Captain MacGyver
The night didn’t go well. Every time I moved my leg stung with pain. I awoke around 7am and immediately started to self-diagnosis with google. Based on what I read I had sprained my MCL. The diagnosis meant I needed rest, ice compression and elevation. Hum, I have limited ice and resting as first mate on a sailboat is easier said than done (hence my “I hope I can have a rest day” that I have been saying for over a week!). My compression brace really wasn’t even coming close to helping and I was pretty sure I needed a full on brace. I woke up Captain in tears. I couldn’t take Kona to shore, I couldn’t even help lift anchor or dock, but we needed to go to Little Current and be seen by a doctor and get a brace.
Thankfully Cory woke up and assumed role of 1st mate with the full confidence of nine years of sailing. They helped take Kona to shore, lifted anchor by themselves and also did the dishes underway. Arabesque had left about 15 minutes before us and Captain realized if we left right away we could make the 11am swing bridge in Little Current. It was a very clear and calm day so we just sat back and enjoyed the motor for three hours. I hobbled up deck and elevated my leg and enjoyed the ride.
As we approached Little Current we somehow managed to cut some corners and get in front of Arabesque and a whole cue of sailboats waiting for the bridge. We called the marina and were happy to hear they had space for us on the wall. Captain asked for assistance in docking as we had injured crew.
I was nervous, our last docking here was hairy and Captain hurt his shins really bad (he is convinced he has a hairline fracture but he is much tougher then I am and is able to function still). Today the current was even worse. The eddies coming through the bridge were swirling like crazy and captain had the boat in full throttle and only moving ahead at a speed of 2 knots!!!! Not being 1st mate and being lame was very hard. I had to shut up and let them be crew without me. That meant I just kept my head down and trusted them. I couldn’t look. Somehow Captain was able to position Ciara in a way that current just brought us to the dock and we had a very smooth, professional landing. We would come to learn later that todays currents are about as bad as they ever get. It has always been my fear to see the big currents. I’m kind of glad to now know what that looks like exactly. We now know, as well, what slips have the dangerous eddies and to also insist on dock hands to help pull us in as the staff here are most excellent and understand their waters and boats. We did end up seeing another sailboat who got caught in the currents and jammed up against three boats on the docks. Their anchors (at the bows) got tangled and it took them over two hours to get them all pulled away from each other. Just a little paint exchange and no major damage at least.
Once we were secure Captain and I headed up to the hospital. We unloaded our scooters and I used the scooter (carefully) to act as a mobility scooter. There was no way I was walking the half mile there.
We had just been here a week before to visit Roy and found the place nearly deserted on a weekend. I felt like I was in a Stanley Kubrick film as I pulled a number to wait my turn and sit in a plain waiting room. I haven’t pulled a paper number like that since Baskin’ Robbins in the 80’s! We had friendly chat with the locals in the waiting room while number 49 was being Triaged. I was number 50. I had to go get fully registered as a US person wasn’t in the system. Everything and everyone was so calm and laid back and a complete contrast to the high dollar American system. The kind lady at registration took my credit card and showed me a detail list of cost of services that I would be responsible for depending on my care. Honestly, it was very affordable and since I knew they didn’t have an MRI machine I wasn’t going to spend my life savings.
About 40 minutes later the doctor saw me. We were placed in a windowless room. The dry wall was in disrepair, and completely missing paint on one wall. One exam bed, no chairs, no cabinets, no sink, no pictures. I can hear the theremin playing in the background of my Kubrick film in my mind. The doctor came in and was super frank and honest. Yep, I had sprained my MCL. No need for an expense x-ray to determine I didn’t break it, no need to determine the severity of said sprain as it would only cause me severe pain to check. The part I wasn’t expecting was for him to say “We don’t have any braces; you can try the pharmacy or order one online.” What??? Really! What???
Just shy of $500 USD later I was sent to the pharmacy down the road to get a crutch, ice packs and maybe a brace. We arrived 5 minutes before they closed early on a Sunday. They had crutches, but I had walking sticks aboard I felt could work. We didn’t find any braces but got some ice packs.
