Month: June 2022

On Monday we saw the Orthopaedic Trauma Surgeon in Charleston we selected for Karens Tibia repair. He arranged surgery for Wednesday, June 15.

We arrived at the MUSC in Charleston at about 5:15 in the morning. By 10:30 am I was being ushered into postop to visit with Karen. She overnighted in the hospital and brought her home on Thursday with an ample array of screws and a new plate in her Tibia. She will recuperate at home till about the 23rd and we go to KY for my mom’s 90th birthday. Oh, did I forget that two days after Karen’s incident, mom fell and broke her hip and maxilla with multiple contusions on her face? It’s been a big week. She is now recovering from hip surgery at the Willows in Lexington, KY.

On Sunday the 5th of June we pulled anchor, stored the dinghy, and motored out of Oriental. The wind was out of the N at 20-25 kts. On the way in under bouncy conditions, we had some issues with fuel starvation on our diesel when running it to charge batteries/cool down the engine-driven freezer. I was able to get the starvation issue resolved (I thought). That’s what the vacuum gauge said anyway.

We were motoring into the wind on a long fetch and the engine as we rounded into the ICW again about 12 Mi N of Oriental. The engine died and I decided we should sail back and go into Oriental for a professional check.

I contacted TowBoat US and they said they would be standing by to intercept us at the harbor entrance as we sailed back into Oriental. A couple of hours later we got close to the harbor and called for the tow and the response was that they were on another call. We will have to wait.

So we set up the anchor and sailed into the harbor, rounding up just out of the standing chop. The boat settled at anchor and I went down to the engine compartment and made another assessment of the situation. It appeared there was an issue in the Racor module. The 20micron filter was pretty clean with a few bits. I had about 10′ of fuel line so I just bypassed the Racor and restarted the engine. It took right off and the vacuum gauge stayed well within tolerance.

We pulled anchor and headed into the Oriental Town Free dock to tie up and look for a mechanic.

As we approached the dock, the wind caught us dragging the bow away from the dock. We went around again and approached slowly. Karen stepped outside the lifelines holding a beam-cleated dockline in one hand. The boat was moving slowly if at all. As she stepped back her leg twisted and she fell on the dock. She managed to cleat off the line and then about passed out.

Long story short….. She broke her Tibial Plateau at that moment.

We got her to the hospital via ambulance. At the time she/we thought she had dislocated her knee. Once in the ER and after an X-Ray, we saw what the damage was.

She had a temporary surgery on Monday to straighten the leg and stabilize it till we could get her to a trauma Orthopaedic surgeon.

She was discharged from the hospital on Thursday and we stayed in a local hotel “The Oriental Inn and Marina” till Saturday. Linda Griffin picked us up and brought us home to HHI.

Stu and Howard have been a great help in this ordeal. Howard lent his truck to me for the week. Stu helped me dock the boat in a short-term slip nearby and is checking on the boat while we recover. We are blessed to have such wonderful friends.
Thank you all!

Now we recover at home till Wednesday when Karen will have her Tibia repaired and we can start the 8 week recovery period.

On Saturday, June 04 we left Beaufort and motored to Oriental, NC. On Saturday morning the wind turned and came from the North. It was blowing 20+ kts. It made an interesting exercise getting out of the slip. We made the trip from Beaufort to Oriental on the ICW in about 4 hrs.

The reason(s) we wanted to visit Oriental is that we have multiple friends that live in the village. Howard and his wife Ros Cheetham sailed with us in the WorldARC. Another friend, Stu Robinson with Arrow his cat was a slip mate for many years while we were in Green Turtle Bay.

We anchored in the Oriental harbor, launched the dinghy and all four of us headed into town. We had a lovely reunion.

Oriental is a village of about 500 folks it sits on the banks of the Neuse River. Not a river in the inland sense where Oriental is located. It’s part of an inland sea making up the Albermarle-Pimlico Estuary. It’s about 3000 square miles of open water.

We left our boats home in Windmill Harbour in Hilton Head on Wednesday, June 01 about 2:30 pm. We entered the Atlantic Ocean at about 5:30 into a 2-3 ft sea running with a 15 kt wind from the SE. Our sails were set on the quarter and we started our 300 mi passage to Beaufort, NC.

We had a good sail with pretty consistent winds for about 30 hrs. The wind began to clock a bit and we sailed wing on wing with preventer into Beaufort. We arrived in Beaufort at about 1:30 pm on Friday, June 03.

We spent the night at Homer Smith docks exploring the town and having a nice meal at the Rhumbar on Front Street.