TROUBLE with My Ear

May 14th. This morning as I was taking a shower I noticed there was something wrong with my left ear...I had difficulty hearing. At first I thought I got water in my ear so I tilted my head and tapped on my head to try to get the water out but the tapping sound just echoed inside my head. I cleaned my ear but still no change. I realized I've experience this before. If this was the first time this happened, I would have panicked for certain because being able to hear is very important for the blind. My ear canal curves deep inside my ear so it's difficult to clean out. I have to go to an ear, nose and throat doctor to get my ear cleaned so I decided to go to the ear, nose and throat after practice.
When I got to Hokko Yacht Harbor the weather was beautiful the wind was really nice. It reminded me of the weather in San Diego. Today, we had a reporter and cameraman from Yomiuri newspaper who does articles for a section in the paper called Pop Style on board with us. They could only stay for a certain amount of time so we returned to port in about 2 hours. The sailing felt great. But on the way back the cameraman got a little seasick so I think it was a little rough for him. In the afternoon, we tried to set up the sea anchor like we saw in the video. Sea anchors are something we use to protect the yacht when the weather gets as rough as a typhoon. Once the approximately 3 meter wide parachute opens up, the water resistance keeps the yacht in one direction. I just hope we never run into a situation where we will have to use the sea anchor. But mother nature is a formidable opponent so there is no telling what will happen. We are training to be prepared for worst case scenarios. As soon as practice was over I went to the ear, nose and throat doctor's and got my ear cleaned. They put something to loosen up the ear wax in my ear and after a while they removed the ear wax and I was able to hear as usual. I was so relieved. If I can't hear in one of my ears, it's difficult for me to determine the direction and distance I'm hearing the sound from. I end up moving slower. I'm glad the symptoms showed now, before we headed out to San Diego. I have to remember to be mindful of my physical state as I do my best at practice.

Originally posted byHiro in Japanese on 5/16/2013
Translated by SWIS Project