The Ultimate Tribulation

By Chuck Baier

Today's blog post will be more of a personal nature rather than another boat related post. I hope you'll bear with me as I get my thoughts down to let everyone know what's going on, and for my own therapeutic value. The big story is near the end if you want to skip right to it. I will bring you up to date first on where we are and how Beach House and crew finally arrived after a long and difficult struggle to make our current destination. If you have been following our recent posts, you know that we had been in Carrabelle for a couple of months trying to cross the Florida Big Bend to get over to the west coast of Florida. Beach House finally made the crossing, albeit short one of her regular crewmembers.

Many things had held up our passage. Mechanical breakdowns began a stretch of bad luck, speaking engagements and other commitments kept the boat in Carrabelle and some health issues also played a role in our ongoing delays. For many years, I have paid the price for a lifetime in the sun and decades of enjoying all that the watery part of our planet has to offer. For many years, skin cancer has been a fact of life for me, but fortunately, the type of skin cancer has been basal cell, one that is easily treated and does not spread to other parts of the body. In the past, freezing it off or using a laser to burn off the areas solved the problem. But I knew that at some point it was going to get more serious. So what does that have to do with all of this, you ask?

Once our speaking engagements were finished, a trip to the dermatologist was on the schedule to have a small tumor removed from my neck. Everything went well and we returned to the boat planning to jump on the next weather window. But the surgery was a little more severe than expected and my concern was that if we took a 10 to 12 hour trip across the Gulf Stream and there was a problem, my condition could actually create a bigger risk factor for Susan and the boat. We talked about just waiting it out until everything healed and then make the crossing. But commitments at our next destination were approaching and we would have to make major adjustments if delayed much longer. One of our hard and fast rules is that we never make a decision to go or not go based on any kind of a schedule. We really did not want to violate that rule.

Weather windows had been few and far between and very short -- sometimes only a half day, and that is just not acceptable to us. We watched as one opened up and seemed to hold, while wondering whether we were really going to let this one pass. As the fates would have it, a new found friend that had been at the marina in Carrabelle for a while mentioned to Susan that they were considering moving from their sailboat to a trawler and would be happy to help move the boat if we needed an extra hand. Since the surgery had just happened, it was still questionable as to whether I was yet up to the passage. After some discussion, it was decided that Susan would take the boat across without me and that I would drive our car over, which we had picked up weeks before. Our friend agreed to go along and since Susan is quite capable of handling the boat, the day came and the weather was holding.

One of the big concerns was that the engine had not been fully stress tested after the major work that was done. Although we had run it for about 5 hours, it was still not a hard run to be sure all of the repairs were done and that there were no new problems. All I could do was to watch Susan pull the boat out of the slip at sunrise and hope that everything went well. This section of the Gulf would put her out of cell phone range and perhaps even VHF range for the Coast Guard, etc. There is the HF radio on board and as a last resort, our EPIRB. So communication to the outside world was possible and rescue, if needed, would come. But still you worry. I waited for a couple of hours while Susan was still in cell phone range to be sure there was no problems and that she did not have to turn back. Once it looked like all was well, I pointed the car toward Steinhatchee. The decision was made to do the crossing in two jumps rather than stress the boat for 20 hours doing a single crossing so soon after the repairs.

It only took a couple of hours to drive from Carrabelle to Steinhatchee, but the boat took about 9 hours to get there. Everything worked out fine and the boat and crew made the trip without any problems. Susan drove our crew back to Carrabelle with a big "Thank You!" and returned to the boat late. After spending the night in Steinhatchee, the weather was still looking okay and I was feeling better, so off we went the next morning heading for the Withlacoochee River. Of course, the forecast fell apart and the last couple of hours were pretty hairy, but the boat and crew finally safely made it to the marina in Yankeetown where we planned on staying for a while. Little did we suspect that things would take another turn and soon our lives would be turned on end.


On Sunday, March 1st, I was washing the car under a shade tree in the marina when suddenly I was just not feeling quite right. It only took me about one minute to realize what was happening to me. All of the classic symptoms presented themselves in a textbook fashion. I first felt like I had simply overdone it a bit and sat down in the car to rest. Very quickly things began to escalate. The pressure in the chest was increasing, the pain spreading to my left arm. I was having a lot of difficulty breathing and it was getting worse. I had this overwhelming feeling of dread and by now had broken out into a cold sweat. There was no doubt I was having a heart attack and it was serious. I was able to walk back to the boat and get Susan to tell her something was very wrong and we needed to go to the hospital and now. We considered calling 911, which should be the first thing you do, but decided that based on our location, by the time the ambulance arrived and diagnosed what we already knew, we could be at the hospital, which was not far away. It was a quick ride to Seven Rivers Hospital which fortunately has an excellent cardiac care unit.


On the ride to the hospital I considered that this might be my last day on the planet. I remember thinking that this would be very unfortunate since there were still a lot of things I wanted to do. I also remember thinking that if I didn't survive it would be very hard on Susan and my family and friends, and I didn't want to put everyone through that. We arrived quickly at the ambulance entrance and they wheeled me in and began working on me. All of the drugs, oxygen and hard work the doctors and nurses were doing seemed to be ineffective in stopping the pain and making my breathing easier. After about 20 minutes, the pain did ease up, but only a very little. An ambulance arrived and I was rolled off the table and into it so I could be transported to another nearby hospital that had the equipment and facilities needed to help me. It was short ride, but seemed much longer.


The doctors had determined that I had a 98% blockage in one artery, 95% in another and at least 40% in a third. That didn't leave much working plumbing. From the ambulance, I was moved immediately into the Cath Lab, placed on a table and the Doctor went to work right away. I was awake during the entire process and the next few minutes was an experience that I find difficult to put into words. The Doctor went in through a small incision in the groin area and ran a stent up to my heart. Once the first one was in place, all of the pressure, all of the pain and all of the symptoms just disappeared. I wasn't sure whether I was really feeling this or I had just finally succumbed. With the second stent in place, I truly felt that I could just get off the table, thank the Doctor and go home. It was absolutely incredible. But that didn't happen. I was kept in a cardiac care unit for three days to be sure my heart would be able to handle the increased blood flow that it probably hadn't had in quite some time. And also to make sure I had no reaction to the multitudes of medication I was now taking.

Now here's the reason for me telling you all of this. Up until the moment this event occurred, I have never had a single symptom or any warning, EVER, that I had a heart problem. Up until that day, my health seemed to be excellent and other than some elevated cholesterol levels, I expected to live to be 100. Because my health was so good, I never felt the need to have my Doctors do any kind of stress test, or test of any kind to check the condition of my heart and arteries. I quick smoking in 1973 and Susan and I have led a healthy, active lifestyle for decades. But all of that didn't matter when the day came. I can't tell you how happy I am to be sitting here writing this blog post today. This will slow down our cruising for a while. The future requires a lot of rest for at least the next couple of months, a substantial time for cardiac rehabilitation and many, many Doctors visits before we feel comfortable enough to untie the docklines and head out again. Many things were properly aligned on that day or the outcome would have been very different. For now, my plans are to concentrate on my new future, get better and do all those things that I thought about on that ride to the hospital. And get myself back in good condition. So that's my story. Take a little advise for what it's worth. Don't take your health for granted and don't assume just because you feel fine today, that you will be fine tomorrow. And don't worry, even though our cruising will be delayed, there will still be some great posts coming on the blog.