Monday 3 Jun, MD day 9: Cloudy Bay moves onto dry land and I finally see a doctor (or two).
New week, more jobs. As we were making coffee there is a knock in the hull “Captain, move to dock L, we haul you out!”. Hm, not so sure about that, I think to myself, as high tide is in the afternoon. We very well know from last year that we need every centimeter of it to float in the travel lift slip. But there’s no arguing. We slip the lines and motor towards dock L. And just as we leave, thud, we touch bottom. Low tide indeed. Luckily, is very soft bottom and we reverse out no problem.
Once at dock L, the tide is obviously lower than what we know we should have for Cloudy Bay to fit. And once the mooring lines are secured, Glen lowers the dinghy and rows in the travel lift slip to check depth with the hand held sounder. 2.3m at the end, 2.5m in the middle. Of course we can’t haul out, the slings won’t go under the rudder or the keel. And we leave the travel lift crew take the issue with their office. Office decides we haul out now, and on they proceed. The travel lift crew is very professional, and they manually handle Cloudy Bay into the slip. But there’s no surprise to us when the stern sling doesn’t go under the rudder. And the tide is only dropping at this time. “Told you so” feels very appropriate, but there’s no point doing that. We motor out of the slip and tie on the L dock till afternoon.
My (I suspect) broken toe is not getting better and we have another go at calling clinics for orthopedics appointment. And surprisingly, we manage to get one for noon time. 1h30’ to kill, should be plenty of time to do the laundry. Or maybe not, as we manage to pull together five bag loads. Anyway, we leave the tumble dryers running and drive to the doctor. Which turns out to be a GP, not an orthopedist. I tell them upfront that receptionist mislead me to believe I come to see an orthopedist. And of course, I go through the joke of appointment during which they check my weight, blood pressure, lungs, heart rate, family medical history etc. How annoying and what a waste of time. And by the time I pay $150 for the consultation, what a waste of money too. But then the situation gets better, as the GP offers to make some calls and get me an appointment today for both X-ray and orthopedics. Which he pulls off for early afternoon. Brilliant.
Back at the boat yard, we pass by the laundry to reload the tumble dryers and inquire what is the earliest time they would potentially attempt haul-out. 4pm, so plenty of time for my second doctor appointment. So off we trot to Dunkirk to a real orthopedics clinic this time. After the usual paper work, basically signing off that this clinic won’t take any responsibility for what happens to you, I get an X-ray and the consultant confirms the toe is broken. He also applauds me for my nursing work to strap up the toe so far. Then he retapes my toe to the next one, pretty much exactly as I had already done and sends me on my way for another $180! He also offers me a special “shoe” which will help protect the toe. But I politely decline… enough medical expense for one day, just to discover what I already knew and to tape up my toe the same as I already did!
We arrive back to the boat at 16:05 and sure to their word Cloudy Bay is already in the lift-dock having slings positioned. Although the water depth does not look much deeper than this morning, it all works ok this time and soon she is high and dry, being pressure washed. As it’s the end of the day they move the boat into the yard and leave her hanging in the slings till the morning. We are placed right at the back of the yard surrounded by tall trees and in a peaceful place. That should do nicely for Cloudy’s 4 months holiday, thank you.
During the evening we continue jobs. Glen pottering outside mostly washing the waterline and tidying the decks till the mosquitoes drive him in, and me sorting out things to pack.