The Adventures of the Vessel Condesa

Clark March 20th, 2008

Nicaragua has been great, surf-wise, but it’s time to cover some miles. I said goodbye to Nick. Nick has a 4WD and I have a boat, and together we covered the surf spots of southern Nicaragua like nobody else on the coast, and all during a 4-6 foot swell.

I started to cover the miles and noticed I wasn’t making normal progress. The bottom paint is shot after about 8000 miles, some of it through ice, and the hull was a living reef…and it had only been ten days since the last scraping in Tamarindo. These are fertile waters along the coast, and the growth comes fast.

I ducked into a bight in the coast yesterday morning, donned my snorkeling gear, and jumped in, scraper in hand. I did the propeller first, as I always do, and felt pronounced stinging all over my body. Often there are some stingers in the water, especially surfing, and I just deal with it. I’m usually more concerned with the biting things.

I went on with the scraping of the whole bottom of Condesa, about a two-hour job, and I was getting stung like hell. But the job had to be done and the pain was tolerable as long as I kept my mind on the task at hand. I’d only stop when I could see a tentacle wrapped my face to pull it off. They might have been stray Portuguese man-o-war tentacles as there are a lot of those around. Whatever they were, they contained the projectile nematocysts that these stinging invertebrates use for defense or killing food. (I learned this after reading the Merck Manual and Dr. David Eastman’s First Aid Afloat later on.)

I toughed it out until the end and then got the hell out of the water and tore all the gear off. The minute I hit the air the stinging got much worse. The salt water had somewhat of a cooling effect on the stings and once I was out the pain was pronounced. I ran for the deck shower to wash it all off…a very bad idea.

As it turns out, according to the Merck Manual and First Aid Afloat, fresh water will cause the nematocysts to fire and only salt water should be used for removing the stingers. Silly me, I thought the sea water would just have more stingers in it.

Shower of fire! Fire! The pain was debilitating, especially on my face. It was like the razor burn of all razor burns. I started feeling woozy and puked over the side. I knew where this might be going and dived for the medical kit, which contains an Epi-Pen. If I started having trouble breathing I’d Pulp Fiction myself.

I remembered that alcohol was good for such stings, and I doused myself with a bottle of rubbing alcohol. This brought some immediate relief, enough to get into the books and see what the hell to do. The alcohol was the right thing, as would be vinegar, baking soda, or basically anything to change the PH of the skin. After that it was hot water compresses, and then they said to cover my body with a baking soda paste, then scrape it off with a dull knife. I didn’t have that much baking soda, so I forwent the knife-scraping. The hot water seemed to neutralize the poison, at least to where I didn’t feel sick anymore.

I should have done the scraping. I took another fresh water shower that night and it was shower of fire all over again. I guess the nematocysts attach and wait for their trigger, and in those that haven’t yet fired the poison stays intact, even after the hot water and alcohol.
The books predicted I would have oozing pustules all over my body, and they were right. Today I have nasty little blisters everywhere, or oozing pustules if you prefer, but thankfully my face was spared, which is odd since that’s what hurt worst. Oozing pustules are so in for Easter.

So now I’m in Marina Puesta El Sol, in Northern Nicaragua, which will be my last stop in this fine country. Haven’t decided if I’ll charge all the way to Mexico, or stop in El Salvador.

Hmm, this Nicaraguan Internet cafe doesn’t seem to want to let me upload photos…next time.

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