RUTH GOT BURNED, BUT IS OKAY/ RUTH CATCHING UP ON HER BLOGS

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23 2008
JL writing. So, time to catch up again. Another eventful day, and not really so good. This morning, Ruth and I decided to take advantage of the calm sea to the East, and take off to Concepcion Island, or possibly Rum Cay. We stocked all up on everything the last few days, filled the fridge full of meat and other good stuff, several pounds of yams, five pounds of burger, a bunch of pork chops, produce, etc. I went to the office to pay, and our fivc latest days here were at an end.
As I was walking back to the boat, here comes Ruth, very upset. She said there was a fire on the boat. I started yelling about the fire extinguisher, and she said it was a grease fire, but it’s out. I said “you didn’t throw water on it did you?” She had been on the boat, boiling oil to make deep fried yams, and made burgers. While she was cooking the burgers, the oil caught fire in the pot. Maybe it was because she had a cover on it to bring it to a boil faster. In any event, she picked it up with pot holders, and threw the whole thing overboard. When the oil, like 350 degrees plus, hit the salt water, which has a boiling temperature of like 170 or something, it essentially exploded. The flames grew to like five feet on the water, and all of the burning oil from the pan splashed back onto her from the explosion on the water. It hit her skin, and burned her all over her back, arm, and spots all over. The flames burned the hair from her arm, and even behind her ear on the side of her head.
When we both went back to the boat to try to get her some relief, there was still a pot on fire, and what do I do, first thing, but pick it up and throw it overboard. Damn reflexes. They work for some things, anyway. And Ruth picked up a towel next to it, still burning, and throws that in. Less egregious of an error, but the same reflexes in both of us, despite what we know.
The bottom line is, first degree burns all over the damn place, second in places, and one spot by her waist about as big as my hand.

The following is a little more of a graphic description. I’m including the detail to give a realistic account of her injuries so that the people who care about Ruth can know what’s really going on, but not to be morbid. If reading about it, or anything else in this blog bothers you, please skip ahead. While I’m on the subject, I’ll reiterate something I said when starting it- we write in this blog not as we would talk to a parent, a judge, a cop, a great uncle, or even a neighbor, but as a we would talk to a friend, and someone we trust to give the benefit of the doubt to the writer. No guard, no b.s., no façade, no formalities. That is a show of faith on our part that we’re frank and open. Please appreciate that, and don’t resent it. Sometimes, in frankness, we swear when we talk… even to you. That is not disrespect. That means we trust you enough to share the bare bones of the thoughts in our head, without edit, as we would to a friend. Take it as a compliment. Okay, enough said. Read on.



