(Warning: The following post includes personal health content that may be too much information for some readers. And it includes the “p” word — the one that starts with “pro”, ends with “ate”, and includes “st” in the middle.)

In our cruising adventures, we have now successfully circumnavigated the Sun — it’s been one year since we started. And we find we enjoy it. Gardyloo is cosy and comfortable. We don’t (usually) drive each other crazy being in such continual close proximity. The view from the back porch is always pretty, and changes periodically. We’ve seen parts of the world we had never seen before. And the future holds open-ended possibilities.

Our plan had been to return to Mexico in November, spend the Winter there, and then continue onward to the South Pacific in the Spring. However, life is change and cruising is life, so our plans are changing.

As some of you know, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer a couple years ago. I had surgery that removed the prostate entirely. Since then, we have monitored the PSA level, which indicates if prostate cells are growing anywhere in my body — even if prostate cancer spreads to other parts of the body, it’s still prostate cells, and thus still affects the PSA level.

Recently, the PSA level has risen, which means they didn’t get all of the cancer cells. The big question is whether they simply missed some in the prostate area, or if the cancer has metastasized and spread elsewhere. At this stage, it’s impossible to tell.

In the hope that it’s still local, I will be having radiation therapy, that will kill everything in the local area where the prostate was. It may remove the remainder of the cancer cells, and I’ll be “cured” (like a ham). If it has spread, there’s no cure, just ways to slow the growth down.

Note that for the time being, there are no symptoms from the cancer. No pain, no loss of function. Just a rising PSA score, a number on a test result. The treatments do have side effects, but they’re more annoying than debilitating.

The radiation therapy requires a couple months of treatment, plus another month of recovery time. Given this big time commitment, and given that the boat is already back in the US in San Diego, we’ve decided to bring the boat up to San Francisco, where there’s a marina within walking distance of the treatment center.

So we’ll continue cruising, just closer to home.

We hope to continue our longer distance cruising next year and to get back on track to the South Pacific in the Spring. However, it’s equally possible that we may decide to put back the Pacific crossing a year, and take our time going back South and spend more time in Mexico before crossing.

Stay tuned for future updates.

(Note: If you’re getting this by blog email, you can’t just reply to it (sorry, out of my control). So instead email to me and/or Suzana.)