Suffer the kidney

After getting a second opinion on the stone and having more tests, I went into surgery the next day to have it removed via an endoscopy technique because the stone looked too big to pass. The surgeon removed the stone successfully and installed a stint that runs from my kidney into the bladder. Surprisingly after the surgery my kidney no longer hurt. I can only hope this is the last time I ever have to deal with this again.

Other than dealing with my kidney we haven't done much. Hopefully when I'm feeling better we can get back to our lives and get some things done! Who would have thought cruising would mean learning so many technical medical words in a foreign language?

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Thinking the unthinkable

The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed, if not for two big cranes, Sherrell and Eric's sanity would be lost.

There's a little yard here in San Juan del Sur and when we went through all the issues we've been facing: kidney stone, boat work, unseasonably bad weather, etc. We decided that hauling the boat out of the water was not a bad idea. In fact two days after hauling it out I had another pain attack from my stupid kidney. I don't know why kidneys can totally disable you with pain, but it's impressive.

Anyway, this yard is unlike any place we've been. We had to make our own stands, there's no power or water and we pay Juan to sleep on it to keep an eye on everything during the night.

Not to be outdone, Ocean Lady decided to set a new record for the yard and have them haul their 50 foot boat, the biggest they've hauled. The swell prevented us from hauling them for a few days, and the basin filled in with sand. So to get their boat to the crane we had to use their dinghy and a large panga to push them through the sand to the wall. Once at the wall, we led the straps around the boat, pulled the rigging out of the way, cleared the rails, and tied the bands together so they wouldn't slip. We had to really hustle to get things ready before the tide dropped too much and tilted the boat too far to be picked up.

Naturally the cranes had a tough time rotating Ocean Lady because of the two masts. As the boat was rotated it also heeled over about 20 degrees to starboard. After about an hour of struggling with the cranes, lines and even a forklift we got Ocean Lady righted and into position.

We've really settled in quickly, as we've rented a little house with Ocean Lady and we're getting ready to get to work on the boat while the bad weather rains down.