She has first or second degree burns over about 17% of her body, mostly on her back. She was upset, of course. The skin was melted off, basically. It was very hot, very quick, and so the top layer separated from the others by large, sagging blisters. We put aloe on it right away, took four motrin, and at that point, the man in the marina, Eberhard, came to give me the receipt, and ended up driving us to the doctor. From there, the doctor drove us to the clinic, on her day off, and treated Ruth. By then, Ruth was feeling somewhat better, and was a great sport throughout. (Now, she’s admiring the drapes, smelling the magazines, and seems to be in fine spirits.) Right away, the whole thing was in perspective, that it was better that it wasn’t worse. She was more upset at the perceived inconvenience to us than of her injuries, it seems. We don’t know that a trip to Nassau would be necessary, except to get supplies to treat it, which you can’t do without a trip to the doc. And Ruth wanted me to come with, so now we’re both planning on leaving tomorrow.
Anyway, so the doctor, Nadia, is the wife of the man running the resort, Nils, and she cleaned everything, put antibacterial burn medicine on, and she and I gauzed Ruth all up. She then treated a sprained finger a little girl had, and then drove us back to the marina. Once back, Garrett, Nils’ father approached me and said that he heard we were going to Nassau to get further treatment in the a.m. I said we were, and so he said that he would give us a free room at the hotel until the morning flight, because the family all thought it would be best if Ruth had a.c. for the night. Was that nice or what?
He said that the a.c. in his house isn’t working, or he would have had us there. Shortly after, his wife came and told us they were sending a car to pick us up to take us to our free room.
While we waited, we removed the pork chops, bananas, and other perishables from our fridge, and took them to give to Garrett and family. Because we couldn’t find them, we gave them to Hugh instead, and cooked up pork chops while we awaited our ride. Pat and Bob brought over a cake for our dessert, and everybody commiserated over how best to proceed.
I guess the points I’m trying to make are:
First, Ruth will be okay. It is very painful, she has large blistered areas, but it appears to be fairly superficial, not deep, and not going to scar. The doctor concurred on my layman’s take on that. Because the clinics here are light on supplies, like the necessary creams, etc. We’ll go to Nassau though, to make sure it won’t get infected, and heals productively. In the meantime, she says it is not killing her, even though it is painful. She says on a one to ten scale of pain, it’s a one, and at the moment she says it doesn’t hurt at all. We are VERY grateful this isn’t worse.
The second point: How kind people are once again. The place we’re staying in has a.c., a balcony, vaulted ceilings, king sized bed (maybe bigger), in this fabulous resort. And for free. Yesterday when Ruth went shopping, she said this lady picked her up, I think the first driver that passed, and took her to the store. She said she would pick her up in half an hour and drive her back. Have you ever heard of people being like this to strangers? It’s practically dreamlike.
Oh yeah. Third: The treatment Ruth got today, including the doctor seeing her at her house, on her day off, then driving her to the clinic, and then to the marina, and treating her, wrapping her, gauzing her, cleaning her, and giving us handfuls of medicines to take with us, cost a whopping $46 dollars. Can you imagine trying to get treatment like that in the U.S., let alone for $46? That’s government sponsored healthcare. If this was the U.S., that E.R. visit would have been a grand, and if you don’t pay it, your credit would be ruined. Nice choices. The next time someone tells me we don’t need socialized healthcare (which is basically everyone obediently listening to Fox News in the U.S., and here too), I’m going to try to avoid screaming at them, and make every effort to just grate my teeth, and shake my head at their ignorance of what it’s like for the rest of us. In the meantime, hats off to socialized medicine!!! We’re going to both fly to Nassau, see another doctor, get treated, and stay a few days in a hotel, most likely for less than an E.R. visit would have cost. Hot dog. Lesson learned: if you’re going have an accident, do it in the Bahamas. The tourist slogan “It’s better in the Bahamas” is true, I think. That goes for most things, even getting hit by a bus or covered in boiling oil. Of course, in the States, we could always sue someone. Maybe Wesson Oil Inc. and Florence Henderson in a joint liability.
Anyway, we are both well. Ruth will be fine, and I will take good care of this poor girl. She’s been through so much. Three major injuries in the last year. All on the damned boat. Maybe we should sink it. But we’ll be in Nassau for a few days, and probably in a hotel there, or maybe we can stay with Peter, or Gavin and Michelle or someone. While there, we’ll pick up our Tillerpilot automatic pilot we had shipped there, and I’ll probably go ask again to have the allergist give me the allergy test I paid for but didn’t get when I was there. So that’s our news, and when all this is taken care of, we will resume carousing.
So anyway, that was a few hours ago, and now you’re up to date. We’ll hopefully leave in the morning, and now I will stop neglecting my wife. We just wanted you all to be in the loop. I’m sure you’ll all return the favor and keep us apprised of what’s going on with people up there that is of note. Or even if nothing is, so that we’re not in the dark. I took pictures of the injuries too, so you can see for yourselves, but that’s on the boat, and will have to wait, because it’ll be a while before we’re back there.

XOX,
Jack



Ruth's Update – Jan 9th to Feb. 16th

On Valentine's Day I began my massive summary of our trip since
leaving Staniel Cay. I left off at Black Point (6 miles south of
Staniel) where Jack and I had finished a day long hike to The White
Horses cliffs. I believe the date was January 8th.

January 9 -
The following day Jack and I snorkeled some coral heads nearby and
Jack speared his first fish! We are still unsure of the species,
although we speculate it may be some type of Jack fish, haha. The
pics are definitely somewhere on the site. The fish was bright yellow
with shiny blue stripes. It was very beautiful…and tasty.
In his earlier attempts to catch something, Jack injured a fish that
got away. I watched its green blood squirt out under water in a mist
like tear gas as it swam away. Moments earlier I had seen about a 6
foot long shark along the outside of the coral edge near the drop off.
I watched it turn away from where we were and slide into the deeper
water so, although alerting Jack of its presence, I was not concerned
– until I saw the fish blood. Assuming the shark would get a whiff
and turn around I swam back to the boat and got in. No sooner was I
in the boat when Jack called out the shark was back and he got out
too. Besides seeing Nurse sharks from the safety of the dock, that was
our first official shark experience! It was very exciting and left me
hungry for more!
We originally snorkeled this particular spot in hopes we'd find some
lobster, but no dice. Still, I was more than satisfied with the
beautiful coral, the shark experience, Jack's catch, and a glimpse of
my first angel fish. Angel fish are native to the Pacific and are a
danger to the eco-system in the Atlantic because they have no natural
predators. The angel fish is beautifully striped red and white with
very long spikes protruding from its back. The spikes are poisonous,
and in extreme cases can cause nausea, paralysis, and death. I saw
two big ones that day and marveled at their beauty.

