Nuku Hiva, 6-2-2017--David reporting from Tucson

Hi, David here reporting from Tucson again and maybe for the last time before returning to Nuku Hiva.  Looks like I finally have a green light to return to Pearl and Minimus on the 7th!

I was in the emergency room again yesterday where Ramesh did a fluid draw on the knee.  It does not appear to be infected, though they're culturing it to be sure.

This morning I had my last doctors appointment, this one with an orthopedic surgeon.   He carefully examined the knee, looked at the MRI and the lab results from the fluid draw.  He feels that it's unlikely there's any infection left in the knee.  He wants to see me again when we get back, but feels that knee surgery is not indicated now and probably not even when we get back. Whew!!

I also saw an infectious disease specialist a few days ago.  She said that, with the caveat that no one will ever know for sure exactly what happened, her best guess is that the infection may have entered my bloodstream through the rash I developed on the passage.  Once there, it took root on my right arm, right knee and left shin.  All three areas swelled considerably.  The swelling in the knee may have caused the tear in the medial meniscus of the knee, which led to the formation of the Bakers cyst on the back of the knee.  But again, it's mostly speculation.

As with the other doctors, she was quite clear about how lucky I was to have been near the little hospital when this developed.  We get it and won't stop being very grateful any time soon.

Going forward, I'll continue on oral antibiotics for a few more weeks, then wait a couple weeks to see if the infection comes back.  If not, we hope to be continuing the voyage by late June or early July.  In addition, we'll have a full course of antibiotics on board just in case.

Another piece in the dynamic is that the French immigration bureaucracy is absolutely immovable about any kind of extension on our visas.  Health concerns, safety concerns, etc. apparently carry no weight with them.  Having tried hard to play by their rules, we now have no choice but to play by our own.  

Our game plan is indeed to check out from Nuku Hiva on or before July 5, per their requirements.  From Nuku Hiva, it's another 1000 miles of sailing before we're out of French Polynesia, so we'll be entirely illegal during that time.   Few boats seem to get checked though, so we're not too worried.  At worst they can put us in jail.

However that goes, we're not forgetting that we dodged a big bullet and the rest is little stuff.