Croup and the Cruising Sailor

So, re. Eric, this was the second time that we've had cause to pick up the satphone and enquire of my sister the pediatrician about the funny noises he was making while attempting to breathe.

The first time was in Ra'ivavae, in the Austral Islands.

This time was between Haiti and Jamaica, though more on the Haitian side.

In her been-through-this-before pediatrician's voice my sister reassured me that 99% of dealing with croup is keeping your cool.

After that she kindly talked me through the pharmaceutical options at our disposal.

For most of the morning we had been drifting off the coast of Haiti, listening to the sails bang about and waiting for the wind to return.

By the time I was consulting with my sis the wind was back in a little way.

And shortly after we hung up it was back for real, in more vigor than the 12 knots promised by the forecast.

The Jamaica Channel is something of a funnel for shipping and soon after I had us powered up and under weigh on the new breeze I was taking it all down again to do a half-arsed heave-to let a ship go by.

So yeah, I was thinking as I ground various winches and pulled on various bits of string and sent Elias downstairs for an updated Closest Point of Approach report - keeping your cool. We can probably do that.

That was something to think of, as was the high eroded coast of Haiti, which by this point had disappeared in the haze behind us.

How many sick kids were on that coastline, without a satphone for calling the doc, and a bottle of prednisolone at hand?

And how is it our outrageous fortune to be the ones with the satphone and the prednisolone and a yacht of our own to take us here and there at a whim?

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This post was sent via our high-frequency radio as we're far from internet range. Pictures to follow when we reach internet again. We can't respond to comments for now, though we do see them all!