January 10 –
The last day at Black Point I went for a jog on the island. I passed
about seven different people at separate locations who were weaving
baskets from palm leaves. Since then I've seen baskets, purses, and
photo albums all woven from palm leaves. I believe only a certain type
of palm is used, but I will have to double check what type it is. I
think it's so fascinating how they can weave such a strong, durable
object from those thin leaves! Beautiful.
Also during my run, I passed a Bahamian who, when I called out "good
morning," exclaimed with a big smile, "Are you trottin?! She's
trottin'! SHE'S TROTTIN'!!!" From here on out, I will refer to my
jogging as trottin'! J
When I returned, Jack and I took the boat to a nearby cut in hopes of
catching 'the big one,' but the current was so strong that the waves
flowing through the cut were very high, very strong, and all around
very intense, so this led to us anchoring the boat nearby and
snorkeling instead. Although the current was kind of a bitch, I had a
great time until I almost free dove onto an 8 foot sleeping reef
shark. When I pointed out the shark, we decided to head in and upon
seeing three large barracuda eyeing us with their razor-sharp stares,
we swam at a slightly panicked pace back to the boat.
Heading away from Black Point, we checked out a couple shipwrecks in a
nearby creek (where only a boat with our shallow draft could go),
checked out the ruins of a marina "castle," and viewed a fairly recent
sailboat wreck that had washed ashore. Then we hoisted the sails and
directed ourselves towards Little Farmers Cay. We arrived at night and
since we had no cash, couldn't enjoy the bar or restaurant. We threw
our trash into the local dump and enjoyed a big spaghetti dinner on
the boat under the stars. No money, no problems.

January 11 –
We awoke ready to hoist sail. It was a cloudy, windy, and slightly
rainy morning. We sailed south in strong southeasterly winds in waters
that were a bit rougher than we anticipated. We had planned on
snorkeling a plane wreck at Little Lansing Cay on the way but because
of the conditions we just surveyed it from the boat instead. The sun
came out as the day progressed, but the winds didn't die. We ducked
into a protected area at Rudder Cut Cay to anchor because we could see
a large cave from out in the bay where we were sailing. The cave was
magnificent! It was maybe 30-40 feet tall, about 30 feet deep, and you
could snorkel all the way inside it. There were a couple large holes
in the ceiling where the rock had given way, which let the sun filter
in. You could look up and see the blue sky and palm trees, and some
mangrove roots had started growing inside the holes and wrapping
around the inside of the cave. It was beautiful. In the deepest corner
of the cave were, I swear, THOUSANDS of sparkling rainbow minnows! It
was such a gorgeous site! I also saw a sleeping baby shark, and I took
my first shot with the spear gun at a Nassau Grouper, which was
unsuccessful. Outside of the cave was a big conch field (an
underwater grassy, sandy area where the conch like to romp). Jack dove
and selected a large number of conch – at least twenty—that we
could
eat for dinner.
As sundown approached, we decided to anchor at Lee Stocking Island
for the night. The wind had picked up so we turned on the motor along
with the sails. We reefed the main, and we had to keep trimming the
jib because the wind was so strong the boat was heeling at practically
a 45 degree angle. Unfortunately we trimmed the jib so tight that the
wind caused it to flap so hard it tore. It's an old sail – over 20
years – and it already had a tear along the seam (from 40mph gusts in
Michigan this summer) that we had patched up right before the trip, so
we didn't sweat it. Jack patched it with sail tape and sewed it with
fishing line when we got to Georgetown.
We made it to Lee Stocking safe and sound, just after dark. It was
then time to work on the conch Jack grabbed earlier in the day. He
found one shell that was empty so he chiseled off the top and made it
into a horn. (Later, when anchored at Salt Pond on Long Island, every
boat in the anchorage with one of these let out a mighty blow at
sunset! We chimed in too, of course. It was great!) Back to the conch
though, we swore we would never pick that many conch at one time ever
again. It took almost three hours to prepare and was quite the
headache. The process includes chiseling a hole on the top, prying the
sucker out, trimming and skinning them, then tenderizing them. Doesn't
sound like much, but preparing two or three conch that way is more
than enough work for what it's worth. Adding twenty five more conch to
the equation was quite a task. We attempted to make "cracked conch"
which is basically conch chopped up, breaded, and deep fried. By the
time it was ready, WE were ready, and it wasn't bad. But needless to
say we didn't eat the leftovers….
Jan 12 –
After the turbulent sail the previous day, it was a pleasure to enjoy
the calm, protected anchorage at Lee Stocking. Our friend Brian,
(from North Carolina?) stopped by our boat with his girlfriend
Stephanie, who was visiting for the week. They were planning on
snorkeling the ocean side of the island and we asked if we could join.
We hiked a couple "trails" to the opposite side of the island and
settled on a semi-rocky area. The crashing waves were a bit
intimidating, but once in the water I found it was very easy to swim.
There wasn't much to see, just rocks and not a lot of fish life. Jack
followed a silver fish with the spear but the hunt was unsuccessful.
We both saw a large stingray gliding along the bottom in the deeper
part of the ocean beyond the rocks.
Back at the boat, the solar panels weren't kicking out enough juice,
and upon investigation Jack discovered a few corroded wires. He
re-wired the damaged areas, wrapped the connectors in electrical tape,
and that essentially fixed the problem.
We decided to continue our trip south, our ultimate destination being
Georgetown, a central hub for boaters to provision before heading
south or north. We had heard that the anchorages were usually packed
with boats (when we arrived the count was over 120 and during a cold
front we experienced there it easily reached beyond 200). Before
heading out, Brian offered to trade us a lobster for some gin. We
hadn't eaten, let alone caught, a lobster down here so we eagerly
agreed. No sooner had we left the anchorage did Brian catch up to us
on his dinghy to bring us ANOTHER lobster he had just caught minutes
after we left. What a guy! We enjoyed our first premium lobster dinner
that night! The tails were SO filling! We anchored at Hamlet Cay after
heading in from the rough ocean, the quickest route to G-Town. The
next day we took the ocean south with its massive waves heaving the
boat to, fro, and everywhere in-between.
We got to Georgetown and our first night there we got drunk, wandered
the streets, found a warehouse full of locals hanging out, played in a
drum circle with them, and had a political discussion with a
Rastafarian. In the next week we provisioned, got on the internet, I
jogged a few times, and we enjoyed a few beach parties complete with a
sing-alongs and dirty jokes told around a campfire. The following week
Burt and Phyllis visited, which was PHENOMENAL. What an extraordinary
week that was!!! Here's a rough sketch of what went down while they
were here:

