On Monday, 28 Nov, at 10 AM, Gentle Wind left the visiteur's dock at the Port Moselle Marina (Noumea, New Caledonia). The first stop was the fuel dock where we took on 4,000 liters at approximately US$0.70/liter, or US$2.65/gallon. This it the duty-free price; retail price is over US$1.00/liter!) After fuel, our next stop is Manly Marina near Brisbane, Australia, where we will check in before our final leg south to the city of Gold Coast. A nice berth is waiting for us there at the Hope Harbour Marina. Our weather window looks perfect all week, which is a good thing. Even though we finally figured out the root problem with the Naiad stabilizers, the local folks who were supposed to fix the leaking O-ring never showed up. So we're running with just one of the fins working - the other side is in a bypass mode. This suppresses rolling about 60% as well as with both fins running. At least we solved the oil cooling problem! Other than the stabilizers, the boat is holding up well with no other failures. Oh, wait, there is one other problem! It seems that whenever we're taking water or spray over the bow, water is intruding somewhere and traveling along inside the boat before finally becoming visible along the central companionway overhead and the outside wall of the port-side cabin. We have no idea where the water is coming from or what path it is taking to reach its exit point. <fast-forward to Tuesday evening> Oh dear! Now that we've got our mechanical problems taken care of, we've got a medical issue. Seems that yours truly may be having another heart attack. I've been relieved of my watch, and sent to bed with absolutely no exercise being allowed, but there's not much else to be done. We're 300+ miles from New Caledonia and almost 500 miles from Brisbane neither of which allows for intervention from shore-based facilities. Skipper has been in contact with Australian medical folks, and they've adjusted dosage on some of the meds I've been taking since my earlier heart attack (on the dock in Monterrey, California). Otherwise, I've just got to survive on my own until we get close enough where more can be done. As of Wednesday, the chest discomfort has subsided, but there are still occassional twinges. Still debating on whether or not I should be evacuated by helicopter. I'm leaning in that direction.... <time passes, I don't :) > It's now Thursday morning, and the situation has changed little since last evening. I still get occassional chest pains, and I'm going to request the skipper to make the helicopter arrangements. It will only reduce response time by about 12 hours, but after having gone nearly 48 hours, I want to get this looked at. At 12:00 noon, the chopper finally appears out of the sky and they drop a doctor into our cockpit. After fitting me with a harness, we're lifted out and up to the chopper. A short 90-minute flight later and we're on the landing pad at Princess Alexandra Hopsital in Brisbane. Later on, one of the emergency department people walks up to meet "the person that was on the radio news report" earlier! Not exactly the way in which I'd like to become famous. By Friday morning, they've completed all sorts of tests and have finally concluded that I dod NOT have a second heart attack. They're still not sure what was causing the chest pains, but EKG and enzyme tests all show nothing out of the ordinary. I definitely feel better. And by this time, the crew has managed to get the boat into port at Manly Marina and completed all formalities. Finally, on Saturday, the boat gets taken (by the crew) south to Gold Coast while I finish checking myself out of hospital. Gentle Wind is now listed for sale by a local brokerage, and I'm working on organizing clean-up and repairs to the various systems. (As I told the broker, "we've just come across a big ocean, and she's showing a bit of wear and tear.") Once we get things under control here, Gilbert and I will head home and start reconstructing our land- based life.