Yesterday saw me back in hospital, It’s called ER here, A&E back home. But no sign of George Clooney or Hugh Laurie anywhere.
I’m often seeing stuff on Quora about the differences between US and UK Healthcare so I now had a chance to check it out myself. I might even be able to answer one of those Quora questions.
The problems started after a long bike ride a few days earlier, I thought I must have been sitting uncomfortably, as I had quite a pain later in my groin region. Perhaps that’s all the detail that I need to give, other than there was some considerable swelling.
The swelling continued and the pain increased over the weekend, so a search on google revealed many possible causes, most of them quite serious. Bruising didn’t seem likely.
So we headed on down to an urgent care place, these are like ER but for non life threatening issues, they are also supposed to be a lot cheaper than ER, so for just $125 they should be able to give me an opinion and maybe some treatment. Unfortunately, when I explained the problem they said they couldn’t do anything for me and I should head to ER immediately, which was a bit worrying.
They also said they wouldn’t charge me, which was nice.
So Kathy and I jumped into a cab and headed to ER in Ballard for a very efficient check in process, I do have medical insurance, but I had only just taken it out, and I selected a high excess. This was going to be an expensive day. The check-in process took about 5 minutes, in the UK it’s about the same. Next came triage, which in my opinion should be a fairly prompt process, in the UK this normally happens within an hour, here in Seattle it was right away.
I was taken to lovely examination room, where they took my vitals, hooked me up to some monitors then scheduled a specialist to visit. He came about 30 minutes later and ordered an ultrasound scan, In the UK we might well be in the 3 -6 hour period by now. They also took blood and urine samples.
The ultrasound revealed no serious issues, just inflammation, most probably caused by an infection. The actual diagnosis was Epididymitis, and the treatment was to be a course of antibiotics, rest and loads of painkillers.
After a few hours of being at ER I was discharged with a list of drugs I had to go and buy. However I was now feeling more ill than when we arrived, so a quick uber back to the boat and I went straight to sleep, while Kathy went off in search of the medication.
Buying medicine is a bit different here; in the UK any prescribed drugs will cost the same amount, so 10 antibiotic pills will cost about $10 total, here you have to shop around, we had a discount card from the insurers and their recommended retailers, of which safeway was the closest. Kathy popped out to get the medicine and came back, waiting for the right moment to tell me the pills cost $185!! A bit of googling showed safeway are the most expensive place around here. The pharmacy said the insurer won’t pay for antibiotics, or perhaps I need to make a claim. Still another lesson learned.
I won’t be surprised if the cost of the ER visit is in the region of $1000 (in 2013 the average ER visit in WA costed $1200), the bulk of which I will have to pay.
So to compare systems, well I can’t really on such a flimsy illness, but I’m sure that the outcome of either an ER or A&E visit would have been the same for me, a course of antibiotics. A&E back home would have had me sitting for a few hours in a noisy room, possibly with crying babies, noisy toddlers and the odd drunk falling off his chair. whereas here I waited for 5 minutes in a very flash foyer / reception area, before being whisked off to a private room. Nurses and Doctors here seemed very professional and caring, just like back home, which is what you would expect. However they didn’t seem as rushed here, in fact that was the main difference I think, here they had plenty of room, and seemed quite laid back. All in all I think I prefer the UK setup, I think the wage deductions for National Insurance (Health care) are way lower than the cost of medical insurance, and even with insurance here, the deductibles and co-pay charges can soon add up. Still one visit and a few weeks in the country doesn’t really qualify me as an expert.
That was yesterday, and I’m already feeling better today, hopefully we can get out again soon. Nurse Kathy has been doing a wonderful job as I haven’t been able to move around much. We had plans to do loads of stuff here, and may stay a bit longer to make up for lost time. Seattle seems like a great place, and for the last few days the smoke has lifted and it’s been lovely and sunny. BTW I thought smoke was a technical term for a light fog, it was on the marine forecasts a lot, but it turns out to be actual smoke from fires. It seems like there are lots of large fires burning on Vancouver Island. One newspaper in Seattle last week reported air quality to be so bad it was equivalent to smoking 5 cigarettes a day. Looks like we were very lucky to have seen as much of the island as we did. In fact I hear most of the western coast is suffering from big forest fires.
