As planned, we only cast off the lines at midday and fought our way out of the marina against the wind and waves. We still used the morning, to store our supplies, Uploading pictures on the website and also filling our diesel tanks with very cheap diesel.

The short stroke to the next anchorage on the way to Ponce was quickly sailed and we looked for a place to spend the night in the bay of Puerto Patillas. The anchorage was described very positively in our area guide, but somehow we found exactly that one spot in the bay, where our CESARINA, unlike all the other boats, danced restlessly back and forth at the anchor. So the night wasn't particularly restful and the next morning I almost felt seasick after breakfast. The VIA got a better spot and was already on its way, while we were still having breakfast. They caught us off guard then, because we were usually always on the way first. They drove past us laughing. The surprise was really a success for the otherwise self-confessed late risers.

That bothered Dietmar a bit and now things had to be dealt with quickly. The breakfast dishes were quickly washed and put away. Then it was time to raise anchor. So a short time later we were on the road. We did the first few meters at reduced speed, as Dietmar had not yet fully raised the anchor, to wash off the mud on the anchor in the whirlpool of the fairway. He then brought everyone on board. But today I got no sign from him, that everything was ok and I could get on track with more speed. Something was wrong up there.

I saw the blood from far away, that ran down his arm. On the prima, at least it wasn't that much, but still too much for my stomach. Dietmar had come between the anchor and the winch with the outside of his left hand, when the anchor made an unpredictable jump while being pulled up. The hand was made to a width of 4 Centimeter smooth and fold through on both sides. However, his bones and vision were probably not affected and he was able to move everything. At least something. But the wound looked good, as if the part of the hand had been put through the meat grinder :-(. I first brought the Cesarina on course using the autopilot and then fetched disinfectant and bandages. So we disinfected vigorously and extensively and then packaged the hand as sterile as possible. Dietmar didn't feel much pain. He definitely wanted to stick with the VIA and didn't take the hand number particularly seriously. So we made our way to Ponce. Nobody could have helped us here in the anchorage anyway and Ponce is the second largest city in Puerto Rico.

But since the hand was clearly unusable at the moment, we only sailed on under Genoa. Because there was enough wind, That wasn't a problem and we reached Ponce in the afternoon. Dietmar didn't particularly like the anchorage right in front of the marina, but after some back and forth we finally found a place near the VIA. We had already informed VIA about the accident this morning in advance and now they came to our aid and brought us ashore with their dinghy. Even if Dietmar still thought so, that a doctor is not needed, I was able to prevail. So we made our way to the hospital. The friendly porter at the marina quickly called a taxi for us and we reached the hospital around five o'clock. Because our knowledge of Spanish is not that advanced, Now we just had to find someone, who was able to help us through the organizational chaos. Schnell fand sich ein junger Mann, der uns den ganzen weiteren Abend immer wieder zur Seite stand und uns auch bei der Anmeldeprozedur half. Ganz wie in Deutschland war eine Menge Papierkrieg zu erledigen und leider verging zwischen den einzelnen Stationen eine ganze Menge Zeit. Das war besonders unerfreulich, da alle Räume des Krankenhauses auf Kühlschranktemperatur heruntergekühlt waren. Die Angestellten trugen alle Jacken und lange Hosen, aber wir waren wie immer sommerlich bekleidet und froren wie die Schneider. Irgendwann war es aber nicht mehr auszuhalten und abwechselnd stand einer von uns vor der Tür, um sich draußen etwas aufzuwärmen 🙂 Schon eine verrückte Welt. Gegen halb acht war Dietmars Geduld dann aber völlig am Ende und er teilte unserem englischsprechenden Begleiter mit, dass wir jetzt nach Hause gehen würden. Das brachte dann ganz schnell wieder Bewegung in die Sache und Dietmar wurde ins nächste Behandlungszimmer verfrachtet. Achtzehn Stiche und zwei Spritzen später war mein Kapitän dann weitgehend wiederhergestellt. Jetzt konnte es endlich zurück zur CESARINA gehen. An der Pier warteten schon Jörg, Vincent und Kathrin auf uns und luden uns zum Abendessen auf die VIA ein. Was für ein Glück, denn zum Kochen hätte ich heute ganz sicher keine Lust mehr gehabt 🙂