On Wednesday afternoon (May 6) Pete made a few comments that he was not feeling well and had some abdominal pain that he feared may be caused by a kidney stone. As many of you know, Pete will be celebrating 5 years of being cancer free on May 15. Pete had kidney cancer and had a kidney removed as a result. A kidney stone in a person with only one kidney can quickly become life threatening. After talking with Pete and not seeing his condition improve, we made a call via satellite phone to the U.S. Coast Guard Rescue Coordination Center in Miami, Florida. After describing Pete's symptoms and giving his medical history, Coast Guard medical personnel decided to do a medical evacuation of Pete via helicopter.
We can not say enough about how well the Coast Guard handled this issue for us. They coordinated with the crew of a Coast Guard helicopter that was currently in Great Inagua Island in the Bahamas. (Great Inagua is at the far southwest end of the Bahama chain- 250 nautical miles southwest of our position at the time of our call). Our first call to the Coast Guard was made at 3:40PM and after it was decided they would dispatch the helicopter, we were told they would be on scene by 6:30 PM. At 6:15 we spoke with the helicopter via the boat's marine radio and they were on scene at 6:30)
Via radio, the helicopter crew discussed with us how they planned to evacuate Pete and what we needed to do to have Pete and the boat prepared.
We had Pete put on a life jacket (PFD) because he would be going into the water for the evacuation. The rest of the crew wore inflatable PFD's with integral safety harnesses and attached themselves to a safety line via tethers attached to their harnesses and took down the sails and stowed and secured gear. When the helicopter arrived it did a few slow "fly-bys" to assess the situation. It then took up a position hovering about 100' above the water a few hundred feet behind the stern of our boat. They then lowered a swimmer via a cable and when the swimmer got to the water he unhooked the cable and swam to the boat. When he got to the boat he indicated Pete was to jump in the water which Pete did. (The noise of the helicopter and the spray generated by the rotor wash made direct communication impossible. This is why the procedure was discussed in advance over the radio) With the swimmer holding on to Pete we used the boat's engine to slowly move away. When we were clear of the area the helicopter lowered a basket and the swimmer helped Pete into it. They then hoisted Pete up into the helicopter and sent the cable back down again for the swimmer. The swimmer hooked on to the cable and he was lifted back aboard the helicopter. The door to the helicopter closed and they headed to the hospital.
The weather at the time was fairly nice- about 10 knots of wind and seas running about 3 to 5 feet high. It was just at sunset with moderate light. The Coast Guard trains continuously for situations such as this and they performed flawlessly. They are ready to go at a moment's notice at any time of day or night and in any type of weather. They risk their lives daily and it is an extremely difficult and demanding job and they deserve much more credit than they ever get for performing this job.
We understand that Pete gave the helicopter crew this blog address and that they are now following our trip as well. Those of us still on the boat would like to extend our thanks and gratitude for the efforts of the crew on Wednesday as well as every other day they are standing by.
If any of the helicopter crew is reading this, Rusty has a personal question for them: Were you guys in Great Inagua on October 15, 2007? I was there that day and night on a 130' motor yacht called "Serengeti" and the USCG helicopter crew on Great Inagua at that time came aboard the boat and we chatted about boats and airplanes. The crew headed back to Florida the next morning and did a fly-by of the boat as they were leaving. If that was you, would you please send me an email to rusty_mallery@earthlink.net and I'll email back after we get to Savannah. Thanks.
We apologize for not posting this information as soon as it happened but as we mentioned at the beginning of this post, we have been a bit busy sailing the boat and adjusting to our new watch schedule with Pete gone. Most importantly though, we wanted to make sure that Pete was okay before we posted the story to the blog. We are happy to report that we have been in contact with Pete and he is back home in Herbster, Wisconsin and doing well. He promises he will be posting his own information of his side of the story to the blog as soon as we email him the instructions on how to do that. His computer that contains that information is still on the boat with us! Knowing Pete, we are sure he will fill you in with all the details. Unfortunately for us here on the boat, we won't be able to read his posts because even with all the modern technology available to us, our connection is too slow to download web pages and we are limited to sending texts and emails. The photographs we have been posting take quite a long time to upload each one. Maybe Pete will send us a copy of his blog posts via email!
Question for the students following us on this trip: Research the history of the U.S. Coast Guard and learn what the Coast Guard's function is today.
Extra credit: When we look at the ocean from the boat, the water color appears deep blue. When we scoop up a bucket of sea water to wash the decks, the water appears crystal clear. Why does the water appear clear in the bucket and blue in the ocean?
One more for those with spare time: We have been seeing large patches of seaweed floating on the surface. It looks like the type found in the Sargasso Sea. Where is the Sargasso Sea and what is the seaweed called?
