A little change in our plans.....

Hannah came and went. I guess we weren't far enough north to completely miss this one, but happy to be as as high a Latitude (get it? har, har) as we were. We found a relatively sheltered place to anchor near the mouth of the Piscataqua River, which is the dividing line between New Hampshire and Maine, and forms Portmouth harbor. As predicted, the winds started from the east, then NE, then N then NW -- textbook for a tropical storm pasing us out to sea. It rained a lot but winds were mostly 15 to 25 kts, gusting as high as 33 kts -- of course in the dark of Saturday night.

While we successfully weathering tropical storm Hannah, our trip has hit a little snag. During our trip on Friday, we had a "brisk sail" in 15 to 20 kts of wind. Luke overdid the winching of the jib a bit (trying to tighten a rope that's already tight as a banjo string, perfectionist!!), heard three quick cracks in left left arm, pain... We went to a Sports medicine place in Portsmouth NH on Friday, and the diagnosis is that the tendon ruptured at the elbow. Fortunately, he's not in a lot of pain. The choices are physical therapy with about 30 - 40 % loss of strength (primarily in rotating the wrist, I think) or surgery. He's opting to be fixed here in Portsmouth. NH. It's outpatient, so, hopefully, not too bad. It needs to be repaired within 2 weeks for best results. Too short to get back to Rke and get things scheduled. We need to be here at least 2 weeks more here after surgery for follow up, plus no activity (like lifting a coffee cup) with that arm for 8 weeks. The Dr said that if he chooses to sail back to VA before then, as anything more than a passenger, that the Dr will "respectfully decline" to do the surgery, as there is too much risk that Luke will redamage it if he tries to help. While I can do most all of the functions, physically I can't do it alone, especially in some situations like anchoring or docking. We will find an experienced crew member to go with us, preferably someone who wants to just go along for the trip

The surgery is scheduled for Monday, 15th, at noon-ish. That puts us into early Oct before we can start back, a couple of weeks to get home after that. We will definitely be home by the third week of Oct, as we have special friends coming from Japan to visit us!

We have found a good place to move the boat to, to stay in her, for this period of time. It's a gracious offer from one of the marinas --- they will let us tie up to their dock for 3-4 weeks for what would normally cost to sit on a mooring (out in the water instead at a dock) for a week. This means we have electricity hook ups and all the water we need (little condo!). We don't have to use the dinghy to get to shore, and can leave her hoisted on the back of the boat, so there is no physical labor there. Just off the boat and into a car.

We are lucky that we have boat friends here who have let us stay at their home a couple of days, lent us their car on a temporary basis, are letting us use their mooring at their yacht club for a few days, and have facilitated finding a Dr. for us. More new friends have also offered the use of one of their cars, so we may not have to rent one.

We will stay with friends at least on Monday night after the surgery, maybe Tuesday, but will have our cells with us.

Luke has talked to one of the orthopedic doctors in Rke, and he has agreed to do the last follow up check-up and work with Luke on any necessary therapy.

SO... life goes on, doesn't it :-) We can't control the winds, so we simply adjust our sails. At this point, we think this will just slide our winter trip south back by a few weeks.

I think you'll be seeing a lot of beautiful New Castle Island, Portsmouth, and other areas of NH in the early fall for the next 3 weeks in the blog.

I'll give everyone a status report on Monday.