BLUEMOMENT

Finally it all comes together - four days off and a big high pressure, nothing major left to do to the boat, a plan in hand for an extravagantly explorative circumcision of Mull.

Then Tuesday afternoon get up out of chair after a boring meeting and ouch - sharp knee pain.

Next thing I know I am hobbling around in quite a lot of pain and rapidly becoming an expert on knee supports . . . did you know there is an online shop that sells nothing else? Hinged titanium and carbon fibre jobbies can come in at several hundred squid.

Sunday today and I have just managed to climb on and off a friend's boat - on a pontoon - with some difficulty. Assuming no relapses I might be able to get in and out of dinghies with only moderate pain by Thursday, scheduled departure of the Chentleman's Cruise. (Some cheerful soul has told me stormy weather is predicted . . . could it be 4 days in the Culfail Hotel?)

The moral of this tale? Count your blessings, get out there and do stuff while you still can - and take care of all those badly designed bits of your anatomy, knees, backs, ankles etc. It's amazing how losing a bit of mobility really seems to drag you down . . .

Know the feeling - I gave up climbing because of knee and ankle injuries. Still have occasional probs, but find that LASONIL ointment helps in the event of severe pain and limitation of movement.

If it's a soft tissue injury or a sprain, I've found that it works brilliantly.

Its name sounds as though it may be designed for the nether regions (my spelling's not too good, so I won't even attempt it), but haven't tried for that.

Had a similar experience myself about 10 years ago. I had hurt my knee a few days previously (dancing and yes, before you ask, alcohol had been taken) but thought little of it. I was sitting at a table and just happened to press my feet together and bang, agony. It seems that I had torn the cartilage in the dancing incident and it was just waiting for the right (wrong) movement to pop out and jam the works. Keyhole surgery, several weeks to build up the thigh muscle again (it's amazing how quickly it wastes when inactive) and have had no further problems. Haven't attempted to ski since though and don't do a lot of dancing these days either!

All the best for a speedy recovery,

Dave