Dijon Port
After Terry had been settled for a couple of days it was time to do then engine chores. This involves opening up the big hatch in the floor of the salon to get to the 6.2L diesel monster below. Terry surfaced earlier than expected an I shuffled around the open hatch to make coffee as she went halfway up the stairs to put Rosie up and then came down backwards and slipped in to the open engine bay. i heard the thump and the call and came around to see her sprawled on her back with a large deep gash above her right eye, about 2cm wide and pooled with blood. She was talking but it looked bad. I went up the steps and called for help and for someone to call an ambulance. Jennifer, an Aussie nurse from three boats down was on board immediately, talking to Terry and quickly establishing that she was mentally OK and that it looked like it was not too severe. This was an immeasurable help to me as I was able to calm down and deal with the events that had been set in motion.
Within about 5 minutes the sirens arrived with the ambulance and paramedics and we had about 8 people crowded into our, now very warm, salon. They checked the vital signs and got her on a drip. Then wrapped her up like a mummy because of the risk of neck or back damage. This presented another problem as we were parked nose in and getting the mummified Terry up the narrow stairs and along side the narrow passage to the bow of the boat was a problem they didn’t like so I started the boat up and moved it to the long pontoon so they would be able to get her over the side. They all seemed to enjoy the ride. By this time I knew Terry would be fine because she was telling me and the French what we should be doing.
At this point French efficiency gave way to bureaucracy: the paramedics aren’t allowed to lift anyone off a boat unless the plungers' (divers) are present in case they drop her in the water. And the divers had to come from Dijon a half an hour away. I don’t know if they could have overridden that if her condition was a lot worse. The divers finally arrived, bringing the total to 15 people and Terry was ceremoniously lifted off the boat onto a gurney, wheeled along the pontoon, loaded into the Ambulance and whisked off to the University Hospital in Dijon where she was stitched up by a plastic surgeon, X-Rayed and checked out thoroughly and back on the boat sore and bruised by 8pm. She has recovered remarkably well and the stitches came out two days ago. It was a scary event and we afterwards found talking to other boaters it’s not that unusual to fall into the engine hole. Carol, two boats down did it two years and had to have two knee surgeries. Were were also extremely lucky that it happened in a marina with others around to help and I had a car to be able to go in and get her later that day.
Five days later with all systems in order we set off up the long straight stretch of the Canal de Bourgogne to the port of Dijon. The weather was cooler and travelling pleasant but when we caught up with the slow moving hotel barge, Jeanine, it was time to stop for the night. We gave them the next morning to get away from us and cruised into Dijon the next afternoon. The port has been improved since last year with free water and electricity and very little traffic. We found a dog groomers next to a laundromat, (how good is that?) and got the dogs looking French and the clothes looking clean.
"Plans” are to potter up the Canal to the top (it is closed on the other side) and back down, but we might be staying a few days more so Terry can visit a Vide-Grenier, a group yard sale, on Sunday.
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