{"id":6416,"date":"2019-09-27T22:33:33","date_gmt":"2019-09-27T22:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/?p=6416"},"modified":"2019-09-27T23:01:12","modified_gmt":"2019-09-27T23:01:12","slug":"shakin-all-over-ninigo-islands-pt-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/?p=6416","title":{"rendered":"Shakin’ All Over – Ninigo Islands Pt 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Many people assume that a cruiser\u2019s worst fears are facing big storms or pirates. To my mind they\u2019re always possible, but probably unlikely if you take sensible steps to minimise the risk. No, my biggest fear is something happening to Bruce through misadventure or illness, particularly if we\u2019re in a remote area with little help at hand. And now here we are in the Ninigo Islands, possibly the remotest place we\u2019ve ever been, 200NM from the mainland with no airport, ferry service or hospital and I\u2019m having to face my fears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the day after our arrival and Bruce has a fierce headache and fever. My first thought is \u201cMalaria!\u201d – I had Malaria when I was a kid living in Kenya, and believe me you wouldn\u2019t wish it on your worst enemy.\u00a0 But surely not? We have insect screens on all our hatches, we haven\u2019t been ashore at dusk or dawn, we use mozzies coils in the cockpit and liberal quantities of insect repellant.\u00a0 Before leaving Australia we talked to our GP about Malaria prevention – Quinine used to be the medication of choice, but it’s no longer effective. Nowadays it\u2019s Doxycyline, an antibiotic. Fine if you\u2019re only travelling for a couple of weeks, but not feasible if you\u2019re away for months, so we gave the Doxycycline option a miss. I\u2019d also intended to buy malaria testing kits and medication, but somehow they got missed off the list in the last frantic weeks before leaving Australia.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re anchored off the isolated island of Ahu – it\u2019s beautiful with great snorkelling and sandy beaches, but not somewhere you want to be if you need medical assistance.  In the afternoon I snorkel while Bruce sleeps and I hope he\u2019s just coming down with a random virus.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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some pretty coral formations at Ahu Island<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Black surgeonfish amongst the coral<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But that night his fever gets worse. I spend the dark hours with \u2018what if\u2019s\u2019 swirling in my head – What if I can\u2019t get him help here? What if I have to sail the boat to the mainland without his assistance? What if he has to be admitted to hospital in Vanimo and I\u2019m stuck on the boat in an unsafe place? The fears multiply as the night wears on, and I feel very alone and helpless.  Somewhere in the back of my mind I recall mention of a health centre on Mal Island, the big island on the south side of the lagoon, but I have no idea how to find it or even if it\u2019s still operational.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next morning I rouse Bruce and tell him we\u2019re going to Mal – he helps me get the anchor up and then I motor to the waypoint our cruising buddies on \u2018Field Trip\u2019 gave us for Thomas & Elizabeth\u2019s village\u00a0 ( 01\u2019 24.030 S: 144\u2019 11.580 E) – hopefully they\u2019ll be able to tell us where the health centre is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Approaching Mal Island<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019re a delightful elderly couple, very welcoming and hospitable and they give us directions to the health centre, unfortunately right down the other end of the island. We promise to be back for a more leisurely chat, and then we zoom off in the dinghy, picking our way through the reefs and bommies to get to the beach. It\u2019s low tide so the last 200 metres we have to drag the dinghy across the shallows. Not easy when you\u2019re not feeling well, and certainly not as easy as rocking up to your local medical centre!\u00a0 But we find the health centre and meet Brendan, a lovely man who runs the place with two other people.\u00a0 I guess he\u2019s the equivalent of a paramedic in Australia.\u00a0 He tests us both for Malaria (he thinks if Bruce has it, I\u2019m pretty sure to have it too) but both tests are negative, which is kind of a relief but also a concern. If not Malaria, what is it? Brendan thinks it might be too early to pick up the Malaria parasite in the blood test, or it could be the start of some other viral illness, possibly flu, and he suggests we come back in a few days if things don\u2019t improve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mal Health Centre<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Brendon, his son and Bruce outside the clinic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Well they don\u2019t – at times Bruce seems a bit better but then the fever and headache come back with a vengeance, despite regular doses of Panadol.  Two nights later and he\u2019s alternately shaking uncontrollably with chills or sweating so profusely that the whole bed and mattress is soaked. He\u2019s also talking rubbish (yes, I know, \u201cwhat\u2019s new\u201d I hear you say) but this is complete delirious gibberish.  It\u2019s a long, lonely and scary night\u2019s vigil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By now there’s no way Bruce is well enough to travel to the clinic, so as soon as there\u2019s enough light in the morning I jump in the dinghy and race over to find Brendan. It\u2019s Saturday so I\u2019m hoping and praying that he\u2019s there, and that the tide\u2019s not too low. It isn\u2019t and he is, and he quickly puts together a medical bag containing not only malarial tests and treatment but IV fluids and IM injectibles in case it\u2019s not malaria. I\u2019m reassured by his professionalism, and we race back across the bay to the boat. Another test confirms what we suspected – Bruce has Malaria, probably contracted a couple of weeks ago either in Manus island or the Hermits. Brendan tells us it\u2019s a parasitic disease caused by a bite from the female Anopheles mosquito which affects the red blood cells, liver and spleen. Without treatment it causes severe anaemia, coma and death. More than 2.7 million people die of malaria each year because of lack of treatment, but Bruce is one of the lucky ones\u00a0 – Brendan has the necessary medication. It\u2019s three days of heavy duty stuff to knock the parasite out, and then another two weeks of Primaquine to ensure all the parasite eggs are destroyed in the liver.\u00a0 Nasty little critters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brendan also leaves us with a course of treatment for me if necessary, and some test kits. All for free, courtesy of the PNG government. We’re very, very grateful and at his request load his external hard drive up with a bunch of movies for him and his kids – it’s the least we can do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I breathe a HUGE sigh of relief – Bruce is going to be OK. It\u2019ll just take a few weeks to recuperate and get his energy back.\u00a0 I guess there are worse places to convalesce than the Ninigos Islands\u2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A tranquil evening at Mal Island now that the medical emergency is under control<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many people assume that a cruiser\u2019s worst fears are facing big storms or pirates. To my mind they\u2019re always possible, but probably unlikely if you take sensible steps to minimise the risk. No, my biggest fear is something happening to Bruce through misadventure or illness, particularly if we\u2019re in a remote area with little help … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Shakin’ All Over – Ninigo Islands Pt 1”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-svtoucan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6B46t-1Fu","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6416"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6427,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6416\/revisions\/6427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}