Hello everyone,

Well, Monday was the day that I saw the doctor again, hoping to be disconnected from the pump, put on oral antibiotics and sent on our way. It didn’t happen. He wanted to continue the iv for two more weeks. Needless to say, I was very disappointed.

But, we said that we would still head south and started to make plans. On Tuesday, we would pick up another weeks worth of iv bags, have the tubing changed at VON and drive to my Mom’s for a visit. Then we would have until Friday before needing another visit from the nurse. So, we called Community Care Access to arrange for all the info to be transferred to St Thomas and to have the VON there take over.

Not quite so easy. They would not allow me to leave North Bay with their pump. Even if we guaranteed overnight delivery back to them. No way would they bend the rules. The pump must be delivered before we leave. And there is only 7 hours between doses. The CCAC tried to suggest that it wouldn’t matter if I missed a dose. But, we didn’t think that was a viable option.

So, Tuesday we drove down to Gravenhurst to visit with my mom and sister, Karyn. They were so supportive during my hospital stay and I really wanted to see them again before we headed off.

Wednesday morning, as soon as my 6:00 dose started ( the pump wakes me ), we jumped up, showered, ate and headed out. The pump was left at the VON ( the drugstore didn’t open till 9 ).

The traffic was fairly light, except around TO, and we made good time. The nurse met us at Steve’s and hooked me up again.

Visiting with friends has top priority for the next few weeks. Once all this medical stuff is behind us, we will head back to the boat but no definite date as yet. A new wind generator has been ordered and will meet us in Florida. We had purchased a used one in ’97 and repair parts were no longer available. The list of boat jobs is not too long this year. Just as well, with the delay.

Steve’s wireless is allowing us to use this address again and we check it frequently. Stay in touch.

Hugs Heather & Murray

Hello all,

Firstly, I must apologize for the lack of news during the last little while. As you all know, I had knee surgery on Sept 8th and had expected a speedy recovery and to return to work in approx one weeks time.

That didn’t happen. I ran a fever daily from the day of surgery and visited several doctors/emergency clinics in the Orillia/Gravenhurst area where I was staying with my mom for the week post-op. Finally, I called North Bay Hospital and arranged to see the surgeon on Monday, the 18th.

I don’t need to give you all of the gory details but the up-shot was that they admitted me. Even though there were no beds to be had. I ended up on Paeds/Gyn Surgery at the McLaren site of the North Bay Hospital. The nurses there took wonderful care of me for the 15 days that I was their patient. Yes, I did say 15 days!! That is unheard of in this day and age of overnight stays for giving birth and short stays for other surgeries.

I was receiving IV antibiotics three times per day. My veins didn’t co-operate and most sites pooped out after 24 hours. Then, it would take 4-5 tries to get another vein. Man, am I covered with bruises. Eventually, it was decided to insert a PICC line. This is a fine catheter that enters a vein between your elbow and shoulder and terminates at the superior vena cava. Even that wasn’t easy as the first three tries didn’t work. But, eventually it was inserted.

Due to a suggestion by my sister, Karyn, (thanks, hon) I got out on passes for a few days just needing to be at the hospital at 2 pm, 10 pm and 6 am for my IV meds. So, Mur would pick me up in the morning, return me for an hour at 1:30 and then bring me back for overnight at about 9:30. I discovered just how much strength I had lost as we walked around grocery stores etc.

Murray’s cousin, Ivan, and his partner Midge have graciously taken us in for the duration of this “ordeal”. They have a condo in Callender, just outside of North Bay. If you wish to phone, we can be reached at 705-752-5204.

Then, on Tuesday, finally all of the paperwork was in place. Home Care was set up and I was discharged at about 5 pm.

We visited the VON office in North Bay last night and they hooked me up to a Prism pump which automatically delivers my doses at the required time. The pump is worn like a purse and is fed through your clothes, jackets etc. This will continue for another two weeks.

At the end of that time, if my blood results have improved substantially and all else looks good, I may be able to switch to oral antibiotics and be disconnected from the pump. If not, we will still leave this area and transfer down to St Thomas to stay at Steve’s house, near the 17th of Oct. Hopefully, we can do some visiting during our stay there and will try to connect with each of you. Long term plans? The return to the boat may be delayed somewhat but is still going to happen.

