Update!   Friday, 17/01/2025

I start this post with very belated good wishes for the New Year – and an apology for the fact that I haven’t written anything for some time. 

I’ve been busy socialising and doing a few practical things, without very much to report. In addition, I have been seeking medical advice for a couple of serious lesions which appeared on each side of my head. I visited a dermatologist and on Monday morning biopsies were performed. I received the results this morning: as I suspected, basal cell cancer. This is the most common type of skin cancer and is generally very slow moving. However, mine is of the Infiltrative sort, which penetrates deeper and is more aggressive. This means that surgery to remove it is necessary. This will be performed by a plastic surgeon who specialises in such things. Apparently the procedure is generally successful, although one is then advised to have a screen every year because of the risk of the cancer returning. 

Needless to say, this was not the sort of news that I wished to receive. In fact I was dragging my feet about getting medical advice (I suppose it’s pretty common to not want bad news, especially when you suspect that it will not be good news!) – and thanks must go to my friend John who broached the subject. In response, I freely admitted that I was delaying because I was apprehensive, and that such an approach was not very intelligent of me. The following morning I phoned a dermatologist and got an early appointment. At least now I know that I am doing whatever I possibly can, which is a relief of sorts. Hopefully it all will turn out fine.

I had planned to be sailing down the South African coast next week, but all this has obviously delayed me. Until I know exactly what it is to happen, it is difficult to make clear plans.

Taking a step back from my immediate situation, it seems that my round-the-world voyage is getting an additional dimension… Once again, something that cannot be anticipated, but which needs to be dealt with and overcome. With reasonable luck, the present problem will hopefully turn out to be just another short term setback. Of which I’ve had many, so I’m pretty used to it.

On a happier note, one thing I did do was to visit Peter Froude, the author of the two books on whaling which I mentioned in my last post. As he has self-published, his email address was recorded in the books. I emailed him, explaining who my father was, and received a lovely reply: he knew my father well, having met him on Jahre’s Kosmos 3 Antarctic expedition in 1960. I arranged to visit his home 50 kilometres (30 miles) up the north coast in Ballito. Peter, his wife Jeanette and I had a three hour chat, which I think was informative for all. It was certainly a very enjoyable morning.

One thing I did learn that I hadn’t known, was that in the early 1970s one whale catcher continued to operate for a few weeks after the end of the Durban whaling season in September. It was chartered by the U.K.’s National Institute of Oceanography and sailed a large loop in the Indian Ocean, conducting research into whales and other matters. My father served as first officer a couple of times and then as captain. Apparently the NIO people specifically asked for him as captain because of the effort he made and the active interest he showed in their work. Peter sailed on these expeditions a couple of times and said that was when he had got to know my father well. Both my sister and I find this information very interesting. We were kids at the time and had no idea of what our father got up to – and he wasn’t the communicative type! It’s likely that even my mother had only the vaguest idea. It’s good to have our knowledge of our father filled out in this way. Peter remembers things very clearly, and as a scientist is very much on top of the facts. At 86, he’s in good health and has not lost his enthusiasm for the world. He has recently published a third book, a copy of which he kindly gave me.

Aside from that, we’ve had strange weather here in Durban. A couple of days ago, the temperature didn’t get above 22 degrees during the day, and then fell to 17 at night. Not normal at all for high summer in Durban, when the temperature generally does not go below 20 degrees. This followed an extremely hot day, when it hit 37 degrees at Durban airport (my weather app was showing 39 degrees here in Westville). According to the weather information on Wikipedia the record high for January is 37 degrees. Durban’s temperature is normally within a much smaller range: an average daily maximum of 28 and minimum of 21 for January – after all, at 29’53 South, this is very much a sub-tropical city.

I shall report how things develop over the next few days.