Mackay Base Hospital

On arrival at the Base hospital, Hugo’s coma-score is still poor and he gets a CT scan of his brain. He has a fracture in his skull above his L eye and a trace of blood on his brain. There is some swelling, but not a lot. 

The next morning he wakes up well. Little appetite, couple of vomits, and a lot of sleep, but certainly orientated. He seems to take in new information and remember it.

The doctors in Mackay discuss Hugo’s case with the neurosurgeons in Townsville and the advice is to wait and observe.

That morning I take the boat back from Nara Inlet to the marina. I had a remarkable good sleep. Every one works as a team and we are underway back to the main land in no time. 

My crew and I pack a few things from the boat, get taken to the caravan park, where our car is parked. We all take a quick shower and make our way across to Mackay. It is a big relief to see Hugo, and I admit to tears of relief rolling down my cheeks. Actually, I might have cried. I think that is allowed.

Jolmer and I swap. I’ll stay in hospital and Jolmer will take the crew back to the Mother ship. Mackay Base is a beautiful facility. The nurses and doctors are lovely. The surgical doctor is happy to show me Hugo’s scan images and prints a copy of the report.  His IV access can come out.

We both have a good sleep, despite hourly observations.

The next morning he is even better than the day before. The paediatrician comes and advises we might go home in the afternoon. An occupational therapist visits for an assessment, followed by volunteer ladies who would like to play. Hugo is doing Play Dough, and painting, puzzles and he receives a pillowcase, to make his bed homier. His appetite picks up too. He calls the hospital lunch ‘disgusting’, so his taste buds are also working still. There is no more vomiting today.

The afternoon we have a big sleep.

Jolmer is back onto the water to create more opportunities for the other four siblings to do some fishing and snorkelling. He is not allowed to take the vessel out by himself with four children, and no other adult, so a skipper needs to be arranged. It takes up to midday before they can go, the fishing being disappointing and the snorkelling unfortunately the same. Not a great day altogether, but trying to make most of it. 

In the evening we reunite in Mackay and drive back to the ship.  

All the children are sleeping, so is Jolmer and I drive around 80km/hr because the side of the road is littered with grazing kangaroos. I don’t want an accident. The pediatrician recommends no more falls for six weeks. Easier said than done. We decide to end our trip. It is never wise to move away from care with someone who might need it. Easy decision, but a disappointment for the older kids. I am only grateful to have a healthy son. In the morning, after another good sleep for Hugo, we pack all our un-eaten food, and our un-worn clothes and un-used dive gear off the boat. That is how this one goes. But we like that we now know we like it, sailing the Whitsundays that is, a LOT. We plan to return next year and re-do this part of the trip, all in good health hopefully.

  

On the Boat (October 2015)

We cannot believe how nicely this catamaran suits our family. There is a lot of space in the main cabin, the galley, the front deck, sleeping quarters and the back of the ship.

The brief is very good, we get advise on where to go, what to do and we shall be in touch with the office twice a day to make sure all is going well.

It is the first time for us ever to be sailing on the ocean and it is actually quite straightforward. We need to make a couple of tags to get to Nara Inlet of Hook Island. 

We wouldn’t be traveling with the Smit Family if we wouldn’t have a hook in the water while we were sailing. In the middle of the channel Jolmer’s rod makes the sound he has been waiting for: there is certainly a sizeable fish on his hook. I steer the cat into the wind to wash off some speed while Jolmer lands a beautiful spotted mackerel.

Because the operational hours are between 8am-4pm we have to motor the last stretch to where we will spend the night, anchored in Nara Inlet. Because it’s only four o’clock though, we have now time to let the kids go for a swim, take the dinghy out to the other side of the inlet for more fishing and do some cooking.

The night has settled in and our trip is taking a dramatic turn for the worst when we all hear a very loud bang, followed by nothing. Hugo has fallen from the ceiling hatch onto the floor and lies motionless in the cabin. After a couple of minutes he starts to moan, but is not responsive. We realize this is not a simple concussion and contact the office for advise. Jolmer is talking to the Queensland retrieval doctors in no time and a helicopter is on its way. Meanwhile Hugo, after some moaning and crying, has fallen into a very deep sleep and has a couple of vomits. It doesn’t look good.

