Squishy

"'I shall call you Squishy, and you shall be mine. You shall be my squishy.'
'No, Dory! That's a jellyfish!!'"
--Finding Nemo

The squishy I found was not as funny as in Finding Nemo. Well, I didn't find the squishy but it definitely found me.

It wasn't even a jellyfish; it was a Portugese Man'o'War.

I woke up all fired up to be active and decided to go for a swim and roped Ben into swimming with me to say good morning to Osprey. The swim over was great--the current was with us so the 25 yards or so went by in a flash. We had a good chat with them about heading to the Tuamotus when the weather looked good (which at the time was the next day) and what we had to do to get ready (forage more coconuts! More limes! More mangoes!).

While we were swimming back I felt Ben pinch me and turned to the right to fuss at him, then realized he was swimming on the other side of me about 15 feet away so I turned to yell something at him on the left. It was really lucky that I turned to the left because the initial pinch was the end of a tentacle: if I had been facing the man'o'war when it hit me it would have been BAD.

Getting hit with those tentacles is terrifying. It feels like you're being attacked by an entire swarm of wasps. I yeled for Ben to come untangle me--in the process HE got tangled up in the tentacles. He was a trooper about getting stung even with how itchy and painful it was. My usual reaction to bad situations is to freeze up, which prevented me from getting TOO wrapped up in Squishy, but it wouldn't have been good to stay frozen since I still had to get back to the boat.

Rob and Bri witnessed my encounter with Squishy and were ready by the time I got back to the boat. Rob was scared that I might go into shock and stop breathing because the tentacles were wrapped around my right arm, in the armpit and up over my shoulder and around my neck/throat. Before getting in the dinghy Ben picked the body and tentacles out of my hair so when we washed off I wouldn't get re-wrapped.

Bri has been stung in the past by these suckers, so she had the cure all ready to go: boiling water and baking soda. If you ever get stung by a man'o'war you want hot compresses: as HOT as you can stand. Then rub the stings with baking soda. Alternate these two things until you begin to feel better. It's also a good idea to pop a Benedryl and do saltwater rinses. Be careful not to scoop up more man'o'wars with the buckets of salt water since they tend to drift in groups.

All in all it wasn't that bad of an experience. It wasn't painful after the first two hours, just a little itchy and stingy that evening. The marks of where it was wrapped around me went away in about 2 weeks, and it did give me a little bit of fear of swimming--it's amazing how many bubbles are floating on the surface of the water that kind of look like man'o'wars but aren't. (That fear went away in the Tuamotus where the water was gorgeously clear.)

Tomorrow we set sail for the Tuamotus! It's about a 5 day sail but we might be able to do it in 4 with good wind.