Cathy Manuel

At 2am, with 180ft of chain out, and sliding towards other boats, engine running Brian went to the chain locker to dislodge the chain…. He would yell up and I would let out a tiny bit more, as the foot peddles for the windlass wasn’t working. Finally we were clear of other boats but still needed to untangle more. I went below to help, each time getting more unstuck and letting it out, with the goal of getting 200+ out. Brian was operating the remote and we only had a little more left to reach our goal when he forwarded the chain while his finger was still in one of the links.
The blood bath began, and it looked like he had totally crushed his left index finger. Getting out the first aid, ice and trying to Google “how to preserve a finger,” had my heart racing but Brian remained calm and collected…. Although very light headed. We still were not finished anchoring, so I had to put us in reverse and secure the anchor, and shut down the engine. I felt very I’ll equipped!
At 2am, no one was available to help…. So wrapped and iced, in a very rolly port we went to bed…. Finger iced and elevated. At 6am we were up and starting to look for assistance. I redressed the finger as best I could and we started hailing other boats (our VHF doesn’t seem to work unless the Garmin is on). Our neighbors were awake and called in for us. Calvin and Fabien from PAYS came to fetch us and Fabien drove us to the hospital. We arrived to a waiting room but didn’t know what to do…. After 30min or so, we realized that we had to go to the end of a long hall and check in. Brian was as cheerful as he could be… we took the opportunity to hope on the scale (52 & 42kg) and then we’re quickly guided to a room to look at the finger (no x-rays on Sunday, so a visual assessment said that it wasn’t broken). They cleaned, poked many times with lanocane and then started stitching…about 12.
The hospital room was bright pink and the window and doors open, with a guy outside wiper snipping and goats tied to trees. Once done, Brian was given a prescription and told to come back to get it redressed in the morning.
I had brought coffee and food, which we ate in the waiting room…. Once done and out of the hospital we walked all the way down to Indian River, paused for awhile to have more snack, and pee as we could not find anything open to get coffee. We called the pharmacy but I don’t think Brian was able to reach in the first call and was to impatient to try again… no pharmacies in Portsmouth were open on Sundays.
Eventually, we passed a coffee shop, but Brian was on a mission to get back to the boat. The lady was from Pictou County and had been in Dominica for 20years. As we were walking, we ran into the Salty Dogs who were doing a cultural tour. Brian and I chatted with them and eventually we ended back at PAYS where we thought we would check in with immigration but realized it wasn’t possible.
We then waited at the dock to get a ride back to the boat and a couple from Fredericton (Laurence who used to work for the city) took us to the boat. Both exhausted, we grabbed some food and then laid down for a nap, but sadly sleep would not come for me. The boat was pitching up to 25 degrees and everything was noisy both in my brain and on the boat.
We woke, read, I did some work…. But we were still having battery issues so wifi wasn’t accessible as it was an extra load. A shrimp salad, and then to finish untangling the chain, cleaning up all the blood and the dust (from zincing chain earlier in the week) and securing things on the boat as it was violently rolling.
So grateful that Brian still has a finger and a great attitude…. Even when in pain!Les mer