In St Thomas

                                                                   April 4 2014

Greetings,

          We arrived in St Thomas a week ago. We pulled into the harbor at 0630 on the 28^th. Sharon and Kokomo Kat didn’t get in until about midnight. The passage was pretty rough some of the time, and none of it was calm. Second Star had some leaks and, when bigger waves came over the bow we were taking water in, so there’s been a lot of cleaning and damage assessment since we got here.

 The anchorage here is pretty well protected. We get a little roll when the waves are come in the channel but it’s not bad. We’ve seen rays and turtles in here, and the sea planes take off and land right behind us, which is very entertaining to me for now, but they are loud and watching them may lose its charm after a while.

Johne’s daughter Jeni, Grandson Carson and Jeni’s boyfriend Bill had booked tickets to come here and see us six months ago when we thought we’d be here by Feb. We made it in time to spend the last 2 days of their trip with them. It was great seeing them. Carson is 17 now and has grown a lot in the last couple of years. His Grandpa hadn’t seen him for almost 4 years so the change was shocking.

Going back a bit; our time in Curacao was very pleasant. Except the part when we took the starboard engine apart to take the head to the shop for re-facing. And the putting it back together twice because we had the wrong head gasket. But other than that we enjoyed it there. With the engine work and trying to get up here ASAP we didn’t do and see a lot while we were there. It’s a beautiful island with a great anchorage and we’re looking forward to spending more time there the next time we’re down that way.

As for an update on my health issues; shortly after we got here I need to refill one of my meds. I took my prescription to the pharmacy and was told that I needed to get a US licensed doctor to sign off on it. They couldn’t fill a prescription from a Colombian doctor. I went to a walk in clinic the pharmacist directed me to and, not only could Dr. Flowers help me with the prescriptions, but when I ask where I could get the blood work I was going to be needing done, she said “here”. So they drew blood and she went over my history with me. She recommended I see an Ophthalmologist because she was concerned that my eye hasn’t made better progress on the steroids. The ophthalmologist did an exam and went over my case history and he said there’s not damage to the eye or the optic nerve so we’re still focused on getting the over active muscle, that’s limiting the range of motion, to relax. I’m still waiting for the results of the latest blood tests. When I have those, and we see what changes the meds have made in my thyroid output, we will determine what the next step should be.

Johne’s brother Bob will be coming down in a couple of weeks for a long-past-due visit. We’re looking forward to having him aboard again. In the meantime, work on Second Star, Kokomo Kat and Sharon’s house will be the order of the day.