Before I got ill I took a trip down to West Marine, which is a short walk from the marina, they have such a great range of marine products, so far it’s the best chandlery I have ever been in, aisle after aisle of everything you could ever need for the boat, in fact I bought quite a few things that weren’t on my ‘to buy’ list. I was enrolled into the West Marine discount club, and was told they will match any price I can get from anywhere else (except eBay), which seems like a good deal. I have also ordered tons of stuff online to be sent here and I’m just pondering if I should buy a load of sunbrella, a fabric used to make boat covers/canopies etc as it’s hard to get in Asia.
I need to visit Fisheries next, as that’s supposed to be a great chandlery and more down to earth than West Marine.
Elliott Bay Marina below with Downtown Seatlle in the distance
Paul Collister
It’s a huge marina, hundreds of berths with some interesting boats
and is next to the entrance to Lake Union and Lake Washington, which you access via the Washington Ship Canal after passing up the Ballard Locks. 
You can also see outside the locks, many salmon waiting to enter the passage with the steps. This is a man made version of the rocky rivers and waterfalls they would normally be tackling, all built by the US Army when the canal was first created.
However once there we signed up for 2 weeks berthing. We cycled onto the space needle area, as we planned to spend a few hours in the Pop Music Museum there, however when we arrived it was getting late and I was surprised to see the admission fee was nearly $30 each, and I don’t even like grunge. $30 buys a lot of shackles! So we decided that Kathy would come back later in the week and spend the whole day there to get her moneys worth while I took my $30 down to the docks to see what I could find (In the chandleries).
Once again I find myself in a place where I think I need a year or more to fully get to know the geography and a bit of the culture.
Later in the day the tide turned and we got to see a different aspect of the house. For the people sitting on the deck in their loungers it must be great for the view to be changing all the time.
It was a very peaceful evening there and early the next day we were up and off to Sidney spit, a small nature reserve just of Sidney, Vancouver Is. 
Port of Friday Harbour is a massive place, with a great range of vessels berthed here
On the way we saw many luxury houses set back in the trees along the coast. They looked wonderful and I mused on the fact that I might have had one if I had been born in Seattle. I was writing software for a word processor, much like Microsoft Word , back in the 80’s. Had I been in Seattle, I might have been on the Microsoft team writing Word, and by now be head of word processor hyphenation and line wrapping, or some other wonderful title. My small allotment of company stock might have bought me one of these waterfront mansions, and as I said to Kathy that I might also be on my third young blonde leggy wife by now too. She pointed out that if that was the case, I probably would be broke and have lost the house by then!
Arriving into Port Ludlow saw the wind drop to zero, and the sun come out, the fog left and it became a glorious day. Port Ludlow is a small community town, with a few shops, a marina which is part of a Golf course resort, and a few holiday homes and ‘condos’. 
I got chatting to one of the guys sitting on our table during the meal, he was very friendly and keen to offer me tips on moorage. He, like many there was a friend of Bob’s and he also had a boat, but not a Perry one. But he also had a truck, which was quite a beast. 
I was keen to see his boat, which turned out to be just as impressive, and had me thinking of what kind of boat I would like next. Something small, fast and maneuverable, but mostly, something that looks great.
Finally I’m in a cold place, at night here with clear skies the temperature drops. The waters here are quite cold and consequently the sea breezes are very chilling, so at long last, after many years I was able to put my Irish sweater into service. It’s doing a great job, thanks to Tim and Asta who bought it for me as a present, some time ago.
Tomorrow (Monday morning), we leave around 8am for Seattle propper, we are booked into Shilsole Marina, just north of Ballard, once there we will have to find somewhere affordable to stay for the next four weeks as the daily rates are too much for us. Thankfully the people at the rendezvous have been really helpful with tips and suggestions, and a few have offered to meet up with us in town and show us around.
The sky turned black and it started to rain, but just before we arrived the weather moved on, the wind dropped, the sea calmed and into Nanaimo we motored to look for our berth. by the time we tied up the sun was out and I was pleased to be there, but had quite enjoyed the sail.
You can see our planned route in blue, our actual track is in red, not a bad angle on the wind really. There is a dotted/dashed trapezoid shaped box on the chart known as “Area Golf Whisky” This is a military exclusion zone, you can see I tacked over the western end, then across the middle. I could see the Patrol ships on the AIS but they didn’t bother me. I had read somewhere that they only use it on weekdays. It’s used for testing torpedoes, apparently they launch them at one end of the zone towards the other. All along the seabed of the zone they have sensors to record the progress of the torpedos, data is fed back to the base on Ballena island, which we tacked around.
