Chuck’s home on the waterfront to enjoy a delicious dinner with them, after Elaine and Peggi had met during a noodling session. Before saying our goodbyes to Bonaire, we enjoyed another fun evening with them, our treat, as a thank you for their kindness and generosity.
All in all, we made the best of our time in Bonaire, but Elaine continued to struggle to get in and out of the dinghy at the one and only “new” dinghy dock, a dock we all had to pay to use, because the management company refused to move their oversized dinghy which blocked the ladder, the sole function of which was to make embarking and disembarking easier. Even after a request and explanation as to why we needed access to the ladder, they refused to move it. In fact, going as far as returning it to its original spot after Elaine took it upon herself to move it and all that was needed was to move it one cleat down on the dock; about 1.2m / 4Ft. Instead the staff preferred to let Elaine injure herself, falling on two occasions, rather than assist. It was very disturbing to know that these people had blatant disregard for someone constrained by their physical inabilities, devaluing Elaine’s life so dismissively. If it wasn’t for Roy constraining her, Elaine would have gladly punctured it in retaliation. Needless to say, we never received a refund on the marine reserve fees we had to pay either, albeit that, after a month, we were still unable to use a dive / mooring buoy to snorkel, since the dive boats continued to monopolise them. Couple this with the unbearable heat we endured during our visit, forcing us to run the generator and air-conditioners at night to get some sleep, by Wednesday, 8 May 2024, we were happy to be up with the alarm for a dawn departure, setting our course for Curacao.
On headsail alone we enjoyed a lovely sail with a SOG (Speed Over Ground) of 6.5-7Kts in 15-20 Kts of wind out of the east-southeast. Elaine had barely retired for a morning nap when she woke to find land on our starboard side; we had just rounded the southern tip of the island and on our approach to the entrance into Spanish Waters. With that it was hello again Curacao, a place we never thought we’d return to, given that it had remained in the bottom three of our least favourite places we’d visited over the years.
The first sign of change, however, was the resort at the entrance; it was now a Sandals establishment, meaning that we wouldn’t be able to visit it as we’d done in the past, having used the swimming pool and enjoyed coffee mornings, sundowners and a wedding anniversary dinner there. A real pity!
The second change was the absence of all the old rusted wrecks scattered around the anchorage, although many locals had installed private mooring balls within the allocated anchorage areas, limiting space significantly.
The most positive change was the establishment of the Sailor’s Services Club offering a variety of services and arranged social gatherings.
Clearing in and out, however, remained the painful exercise it always was of getting the bus into Willemstad and walking a country mile, first to the Port Authority, then Immigration and back over the swing bridge to Customs. It didn’t help matters that, on this occasion, the Port Authority official refused to serve us, since it was late afternoon ahead of a public holiday and told us to return the following Monday.
We also noticed that the bus service and the town centre no longer had the free wifi connectivity and the buses were definitely a far cry from those we had enjoyed using in Samoa, Australia, Turkey and Spain, the former bringing back fond memories of the colourfully decorated and very jolly service, with upbeat music playing and friendly locals interested to know where we had come from, but, at least, there was a bus service for which we were grateful.
Most of our time in Curacao was spent formulating a number of different strategies for selling Paw Paw, each to be executed in stages and trying to find further
medical treatment we both need moving forward, the latter turning into a shambles neither of us had expected.
By 11 May 2024, we’d contacted a host of medical service providers in eight different countries including Bonaire, Curacao, Aruba, Panama, Ireland, UK (including Northern Ireland and Gibraltar) and Türkiye, but to no avail, except for securing an appointment with the dermatologist in Curacao, the latter the reason for us changing our sailing itinerary to stop here, having previously decided to continue on to Aruba. This development, together with our research that revealed the ridiculous clearing in process in Aruba, where we were required to tie Paw Paw up to an old commercial concrete dock, something neither of us were prepared to do, forced the decision to simply bypass Aruba altogether, although this meant a longer stay in Curacao and a longer sail to Bocas del Toro.
With Ireland, Northern Ireland and Gibraltar ruled out due to astronomical costs for private medical care and the precarious complexity and difficulty of securing appointments, we were down to trying to arrange dental care in Bocas del Toro and rheumatology and ophthalmology care in Panama City or Türkiye, a rather sad indictment of the state of healthcare in western societies, something we hadn’t experienced anywhere until leaving Türkiye. Be that as it may, to date we have not been able to finalise appointments other than an ophthalmologist in Türkiye. With the exception of the three top international hospitals, who indicated they did not offer the services we needed oddly enough, not one other establishment in Panama City responded to Elaine’s inquiries.
Deciding to kill two birds with one stone and fly to Ireland en route to Türkiye, on the assumption that whatever infections Elaine’s dad has would be cleared by the time we got there and hopeful that he’d still be alive, although the latter is purely wishful thinking at this point, the situation was exacerbated by having to track down the rheumatologist that had been treating Elaine in Türkiye, since he was no longer practicing at the Antalya Memorial Hospital. Unfortunately, although we uncovered his whereabouts, we have yet to secure an appointment, after a mixup with his availability and our travel plans.
Prior to these developments and expecting to be able to receive the medical care we needed in Panama City, we had essentially been passing time in Bonaire so as not to get to Panama too early. That way we could get the full six month visa we need to remain compliant with our yacht insurance stipulations. This all became a moot point, though, after Elaine received her treatment at the dermatologist and after making the decision that we would be leaving Paw Paw in Panama for a few weeks anyway, all of which meant we were now on weather watch to get to Panama sooner rather than later.
