In Melbourne...not for the right reasons!

Friday 23rd May

We left Bora Bora on Saturday 17th and flew to Papeete - an argument ensued over the loan of a wheelchair...long story! In Papeete Hugh was lifted by a hydraulic lift into the wrong side of the airplane (Air New Zealand). The first half of the flight was very turbulent and dinner was postponed which was a shame as we needed a glass of finest business class NZ white! It was served once the skies calmed down. We landed in Auckland and spent the night in a average hotel. We then flew out on Monday morning (19th), after missing a day due to crossing the date line, and were met by an ambulance (and Fiona) in Melbourne. We then went straight to the Richmond Epworth Hospital, where we had a consultation with a neurosurgeon.

Then on Tuesday morning, Hugh had 2 MRI scans, which revealed more significant damage to the L3/4/5 spinal region than originally diagnosed. So...straight into surgery at 6pm that day for a discetomy and a partial laminectomy.

Well....talk about miraculous recovery! Since the surgery Hugh has had absolutely no painkillers and was up and about and trying to walk within about 12 hours of the surgery, albeit with a lot of assistance! However, now, 3 days post-op, he is walking just with the aid of a foot splint and crutches and is very determined to be back to full strength as soon as possible. He is being moved from the regular neurosurgery ward to rehab today, where he will have 2 hours a day of intensive physio, for at least a week, before heading back to Diamond Creek to stay with Fiona and David - and no doubt under go Diamond Creek boot camp (if I know Fiona!).

Although the plans for the boat are still not fully elucidated, it seems that we will get some pro crew to head over to the boat and take it to Fiji - along with Darryn and Val. If Hugh is allowed, he will fly out to the boat and oversee things, although he will be under very strict instructions to not lift a finger!! After that, he may follow the boat, via ferry, to Vanuatu and then fly on to Cairns, so he can still be a part of the Cairns WARC celebrations. At this stage, Val is planning on doing both the Fiji and Vanuatu legs, which we all hope will happen, as she will be very glad of having done it if she does! And Hugh will be very proud of her too....

We would like to say a great big thank you to everyone on the WARC, especially to those of you who have been helping us get through all the logistics associated with getting a boat into a safe place and packing it up for a bit of a rest!! We really feel lucky to have gone through this great adventure with such amazing people and we look forward to seeing them all in Fiji, Vanuatu, and especially Cairns.

As an aside I must tell you about The Tahiti Pearl Regatta.
If you can remember regattas from a few years ago when not everything would go to plan, then you get some idea of the organisation involved. For example the transport from anchorages to meeting/food places at night was a bit "island time", but all the more fun for that!

BlueFlyer did not race seriously and only finished one race out of four, but it was really amazing to be racing around inside the lagoons, ie inside the coral reefs, and to be under full genneker out through the passes and back in again, usually in close company with other boats. We have some amazing photos of boats inside the lagoon with us outside, and all you can see is mast tops and spinnakers above the palm tops.
It was a really fun time and we would happily return to do it again in the future, perhaps with a chartered boat next time.