In the morning we head south, we need to leave about 09:30 to reach Dodd Narrows with plenty of time before slack water.
My cold caused us to stay an extra day there, before we departed on Thursday for Tribune Bay Marine Park on Hornby Island. Another beautiful location, however we were not alone in this large sandy bay, I counted about 40 Sailboats and even more powerboats plus a few mega yachts. We decided not to go ashore, as it was very crowded, and instead I cooked some halibut I had bought on the dock in Campbell River, on the barbecue here and we had a lazy day.
The passage there was easy except for the first hour, after leaving the marina in still winds, and flat calm water we hit Discovery Passage fighting a flood tide, at maximum flood. I hadn’t paid much attention to it, perhaps I was a bit smug about it all after waltzing through Seymour Narrows, and all the warnings I had read about this pass were minor in comparison. Also the weather was calm, and the tides were small, so what could go wrong, well I think I picked the wrong course as well as the wrong time, I was heading down the centre of the strait, the sides might have been better, but Cape Mudge, which is famous for causing rapids and rip tides was on the far side and I wanted to avoid that, and staying close to the Main Island would add a bit of distance. So it was that I found myself at first being driven off course, then headed by 3 knots of current, which quickly rose to 5 knots. Looking at the track I recorded below you can see what a mad course we made, the distance was less than a mile, but took more than an hour. All the time I thought I was steering a straight course. I suppose the waters had the last laugh with me.
We are now tied up alongside another yacht in French Creek harbour, There’s lots of old sailboats dumped here, and lots of rough looking power boats, along with a stack of fishing boats. It’s pleasant enough, and we are only here for one night. My neighbours, locals, have taken a great interest in us and I have spent ages now explaining to all and sundry in the vicinity what it’s like to sail across the pacific. Everybody seems to be in awe, yet they all have big boats capable of doing the passage, yet they are afraid of leaving the inside passage in their yachts and even going up the west / Pacific side of this island.
I’m hoping we can pick up a parks mooring buoy off the island for a small charge and dinghy into town. the island is now a national park and apparently is well worth a visit.
The inter-island ferry
We spent the night here, and this must have been our most peaceful night in many months.
The next day we had to pass through one of the most dangerous passes in Canada, the Seymour Narrows
A Gill-Netter is a certain type of fishing boat/style where a long net, about 1/4 mile, is let out from the stern of the boat from a large drum and then the boat and the net drifts. The boat can be pointing at the net or away from it, or anywhere in-between, meaning that spotting the boat doesn’t give us a clue as to where the net might be. I have just had a good chat with the skipper of the boat and he told me that tomorrow the fisheries open for a three day window, and that he, and hundreds like him will be rushing to the water, in particular the straits and passages we are going through, and there will be Gill-Netters everywhere. His advise to me is to stay 1/4 mile away from every fishing boat, which is easier said than done.
The Inside passage is a maze of waterways, rivers, straits, passes etc that run from Seattle all the way up to Alaska, about 1000 miles in total, most of it is protected from the Pacific gales and provide a safer route along the coast in rough weather. We joined the passage at the top of Vancouver Island and we are now working our way south, hoping to be in Seattle for the 17th when there is a rally/meet up of boats & owners of boats designed by Bob Perry, the designer of our boat. It’s an annual event, and it seems daft not to attend as we are so close. However it does mean we need to rush a little to get there.
One of the big problems of the inside passage is that the Pacific Ocean sea level rises and falls by about 4 metres every 12 hours, and it rushes into, then out of the Inside passage. The water races through the myriad of waterways, and where it is narrow, and especially where it is shallow, or there are underwater features like mini mountains, it can get quite crazy. It’s not a gentle river by any means, in some places it’s very deep, I’m not sure exactly, but when Captain Vancouver on Discovery first surveyed it for our Queen back in 1792, while looking for a north west passage, they would swing the lead deep into the water and his crew would often shout ‘No Bottom Found’, presumably relating to the water depth.
One of the clearer days in the Pacific
One of the rougher days.
The damage caused to the dodger by the crazy sheet car whipping around
Sea otters
The Fishermans Wharf
