How are hurricanes and toothaches alike ? The answer on Persephone is that they both cause major headaches !! As we mentioned in our previous blog, Trudie had to have a root canal last Wednesday while we were in Southport, NC (near Cape Fear). She was experiencing some discomfort but nothing significant, so we decided to do the overnight hop on Thursday from Cape Fear to Charleston; a distance of approximately 100 nautical miles.
While underway, the Coast Guard announced that a shrimp boat sank leaving a debris field a mile square with 3’ X 3’ pieces of the boat floating. Hitting a piece at our cruising speed of 7.5 kts could do very serious damage; or puncture the hull. We plotted the location of the debris field and yup, it was right in our path. Several other boats were making the same trip and there was much discussion on the radio about which way to go to avoid the debris. I made the decision to do an arch of 10 miles around the area and headed east out to sea. We wound up appx 40 miles “off the beach”, which worked as nothing went bump in the night.
As the night progressed Trudie’s tooth got increasingly worse. He face swelled up and she looked like she had a golf ball in her cheek. She wanted to stand her watch, but I only allowed her to do so for a couple of hours…..she needed to rest and felt horrible. As we were at sea, there was nothing we could do but press on. (A cell phone doesn’t work much more than 5 miles out at sea)
We arrived in Charleston harbor at 8 am Saturday and T called the dentist who prescribed some heavy duty antibiotics and painkillers. (Painkillers are pills, not the famous rum drink….but that would have worked too !!) We laid low all day Saturday, relaxing from the overnight and hoping T’s condition improved.
On Sunday there was little or no improvement in T’s condition. This is when we began dealing with the second “headache”…..Hurricane IDA. We have been getting every update issued by the Hurricane Center (NHC). We are only 140 miles north of the FLA boarder and the remnants of the storm are predicted to pass just south of our position. Obviously, we are monitoring this situation very closely. Right now the forecast is for lots of rain, but only breezy conditions. Boy, we both hope the NHC is right !!
This morning (Monday) T’s tooth has gotten worse. The antibiotics are not helping and the swelling increased. There is a major medical/dental school and hospital a short distance from the marina. We intend to go there first thing this morning. We will let you know how T makes out. (We have only been in the South for a short while and T may already be having a tooth pulled out…..I know, she just wants to “blend” ! )
Hope we can cure both headaches today….anyone got an Advil ??
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