December 23, 2006, St. Martin

The boats coming into Marigot to pick up charter guests or restock their galleys are simply amazing. Maltese Falcon, Tom Perkins’s Perini with the aero rig, which was just launched this summer, is the most stunning of the bunch. With its three masts light up at night it has a sinister glow about it.

It seems as though every few days I’m writing about some malady, most of which are self inflicted. Last night I woke up with searing pain in my right ankle. I thought I had twisted it on the walk back from the refrigeration shop, but there was no sign of swelling or bruising, and this didn't feel like a sprain. After a few more stabs of pain I got up to take some Advil. It hurt no more or less standing on it than lying in bed. Completely befuddled, I went back to bed. But soon there were tears running down my cheeks as jolts of pain coursed through my right calf. Sten flicked on the light and looked at my ankle. Agreeing that it probably wasn’t a sprain, he went to grab the medical reference book out of our first aid kit. We’d previously read in Lin Pardey’s Care and Feeding of Sailing Crew that dehydration could cause cramps, but could they hurt so much? The fist aid book confirmed that the cause was probably dehydration, so I slugged back a Nalgene bottle full of Gatorade. The pain lessened a bit, and I was able to go back to sleep.

In the morning, the pain was back, so I grabbed Pardey’s book to see what she had to say about treatment options. It seems that dehydration depletes the body’s stores of salt. She recommended a few teaspoons of salt mixed with fruit juice. It was vile, but I got it down. This is a miracle cure - within 30 minutes, the cramps were gone. A few hours later, Sten began to cramp up too. He took the cure as well, with similarly quick results.

We spent the rest of the day wandering around the shops in Marigot. I picked up a new bikini and Sten went in search of a Christmas gift for me.