Tuesday 4 August 7:59 PM, (Lamen Bay, Epi Island) – Note new photos added to Tour 3 Northern Islands Gallery – admin
The overnight sail out of Santo last night took us past Million Dollar Point at the start of the channel into Luganville. Along the shore line, in the distance, we could make out a group of divers ready to go into the water. And who should be amongst them but Chris. We looked through the binoculars and sure enough, that was Chris, bounding up and down in our general direction. Worthy of three blasts on our air horn!! We’d said our farewells just an hour before and so it was good to be able to see each other again. I think I saw him taking a few photos from the shore, so you may see one of them on the website before long.
We sailed through the night and unfortunately had to do quite a few tacks, with the wind and the sea on the nose. The easterly change came through just as we arrived at our stop over spot here at Lamen Bay on Epi Island.
We now plan to get away early tomorrow, arriving at Havannah Harbour, on the north side of Efate Island, before making the short hop around into Pt Vila Thursday morning.
I received an email from Graeme Duke yesterday and I thought I’d share some of the stats he has been able to deduce from the northern tour of duty …
Oh, before we get medical, here are the final cricket results:
Richard‘s team won a close match by just 18 runs and he ‘won’, at least in our minds, ‘man of the match’, with 35 runs and 3 wickets, including 2 in two balls! We clapped and cheered and whistled and wildly celebrated from the stand. Later we were informed than one of the Vanuatu selectors was also watching the game and wanted to know from Richard who on earth were the one-eyed supporters in the Stand.
Final Team 4 results
With the help of Mike (our multi talented MSM Health Information Manager) I have made the following calculations, for those who like stats
1. Patients seen
626 patient seen in 15 clinics across Banks & Torres. Plus 242 school children screened = 869 total patients. Don says this is more than expected.
2. The estimated prevalence rates were:
Hypertension 18%
Confirmed or suspected diabetes 12%
This is worrying but useful information.
3. Referral rates
10% overall, including
Eye surgery 6%
Other surgery: 2%
Other referrals for specialist care 2%
And 20% need follow-up or review when the Team returns in 2-3yrs.
Finally, and not to be “outdone”, we had 3 unwell out of 15 team members = 20% incidence of illness or injury! The good news is that all recovered.
Dr Graeme Duke
Many thanks Graeme.
Smooth Sea, Fair breeze and away by 05:00!!
Rob