Meantime, I continue to stretch and bend my new knee and build up my strength. Mur pushes me to bend further each day. He keeps me going and is trying to tempt me to eat more. But, my appetite is way down and I have been losing too much weight (as if I would complain about that!).

So, that is what is happening here. Hope all is well with you.

Hugs, Heather & Murray

Well, as you know the surgery was done on Friday morning.

I don’t think that they are used to having younger patients because when they asked what kind of music I liked and I said “easy rock” they didn’t have a cd for that. So, it was classical all the way.

They did an epidural and I was awake for the event. It is quite disconcerting to hear the chisels and hammers against your bones and the impact went all of the way to the top of my spine. Then, the drills came out. I think maybe we should hire this guy for the maintenance department!

Morphine was injected into the epidural to decrease the pain as it is more long-lasting. But, I itched everywhere! Not much sleep was had Friday night with the scratching and the blood pressure/temp checks.

I was actually walking on it Friday night. With a walker, I was up to the bathroom about 3 times.

Then Sat was a tough one. The physio came aroung and got me up on crutches. And bending my knee – I managed 80 degrees bend but haven’t repeated that since. I was wacked out from exhaustion and meds and couldn’t keep my eyes open when Mur came to visit.

The surgeon came by later and said “you can go”. Since the internists had said I couldn’t the night before, it was confusing. But, it was decided that I could leave after my dose of heparin. Which I had to give myself. Into the belly, thank goodness, as that is too big a target to miss.

So, we left and tried to get the ‘scripts filled. Finally we were on the road. My temp has been spiking in the afternoon, so the 2 hr drive to Gravenhurst was on ordeal. Luckily, Mur only had to stop once for me to decorate the wayside. He wouldn’t have been happy if I had messed up the new car!

We got to Mom’s and I crashed. My sister had made dinner for all but I just had some toast later.

Today, I am some better. My leg is hugely swollen (it has 14 stitches!) and quite painful. I am trying to exercise it as much as possible. Tomorrow, we need to go Bracebridge for blood work (twice a week for that trek) and I have 2 more doses of stuff to inject into my belly. Fun.

That is all the news that I can think of. Say hello to the whole crew from me! Not sure about this one week to recoup trick. But, we shall see as the days progress.

Hugs to all, Heather (healing)

Hello all,

First, I must apologize for the lack of mail in August. Time flew by and when things slowed down at work, there was the race, my mom’s 80th birthday, training in the office and appointments for my knee surgery. But, tonight I have time and will bring you up to date on the happenings here.

The docks were mostly repaired from that big blow within the next few days. But, the final and longest dock took a couple of weeks. Meanwhile I juggled boats and tried to accommodate the reservations that we had. Most people had heard about the storm and were quite happy just to get on a dock in Killarney.

The first dock staff left us on August the 20th. And then the rest fell away rapidly. The two that were left have been sent on to work in Housekeeping and Dining Room, as those departments lost staff as well. The last week in August found Murray working alone on the docks as I was sent to train for the front office. Luckily, we do have the two trained staff nearby still as they have filled in for us to allow us to attend my mom’s birthday party August 26th. And also so that Mur can take me over for my surgery.

My partial knee replacement surgery is booked for Friday, September 8th in North Bay. I will only be in hospital overnight and will spend about a week recovering. Mom has invited me to stay with her in Gravenhurst for this time frame.

Our second annual “Round the Island” sailing race was held on Saturday and was a great success. We had eleven boats enter and raised $1000 for the Killarney Health Centre Building Fund. Everyone seemed to have a great time, even though the wind died during the race. Our friend, Gary Babiuk, drove here from Winnipeg for the weekend and help tremendously with the event. And raced with us.

