We woke up to the very sad news that Ebo the German guy on the Catamaran Cepa had a stroke last night and they are now desperate to get him to hospital. It was a very desperate plea from the skipper Thomas. Coast guards were at work as well as our Arc yellow shirts. The other problem is that we are all running low on fuel, and Cepa is right at the back of the fleet, they do not have enough fuel to motor all the way at a decent speed (still 1000 miles away). The Arc is coordinating boats to volunteer to give fuel, asking us to form a line and either remain stationary until we are caught up or to turn around. A helicopter is on standby but they can only go 100 miles off shore.
Pippin the Dutch boat who left a day late as they had engine problems is right at the end of the fleet, a little way behind Cepa. They managed to find a Gin Palace (big motor leisure cruiser) in the vicinity but they could not get hold of them on vhf. Our young techies on the boat got stuck in and thanks to Stinky every detail of Paladin (the gin palace) was explored, to try and find a contact phone or email. I was pretty convinced it might be a drug running boat, when we were in the Bahamas there were plenty about! Nevil finally contacted the agent we will be using in Hiva Oa who was able to track down a phone number. Rowan managed to contact the captain and they were put in touch with the now official MRCC rescue plan. By evening it was established that Paladin will help by picking up the patient as they will go much faster, however they too have a fuel issue and Cepa needs to meet them tomorrow morning as they are 125 miles apart. An Arc boat called Pec (Polish) is close to Cepa, with 4 men on board who don’t speak a lot of English and don’t have Stinky (Starlink satellite), they were finally contacted and they have a doctor on board who will accompany Ebo on Paladin to get to Medical assistance. We are all crossing fingers that Ebo hangs on over night. Very fraught and desperate time for the skipper of Cepa and the family of Ebo who we assume are all in Germany. We have been told the fuel line is no longer required and we should all proceed full steam ahead.
Thomas the skipper’s May Day message
That was certainly enough drama for the day. The lack of sleep is catching up a bit with everyone, so the tone on the boat is a bit more subdued as we all busy ourselves in our separate ways. I’m making some headway with my Molas bedspread while listening to Richard E Grant’s book about his wife dying of cancer, which he narrates, it is a wonderful love story of an amazing couple. I had heard him interviewed about the book and it sounded so uplifting, his Scottish wife (10 years older and a voice trainer to the big stars) made him promise that everyday he would have a ‘pocketful of happiness’. She called him Swazi because he was born in Swaziland, a tiny country on South Africa’s north eastern border now called Eswatini! Not sure how Megan’s PHD is going and Han is having a frustrating time editing her film and photos for the Wild Dog Camp in Botswana. Nevil is a little lost without his fishing gear!
The boat was filled with good smells all day as we slow cooked, for 7 hours some hefty beef ribs we bought in the market in the Galapagos. The girls had a chipotle bean dish stewing away in my new Thermos wonder pot. We are eating loads of coleslaw as we are down to cabbages, carrots, radishes and peppers. We are on our last watermelon which is our last bit of fresh fruit. That should last us two days and the current eta in Hiva Oa is Tuesday, so just one day without fresh fruit is pretty good going. I have bananas in the deep freeze, we will have to have fried bananas with pecan nuts, not such a hardship!
Rowan relaxing under the water melon and squash in the hammock above him!
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