There is something incredibly reassuring about the sound of an approaching helicopter. Any remote emergency doctor will vouch for that. Tonight is no different. There has been a lot of debate where it could land, maybe on a beach nearby? We are on the front deck waving our torches so the pilot knows where we are. It is a very dark night. There is no moon. The search light of the chopper is looking around and searching the inlet but cannot land. It will fly over to the next island Hayman while Hugo will be picked up by the Coast Guards.

The whole retrieval takes about 3 hours all up. Hugo has been mostly unconscious but he does have a lucid moment when I pick him up to walk over to the rescue boat. When I say ‘I love you’ and he says’ I love you too’ I am starting to hope he may get through this OK. Jolmer will go with Hugo while I stay on board, after all, I am the skipper and Jolmer is the better emergency doctor and therefore better able to interact with the doctors at Mackay Base Hospital. He will be the right spokesperson for Hugo. When I get ready for bed I can see the helicopter from my bedroom window making its way through the dark starry night sky. Thank goodness for Coast Guard volunteers and Rescue helicopter pilots. I pray Hugo has a little angle on his shoulder watching over him and fall into a dreamless sleep.

Airlie Beach (October 2015)

At Airlie Beach we park at Seabreeze Caravan Park, it’s the closest spot to town, and has a fantastic pool. Jolmer is doing snorkelling skills with the kids, including jumping in the water with no equipment on, and surfacing with fins, a cleared mask and snorkel in mouth. They manage! I am impressed. They practice buddy breathing with one snorkel and rescue swimming. Tim drags Jolmer successfully through the 25m pool on his back, with flippers, but still, that is not a small feat for a 6 year old.

Airlie Beach is a nice spot along Queensland’s coast, you can see the islands in the distance, there is plenty of tourism induced shops, bars and restaurants and the marina is small but significant. Glorious graceful ships are docked, waiting to be taken out to sea. We get all shopping out of the way and stuff stored at the marina headquarters. I also get my good camera cleaned and upgraded with a polaroid filter. I plan to make a lot of great photos.

On Friday, we get to have a quick look at our boat The Stardust. Jolmer has to go to Cairns for the weekend doing exam work for ACRRM, and will return on Sunday evening. 

We, the rest of the crew will get on board on Sunday afternoon and settle in. We will then be briefed on Monday morning.

Townville on the way to Airlie Beach (October 2015)

We head towards Townsville and stay at a simple block of land along Bruce Highway, which is being developed into a caravan park. It’s not much, but then again, we don’t need much. All we really need is to be close to Townsville. I want to take the children to the Tropical Museum of Queensland, because it’s school holidays and they have all kinds of activities for school children, related to dinosaurs. Can’t go wrong with that. They even dress up a man wearing black jeans in a life-size dinosaur costume. It is great to see a museum packed with children, and they are all grabbed by this dinosaur appearance.

 There is more though: art work, dinosaur masks, a dig pit and a temporary exhibition of stuffed animals like a lion, tiger, cheetah, bears and lots of deer.

The permanent exhibition at the top floor is also very well set up for children as well as adults. There is even a workshop pretending we hatch our own dinosaur from DNA extracted from mosquito blood. Sounds familiar?

We spend hours.

What will we do with the rest of the afternoon? It’s very hot. Let’s find a splash zone play ground. There happens to be one on the Strand. Who cares we didn’t bring swimming gear and towels? Certainly not the kids.

We can tell looking at the wind and waves that a trip to Magnetic island to do some snorkeling is likely to be unsuccessful because of the South Easterly winds.  The water looks murky and muddy. A quick phone call to Townville’s information centre confirms our suspicion, so now we don’t have to go there! Bit of a relief. I was going to put the whole family with snorkeling gear and our car on a ferry to the island, do an island walk and snorkel, but now we don’t have to do any of that.

More time for us to go shopping. We need some more stinger-suits for our time on the Whitsunday Islands, we need more fishing gear of course and some other