And, in the midst of all of this, our Volvo puked its power steering fluid and needed costly repairs. We had been looking for a Volvo wagon and this made us get very serious. Online, we found an ad for a V70 near Ottawa, arranged for a garage to inspect it and purchased it, sight unseen by us. Jeremy arranged the viewing, took photos to e-mail us and made the payment for us! What a son! Now the plan is for Murray to drop me at the hospital in North Bay on Friday, drive to Ottawa, drop off the old clunker and pick up our new ( to us only as it is a 2000 ) wagon and drive back to visit me post-op. We are looking forward to carrying even more stuff around with us, now that we will have more room.

So, that is mostly what has been happening here. How are things will you all? Enjoying the last of summer? We sure are! Keep in touch and hugs to all.

Heather & Murray

This story was a little delayed as we only had wireless back up and running last night, Saturday. But, here is the full report.

Well, you may all have already heard about the storm that hit Killarney this week. But, as we just got our power restored yesterday, I have no idea what news has reached the “outside” world. Therefore, I will tell the tale.

On Monday at about 4:30 pm, we noticed a very black and threatening sky to the west. A few small boats dashed into harbour in advance of the rain and we spent the next few moments servicing them. Passing by the open door to the west, I remember saying that the sky had a funny greenish cast to it. Then the rain started.

At first, the rain wasn’t heavy but soon increased. The wind began to build. Inside the boat house, we watched the storm increase but had to force that west-facing door closed as the wind was funnelling inside at a tremendous speed. Then, came a solid sheet of white and all of the boats, that we could see, heeled or leaned way over. A radio call came in ” Dock 5 has broken loose”. Murray grabbed a rain coat and a huge bundle of line and headed out into the storm. Lightning was crashing all around. The dock staff also grabbed rain gear and headed out, with terror in their eyes. One ran to inform the maintenance staff that we had problems.

Every dock had broke loose and most also were broke at the joints. Boats and docks were forced to the east by the huge winds and some ended up in the shallows. Murray got into a boat along with an off-duty dock staff ( all of our off duty staff reported in to help! ), with bundles of line and all of the anchors that he could carry.

The Coast Guard vessel Cape Hurd had been tied to the government dock and was floating down the channel after their lines had broken loose. When they got the engines started they motored back up the channel, picking up chairs and barrels that were drifting away. The Muskoka chairs that are placed around the lawns here at the lodge, were thrown through the air like leaves from a tree before the wind.

I paced the floor inside the boat house unable to see what was happening, but finding line and anchors when needed.

By 7pm, we had every boat in a safe and secure position and the docks tied to shore with line. The maintenance staff had been called away hours before to deal with problems at the lodge itself, so Murray laboured on with guests and dock staff assisting him.

The wind had reached a speed of 67 knots or 125 km per hour! We were extremely lucky that it didn’t continue for too long. It was probably only 5 or 10 minutes of the strongest wind. Was it a tornado? We do not know for sure but that may explain some of the damage.

Around the property, trees were tumbled like pickup sticks, with branches strewn on all of the lawns. The roof had come off of one of the cabins and, of course, the power was out.

In the morning, the dock staff started picking up branches and this made a huge difference in the appearance of the place. The sound of chain saws and hammers echoed down the channel.

Two docking guest were also scuba divers and volunteered to find the anchors/cement barrels that normally hold the docks in place and mark the chains with floats so that they could be re-attached to the repaired docks. This was a tremendous help. By noon on Tuesday, we were able to move boats from the gas dock and break up the rafting situations ( one boat tied alongside another ).

Steve Tyson, maintenance supervisor, managed to hook us up to a generator and we were pumping fuel by noon on the day after the storm. In fact, we pumped 4000 litres that day! But, no pumpouts as the pump requires 220 volts. The girls cheered at that news.

Yesterday (Wednesday ) was Murray’s day off but he worked for 8 hours re-wiring and re-plumbing docks and making them usable again. The end of our longest dock is completely broken and not easily repairable. Maybe next year. Until then we will work with a shorter version.

Power was restored yesterday ( Wednesday ) at about 1 pm. You might have been able to hear the cheering all the way down south!

The rest of Killarney was dealing with their problems as well. Nineteen docks broke loose at the Sportsman and their big tent blew/ripped down. The main dock at George Island Marina was also broken in a couple of places. Trees were down all over town.

