Napa and Elaine’s Injury

Napa After Ronna and Arik left to go back to Seattle, we headed up the Napa river to warm up. Unfortunately during the process of docking at the Napa Valley Marina, Elaine injured her hand. 8/23, Napa Valley Marina Unfortunately, our co captain and first mate has sustained an injury so we are also recovering and taking advantage of the areas medical facilities. As we were docking in the Napa Valley with winds gusting to 30 knots Elaine caught her left hand between the docking line and the dock cleat. Needless to say Windarra at approximately 38,000 pounds simply pulled her hand into the cleat resulting in an external dislocation of the first finger and the loss of the last one half inch of the second finger. We quickly bandaged her hand and attempted to make her comfortable until an aid car arrived. The aid car arrived within five minutes and fortunately there was a level two trama center within ten miles. There was a hand specialist on duty, who ordered the initial x-rays and sutured the injury. He also recommended a hand specialist in San Francisco with considerable experience with these types of injuries. The following day with a rented car we met with the specialist and were encouraged with the prognosis. Elaine can expect full functionality of the first finger (man it really looked bad at the scene of the accident) and he has sutured her second finger to the palm of her hand and placed the entire hand except the first finger within a cast (looks like a large softball and weighs about 4 lbs). The cast will remain on for two weeks and during that time new flesh will adhere to the tip and provide padding. After some palm skin has been grafted to the tip the final healing process will begin. The doctor expects "E" to be fully functional by the third week of September. She, of course, is receiving special attention by the rest of the crew. Elaine's dominant hand is her left so the eloquent e-mails you have been receiving will (for a while) be replaced by my dry engineer analysis. Can you tell? In spite of these unfortunate events the crew and boat are doing well and we appreciate all the e-mails you have sent. Here are some of the adventures we have had; We spent a week in the Napa Valley and had a wonderful visit with our good friends Doug and Nancy who flew into the local airport and showed us around the local wineries. The Napa River is an interesting voyage and being able take your home to the middle of the wine country was a unique experience. We are now in Marina Bay in close proximity to the BART station in Richmond. The marina is very pleasant and the rates are great but you don't stray to far a field after dark. Richmond is a tough neighborhood. After Elaine's checkup on Tuesday we are planning to sail to Sausalito and anchor out for a few days. We are hoping to meet up with Stu and Sandy of "Diva" who are sailing down the coast and plan to enter Mexico about the same time we are. There have been number of Seattle boats we have met on the way down and we are forming a wandering community of sorts. Our schedule and goals remain the same and we have decided to join the Baja Ha-Ha to enter Mexico on November 1. We plan to leave the Bay Area as soon as "E" feels comfortable. From there we will take short hops down to Southern California enjoying the sights and sea life along the way.

Napa Valley Marina Elaine before the cast came off Doug at the ocean Nancy sampling the local fare