Simon, Sienna, my father-in-law and I just recorded a video message for you. We filmed it on the water across from Portsmouth, UK located at the bottom of England (where Simon’s dad lives). Watch it below.
Our decision to spend Christmas in the UK was not planned! If you haven’t been following our posts for the last couple weeks, we flew to London to take care of a medical issue that scared the crud out of us while anchored off a deserted island. To get the full scoop read, ‘Medical Emergency On A Deserted Island.’ There’s also a short video from Simon. (More below our festive video below…)
Merry Christmas from Sailing Britican Video
The quick story…my heart started to race at 233 beats per minute and wouldn’t stop.
After five days in a Grenada hospital, the doctors asked me to fly to London to get thing sorted…
I was eventually diagnosed with Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT).
It’s an issue where the electrics of your heart fire incorrectly. It’s an irregular heartbeat that doesn’t pop back to normal without help.
To make a long dramatic story short, it’s not at all life treating.
Millions of people have this condition and I’m now armed with techniques to slow the heartbeat back down (if it happens again). I can blow on my finger, pinch my nose and try to blow it, suck on an ice cube, squat down like I’m going to the toilet or have Simon massage the veins on the side of my neck. Failing that, I have a bunch of beta-blockers (little pills) that should do the trick.
If it starts happening too often, I can get an ablation which is a very quick procedure that zaps the specific electrics in my heart causing the issue.
What causes it? No one knows.
It could be caffeine, chocolate, alcohol (all the good stuff) and, of course, it could be stress. In my last article, Time To Stop Living The Dream? I mentioned that I think stress might be the culprit. It’s the weekly video’s I put out that cause me the most anxiety. Errrrr, it’s not the videos but the fact that so much time and effort goes into them without an adaquate financial return.
I’m not sure what I’m going to do going forward regarding the videos but no matter what, I will always post a helpful liveaboard lifestyle weekly article. I love to write and share our learning curve with others – nothing is going to stop that 
Please let me take the opportunity to Thank you for joining us on our journey in 2018. We have some exciting things coming up in 2019 so please stick with us.
Funny Faces from Sailing Britican
Merry Christmas.
Rick
A belated Merry Christmas to you too Rick
So glad you are well and having a wonderful time in the UK with family and friends. Like your dad said: many more!!
Yes Hans! Many more
Happy new year!
Great news about your heart condition, lucky to have each other to lean on. Stay healthy and look forward to more updates.
Thank you Richard. Happy New Year
Merry Xmas & Happy New Year – Best Wishes for 2019
Don & Linda Gibbs
You too Don & Linda!
Thank you guys for a lovely christmas present .
Knowing that your heart scare is behind you and you are all looking so cheery i am so pleased for you .
Happy New Year
from Helen in Glasgow
Thank you Helen. Happy New Year!
Phewwww!!
Hurrayy!!!
Very glad to listen to these news!
May the life journey continue without other nasty surprises of this or other kind!
Merry Christmas ++ !!
Thank you so much Michalis. Happy New Year
Been following you guys. So glad you are ok and so glad you guys get to celebrate Christmas in the UK. We are praying blessing on you all.
Mike
Thank you Mike. Big love!
Pleased you are looking better down at Haslar and that all improves for New Year
Thank you Sirocco
I’m sure 2019 is going to be awesome. Happy New Year to you 
Hi
Merry Christmas to you all
I have numerous times out of Gosport so wish you happy sailing from there
Re the fast heart beat, I suffered from this in my early forties brought on my stress from doing too much and stress in both career and domestic situation, and too much strong coffe and cigars
I now drink a fabulous de caff coffe called Wild bean, it’s stocked by Sainsbury’s stores
Bon voyage folks
Richard
Richard, I will go grab some Wild Bean and give it a go. I’m feeling much better now and changing my habits in a way to be more relaxed. Woo Woo! Happy New Year. Kim
Merry Christmas to the Britican gang. I am pleased to hear the good news regarding your health. All the best for 2019. Here’s sucking on an ice cube.
Howard
Hehehehe. Thank you Howard. Happy New Year
I wish You a Merry Christmas & Lovely Happy New Year, 2019
You too Sever. Happy New Year!
Merry Christmas and so glad to hear you are okay. I have recently started following you. Within a year or two I hope to see you down south. In the mean time, stay safe and follow your dreams.
Patricia
Toronto ON
See you on the sea soon Patricia. Happy New Year!
Hi Kim and family, so glad that you have found out that this is not life threatening and it can be controlled. Your channel was one of the first I came across when we starting to get a feel for going cruising and retiring from the rat race. You have provided such inspiration for me and my wife and we will be doing a week long trip here in Australia so we can get a better feel for “The Life Ahead” in the next month. Already looking at yachts that have the right combination of size, space and amenities to ensure that we don’t go out of the frying pan into the fire if we do decide to make the leap.
Your information is most helpful, I know that the videos must be an absolute pain to make and edit and hopefully you can continue, abet on a more infrequent basis, to make your wonderful videos and share your adventures with the rest of us.
We wish you the happiest holiday season and a wonderful (and healthy) New Year, keep the faith and may you always have fair winds and following seas.
Thank you so much for your kind words Mark. I will most certainly keep making videos but I might make them less often…or perhaps create smaller videos. No matter what I will keep providing information to help people that want to live the liveaboard life. I love doing it. Happy new year and we’ll see you out sailing soon
Hi Kim,
My husband also has bouts of SVT, although his episodes never lasted as long as yours did. It’s scary, for sure, but he manages it with beta blockers and it is much better. Leaving his stressful job helped a great deal, so your isolating stress as a possible cause makes sense.
I love reading your blog…I have just started one of my own as I transition into life “post-career”…some folks call it retirement, but though I am no longer in my classroom, I’m sure not slowing down! Anyway, your work has been a great model and inspiration of what can be done. Plus, I just plain enjoy reading about your sailing.
Thank you Nancy! I appreciate your feedback and I like your term ‘post-career’. And good job on starting your own blog – blogging can be such a source of creativity and community. You might be surprised where it takes you. Best wishes with it
And as for the SVT and stress…I have a feeling that most conditions are brought on by stress. Lucky for me the universe tells me so in ways that aren’t too bad – eh?! I’ve been rearranging my habits over the last couple weeks and making some new life choices. I should be good for another five to ten years before the universe has to remind me again. Hehehehe. Thank you for commenting.