Read Online The As It Happens Files by Mary Lou Finlay - Free Book Online
Authors: Mary Lou Finlay
Ads: Link
told us over the phone. But that was the last time we spoke to Tim and Colin together; shortly afterwards they parted company for good. Tim and Yulya went one way, Colin another. Colin kept the sat phone, and we were able to stay in touch with him. Tim kept the camera, and Yulya. In the office, we speculated about the possibility that three had become a crowd, but perhaps the guys would have split up anyway. Our producer Kevin Robertson reported that on their website and in the Vancouver papers, the two adventurers and their respective allies and supporters had taken to bickering and hurling insults at each other.
Having abandoned their original mission—to trek together from Vancouver to Moscow—the travellers did all reach Moscow eventually. There they regrouped and made separate plans to continue the man-powered journey all the way back to Canada. Man-and-woman-powered. Colin acquired another camera and a female partner, his fiancée, Julie Wafaei. When I last spoke with Colin and Julie, they were a thousand kilometres off the west coast of Africa, breathing a collective sigh of relief after weathering two tropical storms. They’d been rowing for 65 days and had found about 50 ways to cook dorado. Julie said they were getting on very well, which we were glad to hear, as they had another two and a half months of rowing ahead of them before making landfall in Miami.
Tim Harvey, meanwhile, had got himself a new phone but had lost Yulya—some problem with her travel papers, I think—so he had a new travelling partner as well, a chap by the name of Erden Eruc. When we last spoke, they were about 80 kilometres off the Moroccan coast and making a beeline for shore in the face of an approaching storm. They’dalready been held up for weeks by high winds and waves, but Tim said, “Today was great. We’ve seen whales and sea turtles and dolphins, beautiful sunset.… There’s nothing I’d rather be doing.”
Everyone made it back to Canada eventually, and you can learn more about the adventures of Tim and Colin and Julie and Yulya and Erden by checking out their own accounts on the web or on film or in their own books. Last I heard, Colin and Julie were planning a trip through the canals of France, and I thought,
The food will be much better there!
A few weeks after we talked to Derek Lundy about the Vendée Globe, we heard of another adventure on the high seas. This one involved a Russian sailor who was taking part in the 1998 Around Alone race. Russian sailor Victor Yasekov was about 950 miles west of Capetown when he radioed for help. His right arm had got infected; it had turned red and yellow and was badly swollen. Boston physician Daniel Carlin was one of the doctors on call for the Around Alone sailors, and as he tells the story, he answered Yasekov’s call for help and proceeded to tell him, via email, how to operate on his arm. Yasekov had to lance the abscess with a sterile scalpel, pour iodine into the wound, insert a drain and then dress it.
The operation seemed to go well, but when Yasekov sent another message a few hours later, the news was not good. Now his arm was white and limp and utterly useless. Carlin figured it this way: Yasekov had probably taken a lot of Aspirin to ease the pain in his arm, which had led to profuse bleeding after the operation; then, in trying to staunch the bleeding, he had bound his arm too tightly and cut off the circulation. Carlin was worried that the sailor might now lose his arm. Hetold Yasekov to remove the tourniquet, and Yasekov reported that he had started to get some feeling back in his arm, but it still wasn’t much use. He ended up sailing pretty much one-handed all the way to Capetown.
Daniel Carlin had a different answer when I put the question to him on the radio:
“These people are nuts, right?”
“Yeah.”
He, it turns out, is a fine one to talk. I was curious about whether Yasekov’s arm ever did heal completely and also about whether Dr. Carlin was
Having abandoned their original mission—to trek together from Vancouver to Moscow—the travellers did all reach Moscow eventually. There they regrouped and made separate plans to continue the man-powered journey all the way back to Canada. Man-and-woman-powered. Colin acquired another camera and a female partner, his fiancée, Julie Wafaei. When I last spoke with Colin and Julie, they were a thousand kilometres off the west coast of Africa, breathing a collective sigh of relief after weathering two tropical storms. They’d been rowing for 65 days and had found about 50 ways to cook dorado. Julie said they were getting on very well, which we were glad to hear, as they had another two and a half months of rowing ahead of them before making landfall in Miami.
Tim Harvey, meanwhile, had got himself a new phone but had lost Yulya—some problem with her travel papers, I think—so he had a new travelling partner as well, a chap by the name of Erden Eruc. When we last spoke, they were about 80 kilometres off the Moroccan coast and making a beeline for shore in the face of an approaching storm. They’dalready been held up for weeks by high winds and waves, but Tim said, “Today was great. We’ve seen whales and sea turtles and dolphins, beautiful sunset.… There’s nothing I’d rather be doing.”
Everyone made it back to Canada eventually, and you can learn more about the adventures of Tim and Colin and Julie and Yulya and Erden by checking out their own accounts on the web or on film or in their own books. Last I heard, Colin and Julie were planning a trip through the canals of France, and I thought,
The food will be much better there!
A few weeks after we talked to Derek Lundy about the Vendée Globe, we heard of another adventure on the high seas. This one involved a Russian sailor who was taking part in the 1998 Around Alone race. Russian sailor Victor Yasekov was about 950 miles west of Capetown when he radioed for help. His right arm had got infected; it had turned red and yellow and was badly swollen. Boston physician Daniel Carlin was one of the doctors on call for the Around Alone sailors, and as he tells the story, he answered Yasekov’s call for help and proceeded to tell him, via email, how to operate on his arm. Yasekov had to lance the abscess with a sterile scalpel, pour iodine into the wound, insert a drain and then dress it.
The operation seemed to go well, but when Yasekov sent another message a few hours later, the news was not good. Now his arm was white and limp and utterly useless. Carlin figured it this way: Yasekov had probably taken a lot of Aspirin to ease the pain in his arm, which had led to profuse bleeding after the operation; then, in trying to staunch the bleeding, he had bound his arm too tightly and cut off the circulation. Carlin was worried that the sailor might now lose his arm. Hetold Yasekov to remove the tourniquet, and Yasekov reported that he had started to get some feeling back in his arm, but it still wasn’t much use. He ended up sailing pretty much one-handed all the way to Capetown.
Daniel Carlin had a different answer when I put the question to him on the radio:
“These people are nuts, right?”
“Yeah.”
He, it turns out, is a fine one to talk. I was curious about whether Yasekov’s arm ever did heal completely and also about whether Dr. Carlin was
Similar Books