But,amazingly no one was hurt. Some fiberglass got scratched and that can be fixed. Our dock layout is different now and I will be scrambling to accommodate the reservations already in the book. But that is another day.

We sure hope no one was too worried about us, but we were working longer days than normal and exhausted at night.

Did the storm affect any of you? Hopefully not. Well, that is my storm tale. Hurricane force winds in Killarney! I hope never to see that again.

Hugs, Heather & Murray

Man, is it toasty here! It must be very hot where you are, as most of you are further south than we are. At least here, it cools off over night and allows us to get some sleep.

Sorry that I haven’t written much but the twelve hour days, six days per week started on July 1st. There weren’t too many boats for another week or so, but they are arriving now. The traffic seems to be down this year. Likely the high cost of fuel and the high Canadian dollar is affecting the numbers. Here, our gas is 1.309 per litre and diesel is 1.289! That works out to approx $5 US per US gallon. Too much. Personally, we try not to drive any more than we must. Once a week, I drive to the laundry, just a few blocks away. Otherwise, we bike or walk around town.

The antenna that we had purchased to enable us to extend our range of wireless reception has been sent back to the company for repairs. It’s failure was very disappointing and will curtail our communications somewhat. Now, we will only receive e-mail when we take our computer into the Lodge. We will try to do that at least once per week. If you need us urgently, phone here ( Lodge’s phone number 705-287-2242 ) and we can call back when things are not too busy. In between times, I will try to check e-mails on-line with the Lodge’s computer.

The dock staff are doing very well. We have mostly females again this year. Murray’s angels. One is from Switzerland and one from Denmark. The others are from Ontario. Our token male, other than Mur, is a local guy and only 15 but doing a super job. The girls from Europe have a small problem with snakes, mice and turtles. They scream if they see any of these things! The rest of us just laugh at them. But, they all work hard and are feeling this excessive heat.

My joints have been fairly good for the last week or so, allowing me to sleep most nights. Perhaps they respond to the increased temperatures. I may be able to have surgery sooner than expected through a doctor who works out of St Mike’s Hospital in Toronto. We shall see what happens this fall.

Murray is doing well, working too hard as usual and not eating too well due to the heat. In his spare time,he is doing some more carvings. He has been involved in a couple of rescues locally. Today, we received a radio call from a boat anchored in Covered Portage Cove saying that someone aboard had broken their arm. Murray went out to bring the patient into the marina while I arranged for an ambulance to take them to Sudbury. The strange thing was that we knew the people and had cruised with them in the Bahamas. Yesterday, we also got a radio call from Cover Portage Cove informing us that one of our rental fleet boats had broken down and the 4 persons aboard needed to be brought back to the Lodge. They were guests from Holland who had an adventure to entertain all of their friends at home.

In our spare time, we try to go sailing a couple of times a week on Fandango, the Goman Express 20 that we bought last summer. It is great fun to sail and moves easily in the slightest evening breeze.

Preparations have started already for the 2nd annual “Round the Island” Sailing Race being held on Sept 2nd. It is a fun race and a fund raising event that raised in excess of $1500 last year towards the local Health Centre Building Fund. Flyers are posted now and paperwork being organized. Advertising needs to be addressed along with donations from the local merchants. Where will we find the time?

How are things down in your neck of the woods? All healthy, happy and wise? I assume that none of us are wealthy. Take care all and write when you have time.

Hugs, Heather & Murray

Hello everyone,

Well, as you may know, I turned 60 last Thursday and I received the biggest surprise of my life.

We had to work a little late at the Boat House that day. Murray sent me to get changed for dinner and he followed a little later. The dining room had already been informed that we would be slightly late for dinner. As we entered the dining room, I saw my Mom sitting in one of the chairs. I think that my mouth fell open. Then I turned slightly and saw Steve. At the end of a table ( too long, but I didn’t notice ) sat Linda, our friend from London. Hidden behind the camera lens was Kuyler, her husband. Then, behind me I heard the tap of little feet and a voice saying ” Surprise”. It was Matthew, followed by Jeremy & Cynthia. My whole family was here to celebrate the day with me! I couldn’t see too well for the film of tears over my eyes.

