Nuku Hiva, 5-29-2017--David reporting from Tucson

Once again, and despite the blog heading, I (David) am reporting from Tucson.  Although I'm still relying heavily on a cane to get around, I'm feeling better day by day.  This morning feels like an especially noticeable improvement.

Even though my illness remains something of a medical mystery, I really think the decision to return here to Tucson was the right one.  It would not have been realistic for me to be getting from the kayak up into the boat and the reverse, not to mention landing ashore through the surf.

I just got a return ticket for June 7.  Still to go are two appointments with specialists, one on Wednesday and another on Monday.  Hopefully they'll give me a green light to return to Pearl and Minimus.

OK, enough about me for the moment.  I want to devote the rest of this page to my incredible support group here at Sitting Tree community in Tucson.  For well over a decade, Sitting Tree has frequently been where Pearl and I have stayed on trips from Cascabel to Tucson.

Ramesh, Julie, Tom, Patti, Holly, Hale, Kemper, Kyle, Conchi and Eric, we owe you a debt of thanks far beyond what we'll ever be able to repay.

I haven't gotten a photo of everyone yet, but hopefully this will do for starters:

This is my long time friend and uber doctor Ramesh Karra.  I don't use that adjective lightly.  By every metric Ramesh is one of those doctors you pray for when you're feeling ill, when you need an advocate in the bewildering maze that modern health care has become.  He cares. He takes the time to listen.  He knows the system inside and out.   He has an innate curiosity.  He loves medicine.  He's everything you want in a doctor.   If he could just be cloned, I think we'd be well on the way to a really healthy health care system.      

Tom Brightman and Patty Atkins, who, like Ramesh, are longtime friends.  I hardly know where to begin in describing the care I've received from these dear folks.  They stop by multiple times a day to check on me.  Patty is a massage therapist who each evening has been giving me massages to help speed the healing.   It's working.

Tom is one of those 'can do anything' guys and a great cook to boot.  He starts my days with coffee and breakfast and ends them with dinner.  In between he stops by for chats, which I always enjoy.  Having sailed with Tom, if I ever needed crew on a boat, he would be my absolute first choice.

A backstory here is that Tom also has a rare sense of humor.  And I do mean rare.  Periodically throughout our voyage he would send me texts.  Always outrageous. Always off color.  No spaces.  No punctuation.  It would take me 10 times longer to read his messages than anyone else's.  Anyone passing within 1/4 mile of Minimus in mid-ocean would have heard peals of hysterical laughter coming out of the cabin as we read his 'can't believe he really said that' texts. 

In a happy coincidence, my sister Karen, her husband Scott, my niece Cameron and my nephew Zacchary happened to be passing through Tucson and we had a great visit.  You may recall them from the beginning of the voyage in San Diego, when they generously gave us the gift of a marina slip where we did the final preparations on Minimus.  

Here's the old goat in recovery mode.

As you can see, he's not improving in looks, but is feeling better day by day thanks to the great care and well wishes from so many of you.