bedded room with a Frenchman who has lived for the last 40 years in the States – he couldn’t believe his luck, yet another interpreter to hand.
Having notified our travel insurance, they contacted the hospital, which confirmed Dick’s condition, and the next thing he knew was they were organising his flight home. In spite of his leg having to be splinted for 6 weeks and John Espiner and Don Brightman offering to sail Franima back to the U.K. Dick refused the airlift and insisted on being discharged to the boat. Five days later after I had purchased a splint and a pair of crutches (which he didn’t use from start to finish) he was ready for discharge and was delivered back to me by hospital car, all on our E111. We removed the steering wheel to make more space in the cockpit because it was obvious we were going to remain there for several more weeks. The quay was a great place to exercise and his progress was watched with interest by locals and yachties alike. The District Nurse was calling to do dressings and blood tests and I was giving Dick daily injections for 6 weeks: postoperative treatment is quite different in France.
All this happened during the August heat wave and the sea conditions were ideal for us to return home, so as soon as Dick’s staples were removed and I was happy with his progress we set off back down the River Aulne towards Brest. We were very touched when the local people came out to wave goodbye.
We day hopped, motoring all the way, back to the U.K: splints and sailing don’t mix, to say nothing of the pain! All went well until we reached the west going traffic lane north east of Alderney. Suddenly there was a loud noise and the boat stopped. We couldn’t see anything so thought we’d got something round our prop. With a large ship 3 miles away bearing down on us, no wind to sail and Dick unable to go over the side to try and rectify things, we were anxious to say the least. Forward gear – nothing, reverse - and suddenly a piece of wreckage about the size of two settees bobbed up alongside us: we were astounded. Gently, gently into forward gear, revs o.k. no vibration, so on we went again. Although we had been keeping a good lookout it brings it home to you the fact that this sort of debris is all but invisible –and that’s in daylight! It took us a total of 5 days to get back to our berth in Gosport. How relieved we were to be back home, date 29th August.
The travel insurance staff kept in touch with us regularly until we arrived back home and with the combination of our E111 and insurance our expenses were met in full. Which magazine last year highlighted a case of a family holidaying in France who had been refused medical treatment on their E111 because it was several years old. For us it opened all doors. In theory there is no time limit on an E111
but in future we will be renewing it annually. Although we had to curtail our holiday our first 3 weeks were most enjoyable and thanks to our friends, the people of Port Launay and fellow yachtsmen our unfortunate accident was made less stressful than it might have been. We look forward to a much better sailing season this year.
Rosemary Millerchip.
