Irony

I awoke with a strange feeling. My head felt fuzzy, and my body hurt. I looked through the smoky air inside the car to try to figure out what was going on. The airbags had deployed, but were now laying limp, with smoke slowly drifting from their holes. I looked all around. Sandra was in the driver's seat, looking just as confused as I was. I found part of my Oakley sunglasses on the dashboard and picked it up. I looked strangely at it, then tossed it aside, realizing I had more pressing issues to deal with. I didn't have a seat belt on. I always wear a seat belt. I never let a car move when I don't have a seat belt on. I knew something was strange. Turning around I expected to see Kathy and Tawfer in the back seats. To my surprise, they were not there. Even though my head hurt and I knew I wasn't thinking clearly on the verge of shock and panic, I knew they were supposed to be in the car. The last thing I remember was sitting in the front seat of the car with Sandra waiting for Tawfer and Kathy to catch up with us and get into the car. There was no reason they wouldn't be in the car. No windows were broken, but the windshield was badly dented from where my head hit the window. I looked at my cell phone. It was 2:45 am, and at 2:04 am I had a text message from Tawfer - "Where the f are you?" Why I looked at my phone at this time, I have no idea.

I fought panic and shock and tried to keep a rational mind, but they started to get the best of me and all I wanted to do was get out of the car. The metal on my door was mangled and wouldn't open. I tried the window, it was jammed too. Looking to my left, I saw that the driver's door was open. I told Sandra to climb out of the car, and I climbed over the center console and out of the driver's door of the car, falling on to the road. I crawled over to the sidewalk and sat down. I wanted to assess the situation, make decisions and start to clean up. I tried to muster everything I had, but my brain and body simply weren't working right.

The flashing lights appeared from down the road, and approached us with great speed. I found out later that we had crashed a block from the police station. Lucky us. The next thing I remember was being man handled by a group of police men and firemen as they strapped me into a backboard. They lifted me up, and into the ambulance I went. I kept trying to help my rescuers, I have never been on this side of an accident. The ambulance attendant tried to give me an IV, and after three tries he finally got it in.

I was driven to the hospital and put in the trauma unit. Nurses and doctors scurried around me, sticking needles in me, re-running IVs on both my arms and moving me around. They cut my shirt off, it was one of my favorites. A large male pulled my pants and boxers down as I was strapped to the backboard and surrounded by people. I exclaimed how things were getting exciting, but he asked me why my pants were all wet. I had to confess I was at a pool party all day. A police officer came in and introduced himself as Officer Weed. I told him he had an ironic name for a police officer. He wasn't amused.

Once I was stabilized, the doctor asked me if I wanted my girlfriend to come in to visit. I don't have a girlfriend, but I guess when your alone in a car with a cute Peruvian at 2am, they assume you're dating. When she came in, we tried to figure our what had happened. I asked her why we didn't have Tawfer and Kathy in the car, and why we were almost to her house, rather than Kathy's house like we planned. All she remembers is being in the front seat of the car talking to me while we were waiting for Tawfer and Kathy. Great. So we both don't remember why we were driving, why we left half our group, or why we were heading towards the wrong house.

A full body X-ray, full body CT scan, MRI, two bags of saline and some morphine later, they found out that I had a stressed ligament in my C4 vertebrae. In the accident my head had hit the windshield and took most of the force of my body because I didn't have a seat belt on. We could only come up with one possible scenario as to what happened between the parking lot and the telephone pole. We were talking in the car without seat belts on, waiting for Tawfer and Kathy. We both fell asleep. I remained asleep while Sandra "sleep drove" us towards her house, until she made a sleep driving mistake (whatever that is) and hit a pole.

I have a neck brace that I have to wear for 10 days, then I have to go see a neurologist. Our plan was to sail to Martha's Vinyard on Wednesday on an 80 foot racing yacht, Kialoa V, which was the fastest boat in the world in the early 90s. Obviously, I can't sail with my condition.

After getting on a decrepit boat with a crazy captain, braving the Bermuda triangle through gale force winds and thunder squalls, being stranded in Bermuda, climbing sharp volcanic ocean rocks and diving from the top and sailing over to long island, it is kind of ironic that the place I get hurt is in a car accident 2 hours from home. Even further back, the plan was to sail to Europe this summer. But really, I flew away from home, then sailed back. Kind of funny the way life works. Regardless, I wanted an experience and an experience was what I got. Unfortunately, my part of this adventure will be ending in a few days after I go back to Greenport, Long Island to collect my belongings and go home. Tawfer isn't sure what he is going to do, but you can keep checking here to find out if he plans on continuing this adventure.

I want to say to everyone thanks so much for following us and the comments. It was really fun telling you the stories and sharing the pictures, and I hope you enjoyed them. There are prospects of another attempt to cross the Atlantic by sailboat in May of 2010. If it happens, we will be sure to continue this site and blog then. We'll let you know.