Laid Low in Kos

As seems to be the case much too often, the wind forecasters and Mother Nature are not on the same page.  We left Symi at the crack of dawn to take advantage of the predicted perfect winds for out northwest passage.  What we got was a dead calm for the first three hours, then the predicted winds for about two hours then for the rest of the passage dead calm again.  So the iron spinnaker once again got quite the workout and the sails only a light exercise.  Still there were some compensations.  About an hour out a pod of dolphins visited us.  This was the first time we had seen dolphins on passage.  Once we saw a dolphin in harbour in Emborios but this was the first time ‘at sea’.

Dolphins

 

 We tied up to the town wharf by mid-afternoon.  Bob had come down with the flu again and was feeling pretty miserable.  Given his history of pneumonia we decided to be very cautious and sought out a doctor to check him out.  As a retired epidemiologist, I find these interactions with the health care system in different countries quite interesting, if only it wasn’t Bob who was always getting sick!  We came away with the diagnosis of febrile Bronchitis, not pneumonia and a list of medication to relieve the symptoms, to which we added a few of our own home remedies. 

Bob taking the remedies. We found the Bailey's especially helpful!

We resolved not to leave Kos until Bob was better.  We did not want to be on some remote island without good medical care if Bob’s condition turned worse.  We had a good explore of Kos Island last year when we were here so were not too bothered by vegging out for awhile while Bob’s immune system did its thing.  After a few days at the town wharf we decided to move into the marina as the wind had picked up and the harbour was getting an uncomfortable swell.

By this time the inevitable happened and I came down with the dreaded lurgy.  Fortunately Bob was beginning to be on the mend by this time so I had a good nurse to get me through several days of shivers and shakes, sneezing and coughing.  It is a nasty bug and all the more so as we had just gotten over a similar infection a month ago.  Our stay in Kos was delayed a few more days but not without some compensations – beautiful sunsets and reconnecting with Australian cruisers Sal and John who we befriended in the winter of 2016 at Marmaris.

Sunset over Kos