I was already feeling pretty defeated when we got to the Wi-Fi at the marina and started to see what our options were for getting any kind of delivery to Little Current. I knew I had to go to the Canadian amazon and thought I had when every single brace I found said “Not available.” Captain put a request out on the local boater Facebook pages for help. While we waited for solutions, I called my mom and fessed up to my injury. She was already out shopping and went looking back home for a hinged brace. She found one at Walgreens and headed to the UPS store before they closed. She called me from the UPS store and we discovered that the absolute possible delivery date was maybe Friday and the cost was well over $200. I told my mom to return the brace and then had to hand the phone over to Captain as I started to ugly cry. How on earth was I going to heal without a brace? By Friday I would have been in worse shape and maybe injured more.
Captain went into MacGyver mode. He was able to quickly make me a make-shift brace of duck-tape and two paint stir sticks. This locked my leg in place but only sort of. Then he realized he could make me a custom fiberglass molded brace. He excitedly started to rip about Ciara looking for all the things he needed.
In the process we were trying to figure out the design. It needed to be hinged. I’m allowed to bend my knee I just really needed it stabilized side to side. The fiberglass model wasn’t going to work and was going to take a long time anyhow. The day was slipping into late afternoon already as it was. Then he found old battens from sails from 1959! They were broken and no good for sailing, but he had kept them “just in case.” We found wing nuts that we use for our electric trolling motor. We found Velcro straps we use to hold all the standing rigging to the mast in the winter when we pull the mast out and of course, we had duct tape and a drill!
By the time 6pm rolled around I had my brand new, custom made “Frankin-brace!” And honestly it is super comfortable and seems to be very functional not letting me twist my knee. During this time a boater on line had sent me to the correct Canada Amazon page and I was able to order a brace overnight. I put the odds and 20/80 (only 20% chance of getting here) overnight. I like Captains brace a lot but it will be good to have one that doesn’t have wing nuts to sleep in! The Little Current Cruises Net motto is “Boaters helping boaters” and there isn’t a summer yet where they haven’t come to our rescue, and today they came through again.
We were all hungry and in no mood to cook so we loaded me on my scooter as Captain and Cory walked beside me carrying my hiking stick that I had lowered to make into a cane.
I wasn’t excepting the looks! My brace is pretty bad ass looking and quite the conversation starter. Everyone in the restaurant was very curious to my injury, if I was okay and hysterically happy about Captains invention. The waitress was kind enough to give me the short cut to the restroom rather than making me walk all the way around the restaurant. I felt like royalty, broken, but royal.
Dinner was really good. I got a girly drink named Holy Water and it came with a fancy garnish stick with fruit. It lightened my mood. I was just so incredibly grateful to my crew for taking such good care of me. I was feeling like a whimp for not handling the pain but they came to my rescue and fixed me up.
When we returned to Ciara, Cory took Kona to play Frisbee right by our boat. Lots of families were on the wall catching fish by the dozen. Every three minutes I would hear “I got a fish!” Lot of Kona pets and she performed with grace and beauty. A coast guard guy came up to the wall and started to clear families away. Off to the west I could see a coast guard ship coming in. He docked right next to us. Once they were secure, they came over and chatted with us (our boat invites a lot of conversation). The captain thought he had a brace onboard for me and went to look. Sadly no. Captain told them his joke after they admired our steering wheel. He took off the wheel, stuck it down his pants and said “I walked into the Anchor Inn (where we went to dinner tonight) like this. The bartender said “Sir, are you aware you have a wheel down your pants?” “Aaaargh, It’s driving me nuts!|” The Coasties rolled with laughter.
I played Last Post at 9pm. All the Coasties and common folk stopped and recorded me. Captain said they were all so very impressed. I was just glad to be standing on my own two feet, secure at a dock and able to sit here for a few days and force the relaxation that my body now demands. The winds and rain are, again, predicted to be nasty until Wednesday so we will just sit and adjust our sails once again. We will have a month before we have to head home and I’m hopeful I can heal well enough to continue our adventures here for some time yet.
