Unplanned Bizz-ness

Last week our much loved weimerarner, the Big Bizz, developed life threatening ‘bloat’ (and gastric torsion) and underwent late night emergency surgery at the U of Q veterinary hospital. Although at first it seemed unlikely that he would survive he is recovering quite well (wants to eat a little, waggles his tail etc). Consequently we have changed our plans so that we can get home to look after him after he comes out of hospital. We escaped Bowen as soon as we could which was last Friday and overnighted at Cape Gloucester. Saturday we belted into a S/SE wind blowing at 15-20 knots and had wind against tide for 4 hours of the trip before the turn. Most uncomfortable but it got us down to Shaw Island. The wind on Sunday was still ‘on the nose’ but only blowing from the south no more than about 10 knots so we covered the last 40 nautical miles to MacKay quite comfortably although without a depth instrument as it had ‘died’ overnight. Our plan at this time is to leave “Raven” at the Mackay Marina for a month, and all being well resume our trip when Bizzie is back on his paws again.

Let me add an enormous thanks to Nicole and Hassan because without their quick action, late at night and in the rain, Big Bizz would have died.