Windlass Vs Thumb Windlass 1 Thumb 0

Saturday April 19th 3:30 PM Hugo Time. Polamar is also known by cruisers as Rollamar. This is due to the waves sneaking around the point and making the anchorage Very rolly. To fix this I use a line hanked onto the anchor rode and fed through the portside winch to turn the boat into the waves. This cuts down the wind coming down the hatch....meaning HOT. So when the waves are not bad, I let this line out so the boat can aim into the wind. Long story short...I was up on the foredeck, hand on the windlass switch bringing in some chain...hand slips, thumb gets caught in the windlass. OUCH...rips the thumb nail almost all the way off from back to front. Yep, lots of blood...Was going to just tape it up tight. After a few bandage changes and some urging from Joyce, decided to head in and go to the emergency room. Upon arrival at the ER we walked into a dingy room with 40-50 people...doors into the clinic area were barred and guarded. Joyce was able to get this lady's attention...she...she took one look at my oozing blood and leads us through the barred door down some filthy halls to this room...we stood there for about 5 min...Joyce gets the attention of a nurse...she get this other younger...more professional lady.....she takes the blood soaked bandage off of the thumb...then puts on some gloves and starts to putz with the almost detached nail...ouch...

The room looks like the restroom of a country garage....lying on a stretcher on the other side of the room (actually not more than 3 feet from me) was an old lady...looked like she waiting to die. It was perhaps her daughter that was getting entertainment watching my dolar (pain) as well. They usher me into a chair..lady gets out a needle and proceeds to stick my thumb with novacane...ouch...especially when she sticks the needle under the nail in several places...hurt more than the windlass.
Of course they wanted to know how this Gringo ripped his nail off...since it was with rusty chain...yep a tetneaus shot....by this time everyone was having a good time...except the patient...you see those 2 water bottles on the cart...one is bedadyne....the other peroxide. As she is stitching the nail back onto my thumb (four stitches), I continue to bleed on the cart..the bottle of novacane you see on the table...and the dirty floor. When finished she takes the water bottle with the peroxide, holds my hand over the trash can and proceeds to clean up the blood.
On goes a guaze and some tape....fini...Joyce asked who we pay....no charge....no paperwork, no taking of my name...just gave me script for antibiotics and pain pills and out we go...
My thoughts...If a Gringo comes into the ER...they go to the front of the line...get taken care of quickly...at no charge....I'm sure this is Hugo's way of showing the world how efficient his health care system is.