Dark Days on Thyme

This post represents our darkest days aboard Thyme. Simon’s malaria had deteriorated to a point where we admitted him to hospital for treatment. We thought he was going to get additional medications… He arrived early in the morning and shortly after was given an IV of fluids, while I stood by swatting the swarms of mosquitos flying around and Simon communicated via hand signals as no one spoke English.

I waited with Simon all day as it was our wedding anniversary and also hoping the doctor would come and give him some medication. Well the day came and went and I had to return to the boat, boarding the dinghy at the public dock – alone, returning to the lone yacht off the pier. All good until just after dark when 4 men approached the boat and tried to board. I told them to leave pretending to call downstairs to Simon. After hanging on and some discussion about money, they finally left, circling the boat for a while. Near hysterical I rang my friends on Ruby and Nathalie in Malaysia. They offered good advice and support and I locked up well to wait out a sleepless night in between regular phone calls and texts – thank you!

I returned to the hospital not long after first light only to find Simon checking himself out. The doctor, who finally arrived at 7pm had the results mixed up and told him he didn’t have malaria and didn’t have a fever, despite no one taking his temperature. He had also experienced a sleepless night wondering if the electrical socket was going to fall on his head, battling with the broken air-con, working up the courage to go to his luxurious private bathroom and keeping the mosquitos at bay. He was kindly awoken when 5 Seven Day Adventists entered his room to give him a plastic rose.
Pictures of the private bathroom…

 When we returned home, Simon deteriorated rapidly to the point where I began to panic. Tired and unsure of what to do I called family & friends who got to work helping us with options of flights home, embassy assistance and most of all love and moral support. Barbara on Ruby was also hard at work, calling her high up official government friends, who then called the Harbour Master. Later that day a Navy ship anchored very close to us – a co-incidence… Our fantastic doctor in Australia, Dr Silvana was amazing making calls to us at night after reviewing Simon’s updates by email.
With Simon refusing to leave on the next flight we waited out another tense few days before he started to improve. He now has a clear malaria bill of health and is quickly developing his appetite – he needs to as he’s lost over 12kgs in the last 6 weeks of being ill. The Zero Gravity chair is getting a serious workout.

For now, we are resting in Sorong, fattening Simon up and letting him regain some of his strength before we carry on. We know our next post will be brighter with new plans and adventures! In the meantime, here is a view from our window. I really can't thank everyone enough for your help and support the past few weeks x.

Here is our route in red thru northern Indo - what an amazing place. With Simon being sick unfortunately we missed quite a bit, but what we did see was truly awesome. Red is our penciled in plan for the coming weeks...