Thursday 15th May
This week has been rather difficult, as Hugh's back/leg condition has worstened significantly. We flew back to Tahiti on Tuesday, so Hugh could have a CAT scan to have a look at what was happening in his back. It appears he has a severly slipped/ruptured disc (at L3), which is putting pressure on his sciatic nerve and interfering with his leg function. It is so severe now that he is unable to walk at all and has been in a wheelchair for much of the last 2 days.
As a result we are leaving here tomorrow - flying to Melbourne - so Hugh can have immediate surgery. We will fly first to Auckland and stay overnight there, before flying on to Melbourne. The flights are 6 hours and 4 hours respectively and as Hugh has to lie down (he can't sit or stand for more than a few minutes) we are flying business class. Fingers crossed on the insurance claim!
At this stage our plans are to hire 2 professional crew and have them sail BlueFlyer (along with Shin) to Muscat Cove in Fiji. From there hopefully both Hugh and I, but certainly myself, will sail to Cairns with Darryn, a friend from Melbourne who has been booked in for that leg of the journey for a number of months. We feel this is the best compromise, as we will still get to take part in the last leg of our WARC trip and enjoy the WARC party in Cairns. So, Hugh will hopefully be operated on this week, take about 6 weeks to recuperate and then head back to the boat for the last 3 weeks or so of sailing (in early July).
In a couple of days, when we get to Australia, my Irish mobile will be working, for those of you with that number (Melbourne is 11 hours ahead of Ireland), or you can try contacting us at Fiona and David's as we will be staying there.
Fingers crossed for Hugh - he is in a bad way and struggling a lot, something I am sure you can appreciate is not in his nature.
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2 comments:
Hugh/Val-will be keeping fingers crossed all goes well with surgery n post-op....been there got that t-shirt,wasn't fun so know where you're at....love Caroline
Just logged in and shocked and so sorry to hear about Hugh's back problems. What a nightmare. Wishing you well with surgery and recovery. Just concentrate on first principles - everything else, even Blue Flyer will wait.
Regards, Judith and Peter
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