We left Mexico and the Sea of Cortez at the end of April. I went to Fort Myers to visit my mother and try a new medication for my ITP.
Hartley flew to Phoenix to see about his ears and balance problems. We are so lucky to have great docs in Phoenix. Dr. Bowey arranged a visit with Dr. Patterson on short notice. Basically his balance issue was from a viral infection of his inner ear and will gradually—-get better,maybe all the way,  and actually recently has been much better. He also had a sinus/ear infection for which she gave him antibiotics and that resolved too.
He then flew back to Mazatlan and put the boat on a ship which went through the Panama canal to Texas and then to Fort Lauderdale. It took about 3 weeks to make the transit. ( We decided not to sail down and go through the canal as the trip from the east end of the Panama Canal up to Fort Lauderdale is against the current and the wind and is supposed to be a miserable trip.( Miserable on purpose did not fit our plans. )

In the mean time I met a new hematologist in Fort Myers who graciously agreed to assume my care from where Dr Paul in Phoenix left off. He tried 4 weeks of Retuxin ( a weekly infusion) which was the next step in trying to fix my platelet count. It did not make any difference to my platelets.! So after that glorious failure of my body to respond he started a new treatment with a daily pill , Promacta which seems to be working.
The best part about being in Florida for almost 8 weeks was staying with my Mom. She is 89 years old but doesn’t act a day over 70!

I got to meet her friends and do lots of fun stuff. Being on the boat it seems like the timing is never right to got to a play, concert etc. In Fort Myers we went to 3 plays! We also went to lunch with her friends several times and of course water aerobics 3 x a week. I now have a new skill to add to my resume, water aerobics instructor! A few times the regular instructor couldn’t make it so I some how got volunteered to teach!!
Mom got an infection in her leg from a cut shortly after I arrived so wasn’t able to keep up her running for the first month. But after the first couple of weeks we did go walking. By the end of the first month, if we got up very early and the humidity was down, we did manage to get in some running.
Hartley flew from Mazatlan to Fort Myers, after successfully loading Atsa on the ship.
We enjoyed our time together in Fort Myers. He was able to take some good pictures, some including my brother, Iain , who showed off his kite sailing abilities.

Iain up in the air
Hartley and Iain went to Fort Lauderdale to pick up Atsa as she was off loaded from the ship and checked her out. She did very well on the transport. One of the scuppers got a little scrunched from where the sling squeezed it and we will need to get that fixed eventually
The big thing was the refrigerator/freezer died. It actually had been showing signs of a few problems before but after getting to Fort Lauderdale it quit. We think maybe the seals on the compressor dried out or something- but in any case it didn’t work any more. We got a refurbished one sent from San Diego and after waiting for a week ( in the very hot and sticky weather) we finally got someone to work on our boat. (They usually work on Mega yachts and ours was a little below them, i.e. they wouldn’t make as much money.) Once fixed we left to go north and hopefully out of the heat. (90 degrees and 85% humidity was the norm).
We decided that we had no desire to stop until we were at least somewhat north so we sailed for 3 days 3 nights to get to Beaufort (pronounced Bofort) North Carolina. We traveled in the Gulf Stream, amazing. We sometimes reached 12 knots as the stream added 3-4 knots to our speed.

How do you know you are in the Gulf Stream? Your speed and Sargasso weed. Sargasso weed is a seaweed that floats along in the stream.

Well the first day in Beaufort was beautiful, warm (not hot ) and dry. But the next day it was back to hot and sticky and it was time to move on. Before we got a chance to leave there was a thunderstorm in the night. We heard one extremely loud thunder clap and got up and closed all the hatches. In the morning we found out why the clap was so loud. The boat right beside ours ( 15 feet away ) was struck by lightening. All there electronics were knocked out. We felt so bad for them and so glad for us as we did not have any damage. (Their mast was about 2 feet higher than ours so maybe that is what saved us. )
We then left and sailed 2 days and one night to get to Hampton, Virginia.  Our great entertainment on the trip was killing the man eating flies. They could bit you through your clothes. We unearthed a fly swatter that had something written in braille on the handle. We wondered how a blind person could swat flies.

On the way into the marina as we approached the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel we ran into a big thunderstorm. We had dodged a few but this one we just couldn’t miss. Winds got up to forty knots but Atsa handled it well.

Hampton is a nice little town with a pretty beach. We spent the Fourth of July and watched the fireworks. The private fireworks were more interesting than the town provided display.  We had a great visit with some of Hartley’s CAP friends. Mark and Mary took us to Busch Garden’s in Williamsburg.

We had a great time. The heat refused to leave us alone so onward and northward.
We went to the inner harbor in Baltimore.  It was a great place as far as convenience was concerned. West Marine, Safeway, ACE Hardware , all just across the street. The harbor though is incredibly filthy with garbage floating in the water and a horrible oily slime that made the sides of the boat yellow.
We were able to meet friends and family while we were there. Tara, Hartley’s niece and her wife Jen came by for a visit and lunch on Sunday. Monday, Andy Greenberg and his wife came by and took us to dinner. Andy and I went to medical school in Belgium together and haven’t seen each other since then, more than 35 years ago. It was a great reunion. On Monday one of my old patient’s from Phoenix, Blaise Hazelwood , who now lives in the Washington D.C. area stopped by with one of her little girls (who I delivered) . So much fun. I appreciate the effort everyone took to come and visit as the traffic in the area is horrendous and all had to drive an hour or more to get home.
It was still hot and sticky and we planned to leave on Wednesday – but I was waiting for a delivery of my medication. We waited all day and nothing came. The delivery was supposed to happen between 7 am to 8pm. The marina office closed at 5 pm and I guessed that the FedEx guy wouldn’t stop as he would know the office was closed. There was a pick up box though for FedEx and I figured he would stop there so I stationed myself at the box reading my kindle, waiting. About 5:12 I noticed a noise that sounded like a diesel truck and looked up.( There are two parking lots an outer one, and then an inner one which is where the marina is located with a gated entrance. ) It was indeed the FedEx truck and it didn’t even come in the inner parking lot!!! I was not about to wait another day for my medication. (It was still hot and sticky in Baltimore.) I ran as fast as I could laughing all the while at how crazy I must look chasing the FedEx truck. Fortunately he had to stop for a red light to get out of the parking lot. I ran right up to him and told him I wanted my package. He looked kind of startled but after I glared at him he stopped his truck and got it for me. I am sure he didn’t want to have to deal with that crazy lady. It just shows what the hot and sticky will do to you. Ah, heading north on Thursday and plan to leave the hot and sticky ( we hope.)