Then they all announced that they were staying a few days! We had a wonderful visit and shared some fun. I have a super boss ( Mur ) and he gave me the next day off to play. The guys went sailing in the afternoon and the ladies entertained themselves by the pool.

That evening, after dinner, everyone came back to our tiny cabin for more libations. Under the mosquito net surrounding our bed was 60 balloons! They were stacked probably a foot high on our bed and the netting held them in place. They had spent hours blowing those things up. Linda and Kuyler, Mom & Steve were departing the next day and somehow ( Mur again) two huge bags of balloons were attached to Kuyler’s vehicle. The balloons next appeared in Jeremy & Cynthia’s room. Eventually they worked themselves back to our cabin once again.

The last visitors left on Sunday and it is quiet here once more. It will take my liver a week or two to recover from all of the celebrating. But, it was wonderful to have them all here to share this big day in my life.

How are things with you? Are you enjoying this warmer weather? We sure are. Today, the plan is to get out for a little sail this afternoon, do some computer work and have Mur cut my hair. A busy day off.

Well, stay in touch and hugs to you until we see you again. Murray & Heather

Hello everyone,

Well, we made it. Yesterday actually. The Volvo heaved a sigh of relief as all of the bags of clothes, radios, computer parts, boat gear etc etc was removed. The unpacking took much less time than the packing, that’s for sure.

But that trusty Volvo dragged us back and forth across this province for the last month. Friends and family entertained us royally wherever we went and it was so great to see all of you again. If we missed you on the “spring tour”, we will try to rectify that in the fall.

In Dunrobin, we got to hug our grandson again and watch his first soccer game. What a laugh that was and it brought back fond memories of our sons at that age. There we also caught up with many months of mail. Can you imagine getting mail just a few times per year? The last time we got a delivery was in Feb. It will take me a while to deal with all of the paperwork, bills and forms. Now that we are sitting still for a period, pouches of mail arrive more frequently.

One of the projects this summer, was to get a means of having music on the small sailboat. Inexpensively, if possible. We looked at portable radios or car radios but settled on a tiny MP3 player that we will connect to battery powered speakers. The unit holds about 500 songs and we can switch them for others on the computer. All of the music CD’s that we carry with us north and south have now been “crunched” to MP3 format and are stored on the hard drive. That project took a day or two but we have quite a library.

We made two purchases this spring to make our life easier. The first was an Engel portable refrigerator/freezer. It holds about 1.7 cu feet and keeps things frozen with very little power drain as it has it’s own compressor. Into it, we put the fish Murray had caught and transported it north to share with our friends. On the way back south, we will pack Canadian bacon! Meanwhile, in Killarney it will cool our beer and sodas.

The second purchase was an external antenna for the computer to extend the range for our wireless reception. This unit will, supposedly, give us a mile or so range. Wireless is now readily available in the islands but not so easily accessed when you are anchored offshore. This should help. And, in Killarney, we can connect to the wireless here without leaving our cabin. When you are surrounded by trees and rocks, that is a tricky thing to arrange.

So, that is what we have been up to for the last few weeks. Sure hope that all is well with you. Write when you have time.

Hugs, Heather & Murray

Hello everyone,

The boat was hauled on Sat, 29th at 8 am. The yard had the bottom powerwashed and the boat moved to storage by 9ish. Then Mur and I started on our list of jobs. The cover was installed and the bug stuff deployed below, once everything was finished. Now it was time to say our goodbyes to the friends here, shower and jump into the car for the long drive.

Of course, as we traveled, we remembered the things that we forgot to do. And a few things that we forgot to bring with us. There wasn’t room for much more in the poor overloaded Volvo, so it is just as well that I left them.

One thing that we purchased was a portable frig/freezer unit, made by Engel. It isn’t much bigger than the powered cooler that we had before but uses much less power. And it will function as a freezer. In fact, we brought fish, caught by Murray in the Bahamas, back with us. Hopefully we can share some of it with you. Next winter, it will go into the aft cabin and carry more meat and maybe even ice cream! And, when Mur catches fish soon after our arrival in the islands, there will be room to keep them. What happens in our current freezer is that the fresh unfrozen meats thaw the previously frozen things. Not a good situation.

