{"id":3718,"date":"2012-06-27T06:39:11","date_gmt":"2012-06-27T11:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/?p=3718"},"modified":"2012-06-27T06:39:11","modified_gmt":"2012-06-27T11:39:11","slug":"story-worth-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/?p=3718","title":{"rendered":"A STORY WORTH READING"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\n
the drs. will see you now
\n<\/span>
\n\"\"<\/a>We just completed the Newport Bermuda race on my 1988 Swan 46 Mk1 \u201cFlying Lady.\u201d In a race which featured lots of 80-100 foot ultra light speedsters packed with burly young professional sailors, while our crew included 3 doctors, a dentist, an EMT fire lieutenant, an aeronautical engineer, a carpenter, and a sixty-plus building inspector. While we all freely released our ISAF class data to the race committee (all class 1), none of us would have released our body mass index data to any racing authority. \u00a0Let\u2019s just say that if had we wanted to lighten up the boat for racing we should have started with diet and exercise for the crew.<\/p>\n

Yet, who do you think were called to do one of the few sailboat to sailboat rescues of a sick sailor in the history of the Bermuda Race? \u00a0One of the sleek speedsters with 20-something trained athletes manning the decks? \u00a0Or the Naval Academy Navy 44\u201d Defiance\u201d (who have smoked us repeatedly) with nobody over the age of 22 onboard and some barely shaving? \u00a0No. the middle-aged doctor boat.<\/p>\n

You see, the distress call came over 16 that the race committee doctor had told the crew of double handed Sea biscuit (J46) \u00a0to find a boat that had the capacity to administer IV fluids. \u00a0The owner had become dehydrated due to seasickness and hadn\u2019t kept anything down for 36 hours.<\/p>\n

So how do you prepare a boat for offshore racing if you know more about spinal stenosis than spinnakers? \u00a0Of course you make the boat a floating hospital, with not only IV fluids, but enough \u00a0stuff to do surgery in most body cavities. \u00a0Neurosurgeon, plastic surgeon, urologist, dentist, EMT: \u00a0the potential for high seas medical mischief was endless.<\/p>\n

Combine our floating hospital with mandatory satellite phones for all competitors, a list of medical personnel aboard every boat filed with the race committee, and a Harvard doctor in Boston coordinating medical emergencies\u2014now you have a perfect recipe for \u201cFlying Lady\u201d to see some real action.<\/p>\n

Of course we answered the call, checked in with Bermuda Rescue and the RC doc by phone and sped off under engine to rendezvous with \u201cSeabiscuit.\u201d \u00a0Naively we thought we\u2019d put out fenders,transfer to the boat, start an IV, give some fluids, and be back to racing. \u00a0However, those of you with offshore experience know that there is no way in hell we were going to have a simple tie-up with another 46 footer in sloppy seas 240 nm from Bermuda, even with only 14 knots of a backing NE breeze (compared with 30 in the Stream). \u00a0What we were able to do after a couple of passes with fenders out but with masts swinging like 65 foot high windshield wipers, was to toss them our IV bags and needles and talk them through the administration on the VHF.<\/p>\n

These amazing guys got the IV started with excellent coaching from our EMT and after a little fluid, the dehydrated sailor felt better and \u201cSeabiscuit \u201cstarted motoring to Bermuda. \u00a0Bermuda rescue asked us to stay within VHF range until he was transferred to \u201cThe Spirit of Bermuda\u201d, the Bermuda Schooner who had been turned back to redezvous and take him on their ship (which apparently had even more of a hospital on board than ours).<\/p>\n

Unfortunately after a brief period of improvement, the sailor felt worse again and Bermuda Rescue arranged for him to be evacuated by\u201d Enchantment of the Seas\u201d, a cruise ship, who plucked him off the sailboat in no time, displaying real professional seamanship. \u00a0\u00a0I\u2019ll save you the details but don\u2019t believe that there are no big ships that can stop on a dime or turn like a dinghy. The crew then sailed\u201d Seabiscuit\u201d solo to Bermuda and finished respectfully despite all the drama.<\/p>\n

Bermuda Rescue released us to start sailing again, and after our 7 hour rescue ordeal, we put up the symmetrical kite and took off in darkness in 18 knots true, \u00a0aluminium starboard pole forward, on the edge of control. \u00a0We finished a little over 24 hours later in a dying breeze and it took us 4 hours to complete the last 5 miles, while most of our competitors had finished in 12 knots. \u00a0To our satisfaction, the Jury awarded us all of the 7 hours in redress and we finished 6th IRC out of 13 in our class.<\/p>\n

To our surprise, the RC notified us that\u201d Flying Lady,\u201d \u201c Seabiscuit,\u201d and\u201dSpirit of Bermuda\u201dwould all receive Special Seamanship Awards and we all beamed with pride when we \u00a0accepted our award from the Governor and the RC brass at the \u201cprize-giving\u201d Saturday evening.<\/p>\n

Lessons learned<\/strong>: 1) feel privileged to be on an older boat \u00a0with a bunch of older doctors and other guys. \u00a0Even if they may not be able to change sails as quickly as the Navy guys and girls, and even if the speedo never hits 20, you may get a chance to do something few of us ever get to do\u2014participate in a rescue at sea of a fellow sailor in need, and 2) age and treachery trump youth every time!<\/p>\n

Respectfully submitted,<\/p>\n

Phillip Dickey MD, Captain,
\nFlying Lady, Swan 46<\/p><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

the drs. will see you now We just completed the Newport Bermuda race on my 1988 Swan 46 Mk1 \u201cFlying Lady.\u201d In a race which featured lots of 80-100 foot ultra light speedsters packed with burly young professional sailors, while our crew included 3 doctors, a dentist, an EMT fire lieutenant, an aeronautical engineer, a … Continue reading A STORY WORTH READING<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1232],"tags":[2573,1364,1365],"class_list":["post-3718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bermuda-race-2012","tag-bermuda-race-2012","tag-flying-lady","tag-old-age"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3718"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3719,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3718\/revisions\/3719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}