While many parts of the world got to enjoy the spectacular colourful displays of the aurora dance across the sky on the night of Friday, 10 May 2024, Sunday, 12 May 2024, was Mother’s Day, enjoyed at Papagayo Beach after an early morning walk, passing the salt-pans en route, and where we enjoyed breakfast, happy to see all the establishments were still thriving. Indeed the Willemstad waterfront, with all its pretty coloured buildings, were as immaculate as ever too and it was lovely to see all the Venezuelian fresh produce boats lining the canal. Needless to say, we didn’t hesitate in purchasing some of their delicious fruit.
The surroundings of Spanish Waters revealed the most significant changes, though, with all the previous restaurants we had frequented ten years ago now non-existent. Pirate’s Cove, with its colourful little chalets had been replaced with two different establishments, Villa Vista and The Pier, the latter where we enjoyed sundowners one evening, but aside from that, everything else was gone, replaced with houses and apartments mostly.
We also attended a few social events organised by the Sailor’s Services Club, which were sociable enough and helped stave off the boredom. However, our gripes associated with the generational gap between ourselves as “baby boomers” and the “Y” and “Z” generations continued, concluding that this was a worldwide trait after the apple pie we ordered on one occasion arrived a half an hour after we’d finished drinking our coffee, but the spoons to eat the apple pie arrived with the coffee, although napkins apparently weren’t part of the service until Elaine asked for them and this at one of Curacao’s top restaurants, the Gouverneur. Our breakfast at Papagayo Beach Resort had a similar outcome. It appeared that ordering a coffee, a hot English Breakfast tea with milk and a bottle of water proved to be far too much for the intellectual capability of the individual serving us, resulting in only the coffee and water arriving at our table. At least something registered somewhere because the waitress knew she’d forgotten something and asked Elaine what else she’d ordered, the penny dropping when Elaine reminded her. Very deep breaths were required when the milk didn’t arrive. Coffee ordered at the Zest Restaurant & Beach Cafe proved to be far more successful, thankfully!
There’s a distinct possibility that we’ve become old and grumpy, but, honestly, these simple orders are not rocket science, yet they become a lucky dip experience every time! It just seems that there’s no pride anymore in providing a good service anywhere we go, but we’re charged an astronomical amount of money nonetheless for the privilege, never mind the service fee that is automatically added to the bill!
Coffee at Number 10 in Bonaire took the cake, though. After a month of visiting this lovely café, there wasn’t a single occasion where Elaine didn’t receive the tiniest sugar container with an enormous dessert spoon as a teaspoon. So what’s the problem you ask. Well, there was no way of using the spoon to access the sugar in the tiny container without turning the spoon around and using the handle, which in itself was almost too large for the opening of the container and, because it was brown clumpy sugar, there was no way of pouring the sugar out!
Our son, being a millennial, gave us a different perspective on this generation, indicating that, besides a lack of decent training provided, many of these young adults have experienced their parents loose everything during the financial crisis in 2007 / 2008, they’ve had their schooling interrupted by the pandemic and are now having to deal with a cost of living crisis, the worst in more than a decade or two, where most are more worried about where their rent money or their next meal is coming from, never mind ensuring some grumpy old bat gets a napkin or a teaspoon with her coffee and baked delight. Guess that sets us straight!
Besides our chores and errands that needed to be run, including hopping on the grocery bus organised by the Sailor’s Services Club, to do our provisioning, Elaine also managed to catalogue and upload all our latest photographs to the gallery on our website, as well as prepare all the materials needed for the next set of outstanding videos; our adventures through Italy. We also got to celebrate our grandson, William’s birthday with him via video. Oh the joys of our modern world. Irish lessons continued too as did Roy’s early morning walks, returning with freshly baked croissants for breakfast and perfecting his latest baking endeavours; fruit loaf.
It was rather sad, though, to see Carin Trimbach arrive back in Curacao, thus completing her single-handed circumnavigation, but with no one to greet her or welcome her back. We were informed of her impending arrival as she entered Spanish Waters on the morning of 17 May 2024; a real shame considering her achievement. This was the very reason Elaine wanted to join the ARC 2023 rally, ensuring there were plenty of celebrations to be had on the completion of our circumnavigation.
By Sunday, 19 May 2024, it was close to a fortnight since we’d arrived in Curacao and we hadn’t had one day without howling wind. It was relentless keeping us yacht bound for most of the time in sustained winds of 25-30 Kts, gusting to 33 Kts. Afternoon naps were out of the question too, given the intense heat.
As the weeks passed Elaine’s dad continued to deteriorate overall, particularly the unusual symptom of sudden delirium and the loss of his cognitive abilities, when just a few short weeks ago he had told Keenan he could remember his entire life in minute detail, regaling Keenan with the highlights. A brain scan revealed nothing sinister, but further microbiological tests were undertaken to determine whether or not an infection had caused this. Regardless it was clear we would be setting sail, not knowing the outcome, given that we were unable to procure another sim card for our Iridium-Go service and would, therefore, be off grid for the duration of our passage. Thankfully, though, her dad recognised Elaine during a video call to him just prior to our departure. More than this we cannot ask for at this stage.
By Tuesday, 21 May 2024, preparations were underway for our imminent departure. These included a diesel and petrol run and completing all the paperwork needed for entry into Panama. The following morning we undertook the reverse of what we’d done to clear in, although this time we had to hunt for the temporary Customs office after a fire broke out in the permanent building a few days earlier. Getting through the crowds to the Immigration office was another challenge after a cruise ship docked. Regardless, we were happy to be leaving and delighted to have found a suitable weather window. It seemed our lives have become a series of lasts, since we don’t plan on being back in this part of the world again either.