The drive north took us approx 19 hrs, from marina to Steve’s place in St Thomas. Through the Smokey Mountains we enjoyed the sight of the blooming dogwood and wisteria. This year, spring has already arrived in southern Ontario, with trees blooming here as well. It is a lovely sight.

So, your next question is ” what are their plans?” There are a few appointments locally with dentist and doctor. Then we hope to catch up with friends and family nearby. Maybe even get out for a sail. Brrr, it will be cold on the lake though. Steve is going to put up with us for about 2 weeks before we head off. Gravenhurst and Dunrobin will be definite stops on our tour, with detours maybe into Sarnia, Guelph, Oakville or Peterborough. Before the end of the month, we will be on the way to Killarney for our summer jobs at Killarney Mountain Lodge.

So, that is what is happening here. How are things with you? Drop us a line if you have time and we look forward to seeing you in the next few weeks.

Hugs Heather & Murray

Hello everyone,

Well, we had a good time in the Berry Islands, hunting conch, fishing and shelling. We made some new friends and spent some time with old ones. The plan had been to cross the stream during the full moon, to take advantage of the additional light. That was to be near the middle of April.

But Chris, the weather guru, was saying that the next front was going to give us high northeast winds for many days. Then it would take quite a few days for the ocean to calm down somewhat. We weighed the options of crossing earlier in a good weather window that would be a motorboat ride versus waiting for more moon and maybe some wind to sail. The decision was made to take the earlier crossing. Both of us started to work.

I baked muffins, hardboiled eggs and made salmon and egg sandwich toppings. A big pot of chilli was made up and cooled for easy dinners underway. Murray put all of the fuel into the tanks, tied down all gear on deck and readied the boat for rough seas.

At dawn on Thursday April 6th, we hauled anchor and motored out of the cut at Devil’s-Hoffman Cay. A tall ship from The Netherlands was anchored outside and she made a pretty picture in the hazy morning light. We turned our bow north once clear of the reefs off-shore and settled in for a long haul.

The trip was a total of 258 nautical miles and, with the assistance of the Gulf Stream, took us 33 hours total. It was basically uneventful. The ships that we saw were mostly far enough away to keep me happy. In fact, there was very little traffic until we neared Cape Canaveral.

We traveled alone. But, we were in Ham radio contact with people in transit from Abaco to the US and with people on-shore. Plus, you all knew that we were out there.

The wind came up in the morning and we were enjoying a nice sail, when friends radioed with custom’s info. The custom’s office closed at 5 pm. For the weekend. Unless we wanted to stay at anchor until Monday when we could check in, we had best hustle. With engine assist, we made it to the dock by 3:30. But, the cab was delayed while we paced the pavement. Finally, we made it at 4:30! Forms filled out and we are all set for another year of cruising.

Back to the boat, re-fuel ( only used 16 gallons of diesel! ), and motor through the lock at Cape Canaveral to drop the hook in the Banana River. Time for a shower, a rum , dinner and bed.

The next day we moved north to Titusville and anchored. During the evening a very strong cold front with lightning and rain etc blew through, leaving strong northeast winds. We decided to push northward anyway and to play the tides at the shallow inlets that we needed to transit. The next few days were spent birdwatching ( golden eagle, roseate spoonbills, white pelicans etc ), house watching ( huge homes in Daytona area ) and keeping track of our position in the waterway.

On Wed afternoon, we arrived at Green Cove Springs. Now the work begins. Mur will change the oils ( in the engine, dinghy motor and generator ), put in a different heat exchanger to get rid of the overheating problem that continues to plague us and remove the wind generator for repairs. His list is very long but those are some highlights. I have a few sewing projects ( a duvet, blanket and two sets of sheets for the vee berth ), laundry and packing. Probably the next two weeks will fly past quickly.

By early May, we should be on the road again. This time in the trusty Volvo. But, we will keep you informed. See you soon.

Hugs, Heather & Murray