Mon – 4-5 miler in the morning, walk to fish fry with Jack for lunch,
hitchhike to airport (got picked up three times), took Burt and Phyll
to the Rake n' Scrape at Eddie's Edgewater, heavy rain that night!!
Made it back to the boat to ensure its safety.

Tues – pull up to the dock for fuel, water, laundry, atm; mom's
bakery
(a local whom everyone refers to as "mom" who sells THE FRESHEST baked
goods out of her van), jack hearing Phyllis call over VHF over mom's
van; took Burt n' Phyll over to Hamburger Beach for snacks n'
cocktails via the boat, 40-50 people there, vote for group name (which
turned out to be AHOY – Alcohol, Hor'dourves, and Other Yummies),
campfire, songs, I played the ukulele and Jack sung Waltzing Matilda,
ride back to the Peace n' Plenty hotel, docked, spend the night J,
read a book outside when I couldn't sleep and a rat crept up nearly
onto my foot!

Wed – breakfast in the hotel room, ________?___________, sunset out
on
the boat, dinner at the hotel restaurant, started showing pictures
from our trip


Thurs – tour with Angela at 10 am, drove around Great Exuma Island,
Jack and I got a beer at Big D's Conch Bar where there was a beautiful
view into the sound and showed P&B conch shells, lunch at Cheater's,
beautiful view at the salt beacon, naps while I worked on music,
dinner at the hotel, showed more pictures at night

Fri – slept in till noon, lunch at the hotel restaurant,
______?______, cocktail party at hotel, mucho fun!

Sat – went out on the boat to scope out good snorkeling spots, 4:30
Angela's dinner party (spectacular food!), showed final pictures and
movies back at the hotel

Sun – snorkeling day! Perfect day, sunny, calm; breakfast at the
hotel
restaurant, brought the boat around, snorkeled the spot we scoped out,
Phyllis went in for a long time – sooo youthful and inspiring, went
into the crazy cut!!! Ruth – "this is intense" Phyllis – "this is
GREAT!" , P&B nap on the boat while J&R grab a burger and get them a
conch salad at Volleyball Beach, group of people on three-master that
helped at the dock and helped Burt when his leg gave him trouble,
showed pictures and movie clips from the past week back in the room.
Awoke at 4:45 to make flight!

ROKey Dokreee…Jack wrote about catching the Snapper, the terrifying
trip to the Jumentos, and our wonderful welcoming to Long
Island!….Therefore I think that does it for my update. I will
continue on as usual now. So long, and have a peaceful night tucked
under warm blankets.