Thursday, March 29, 2012
John B. Pinto
OSN Practice Management Section Editor John B. Pinto has launched "Voyage to EHR," a new project sponsored by Compulink Business Systems and Ocular Surgery News. This project will culminate in John's month-long solo sail from San Diego to Honolulu aboard the 24-foot Aurelia starting May 6. John's practice management blogs will resume in July. John's voyage is meant to raise awareness of the similar "expedition" surgeons undertake when converting to electronic health records and will also support the work of the Hawaiian Eye Foundation.
To learn more about the foundation's work and to make a donation supporting its eye care and surgical training services throughout the Pacific, please go to www.hawaiianeyefoundation.org.My sail to Hawaii is timed to begin and end in the bright light of a full moon. This will be a real advantage at the start of the trip, when there are lots of rigging and boat management issues to resolve throughout the first few nights - and an even greater advantage after about 30 days at sea, when I'll be a bit wooly from sleep deprivation and am surfing the channel between Molokai and Oahu.
In Aurelia's galley (kitchen), it's "welcome to the 19th century." There is no room for refrigeration on a 24-foot boat. And after the first 72 hours, even the dry ice and ice blocks in the cooler are gone. Veggies - with the exception of onions, garlic and cabbage - last a couple of days in the summer heat. Fruit lasts about a week (if you buy really green bananas).
The last time I sailed to Hawaii, 14 years ago, we ate about 400 granola bars, 200 packages of freeze-dried food, 90 multivitamin tablets and three salamis. Oh, and a couple of packs of highly rationed M&M's, which, because of a slight miscalculation on the skipper's part, became as valuable at sea as cigarettes in prison. Food fantasies started about day 8 and didn't end until we hit Honolulu after a month at sea. I could go on for hours about how terrific it was to eat the first fresh salad and drink that first cold beer.
Unfortunately, little has changed in 14 years. Freeze-dried and canned food processing has improved a bit. Aurelia has a better-insulated ice chest (I may get a couple of extra hours of cold drinks). So, my arrival in Honolulu, around the first week of June, is going to be a grand thing.
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