Update On Dorland’s Condition

We’ve been given the following update on the condition of Greg Dorland of the Lake Tahoe-based Catana 52 Escapade, who readers may remember from his participation in the last two Ha-Ha’s:

"Latitude got the news about my leg before it was even operated on! Here’s the story: Every person who gets on my catamaran hears my spiel about how heavily loaded things get. Well, we were about 10 miles from Annapolis, broad reaching with the main and genoa, when we changed course to a close reach to avoid some lightning. Steering from the leeward side, I saw a huge puff or micro burst headed right at us, so I jumped down to release the genoa sheet, which was really loaded up, and it spun out of my control. Unfortunately, when it spun out of control, the sheet wrapped around my leg, snapping it in two. It was a compound fracture and I was bleeding.

"My wife Debbie was able to get the sails down, call the Coast Guard, and give me some pain pills — which had zero effect. The Coast Guard arrived with a couple of very inexperiened  medical people who wanted to make a splint out of an orange life vest. No way! My leg really hurt. Annapolis Fire Boat #35 then showed up with some real paramedics, who gave me some morphine, strapped me down to a backboard, then transferred me to the fire boat. Thank you, thank you!

"But the situation was far from over. The Coasties hadn’t noticed that we had drifted into the shipping lane and were about to be run down by a tanker. The guys on the fireboat were scared, so they quickly got away from Escapade. That left Debbie and the two Coasties on the cat, about to get run down. In the end, the tanker missed them by a reported 25 yards. It was a close call. There was a Coast Guard boat standing by the whole time, so I don’t know why they weren’t more aware that a dangerous situation had developed.

"Once Debbie started our one good engine — all the Volvo dealer’s have been out of stock of a common but critical part — the Coast Guard left her to her own devices. She had to continue on to Annapolis, a strange port for her, with one motor, and then anchor with one motor. Fortunately, Kristen and Bob Beltarano, having heard our distress call, called Debbie on her cell phone, and gave her the number of a friend in Annapolis who could talk her into an anchorage. I have a leg full of metal and pain, but what about Debbie’s day!"

What about it, indeed!

By the way, Latitude received an email from an individual in the Annapolis area who read about Greg’s injury and has offered all kinds of help, from housing to cars and whatever. A tip of the Latitude hat to this gentleman, who is also named Greg.

Dorland is far from the first experienced sailor to get his leg wrapped in a line with bone crushing results. A few years ago, Bob Smith of the custom 44 cat Pantera from Victoria, got his ankle caught in an anchor line, which, with the help of the currents in La Paz, snapped some bones. So please be careful out there.