Voyage 2015: Chapter 2

14 Jul 2015, Good Morning Onset, 41 44.358 N/ 070 38.958 W

We arrived around 0730 on Monday at the Anchorage just in time to see Mon Aimie leave the anchorage. Onset is a real gem for the cruiser. They have anchorages, mooring, water taxis, pump out boats, and really good pizza. Our first day here did not see us do very much as were were tired. Bob's sinus/ear infection kept him groggy and lazy.

This year's visit was our first experience with Osprey perching on sailboat masts. It seems that they hang out up there in search of fish and a little bird to bird flirting. Not on our boat! When we catch one of these guys on our mast head, Bob looks up and says "no, no, no!". The bird looks down, 'poos', and then flies off without fanfare. 0530 is their favorite time.

Today we moved to the mooring field of Point Independence Yacht Club (PIYC) in preparation to have Ann's tumor removed. More about that later. We like the guys at PIYC from our experience last year. So, we signed up for a month stay so that we could easily load the patient on and off the boat to shore. Hope it all works out.

30 Jul 2015, The Patient in Onset, 41 44.358 N/ 070 38.958 W

We could write a book on our experiences in removing Ann's tumor. While consulting with our ILM doctor over the phone, he said the tumor should be removed within week, not months. So we had to find a surgeon. Our first hero is Dr. Huaco, a local surgeon who practices in Wareham. He told Ann that it would be difficult to operate, it would need a plastic surgeon, and he would find one. Next day, he calls us and told us to call Dr. Jones in Hyannis (second hero). He looked at it and said "I think I can fix that". He booked us for surgery for the following week, and ...

Cape Cod Hospital was our third hero. Best treat we have ever received! Pre-op was a piece of cake as was the whole surgery experience. She went in and less than three hours later we were bouncing back to Onset in our rental car (hero #4 was the Hertz guy who found us a car that was patient friendly).

We had friends come visit the sick. Jim and Karen were passing through on their way North and they spent a couple of extra days with us. Mon Amie came by in their dinghy many times to see how our sickie was doing. The guys at PIYC would often ask how she was doing and offer assistance. And the staff of the Onset Harbormaster's office was helpful and considerate. What a nice place!

And what about Bob? Well, he cooked, cleaned, changed the litter, and fed Ann her pills for a whole week! Not bad, huh? For you see, he does not normally cook nor clean. But he did and nobody got sick. We got her off the boat for her doctor visits by using the Onset launch. They would pick us up at our mooring and take us to the PIYC dock where Bob would wheel chair her to the car. She didn't like the wheel chair.