Abril 1, 2020
We are still in Dominica, same anchorage at Portsmouth. Who would have ever thought the world would have to stop. Almost every country on the planet is in quarantine!!
The COVID-19 still spreading and each country has set in place more and more restrictions. Here in Dominica on April 6th the announcement was to extend the lockdown for another 21 days after April 20. It is shocking to watch the news. I had to stop watching them a bit because it was taking a big toll on my mind.
In theory when a change is imminent you go throughout different stages until you accept the change.
COVID-19 is here and it is a change to all our plans. As it is to a lot of people.
As soon as the restrictions started I moved quickly to denial and plenty fear. People is getting sick every where, I fear for everything, everyone and specially my relatives, the older ones are supposed to be more vulnerable. I couldn’t believe this was happening.
My denial phase was long and very frustrating. After planning this trip for so long and considering many different scenarios where things could go wrong, never really considered a Pandemic. I don’t think anyone did. Just the thought of may be not being able to go to Colombia breaks my heart and brought me straight down to depression phase. But as time passed and we had more time to think about the situation, we realised that things were not that bad. And even though our original plans had to change, we had couple options of how we could adapt.
The denial phase for Cedric was even longer, even thought he has always been practical and optimist I think he took longer on the denial phase, thinking we could probably continue the trip without major trouble. But contrary to me he passed pretty quickly thru the other phases and started to get to the transformation and adaptation right away. Thinking ahead and thinking what do we need to do whichever way we take.
During the curfew and full lockdown, the days go went by and we started kind of a rhythm. From March 26 we started a strict curfew. Full lockdown on weekends and holidays, that means no one is allowed out of the boat. And on weekdays from 6am to 6pm, we are allowed to go on shore only for essentials, groceries shopping, pharmacy and the bank. The couple of supermarkets in town and the pharmacy are open form 8am to 2pm, and they control the amount of people that can get in at once.
The days starts a 8am, when JetLag (Gerard and Brigitte) from Switzerland connect to the radio and share the info in French and Spanish, he tell us the news on the COVID-19 in the island, the weather and also theres is time to ask for help or propose any social activity. We even hosted the radio one day. Someone proposed it was a lot of work for them to do the radio everyday so we will be inviting them and preparing some breakfast. I thought the idea was great and took the opportunity to offer them a nice “arepas” breakfast. (There is also an english original version at 7h30 but it is too early and definitely too serious.)
Radio JetLag transmitting from Happy Days
After the radio and some breakfast, is time to work. As always there is a running list of reparations and maintenance anyone with a boat knows that. So we had enough time to start checking off of list some things.
Following the cables of small white/red lights
At noon is time for lunch, siesta and in the afternoon some sports. Swimming around the boat and even some paddleboard during weekdays. Or relaxing!! Thanks to Marc we have 1000 books on the kindle! And plenty movies and series to watch.
Afternoon starts with “apero” not to loose the french tradition and then it goes into dinner. And to have time to enjoy the sunset
Afterwards is dinner time! Great time to try some new recipes those that take long time of preparation. Curry mahi mahi, ceviche, chicken with spinach in a nice sauce, banana souffle, pizza… and more!
The atmosphere in the anchorage is really nice, everyone is happy to be here. Of course everyone’s plans have been affected in some way. We are only 40 boats, and when I say only is because we heard there are bays in Martinique with 350 boats. Some of the locals are ready to help, by bringing some fruits and vegetables to the boats and also a mini market once a week has been organise where the order is sent the day before. Few others see us like the foreigners who brought the virus.
One boat has organised few social activities. The first one was a disco night. So on a Friday night, everybody got its music, lights and “Share” the party from their own boat. For us, it was really easy to join, crank up the volume and we have some led lights 12volts, that change in 12 colours with strobe, flash and fade settings. So we were set music, lights and dancing!! Later on I learned we could have shared the music in the radio but I didn’t get that. It was fun to see other boats with lights and music all at the same time.
On the following Saturday, the proposed game was to discovered “sounds of a boat”. Everyone was connected on the radio, someone would play a sound and everyone should guess what was the sound, first one to get it will get a point. It was incredibly funny. People would play the winch, the engine, the bilge pump, the started for the gas stove, the long distance radio and all sorts of “typical boat sounds”.
Then they started the aquatic games, something like pulling the rope but from two paddle boards but the next one was the top of the activities. After the long weekend there was a boat race. But with miniboats, the only condition to participate was to have a boat with 40cm water line. There were all sorts of designs, I was not keen on participating as racer but we had great fun looking at the boat race. One of the boats has a drone a made a vide of Dominica, which includes some pics of this activities.
So where are we? It is now the end of April and I could say we are more in the acceptance and commitment side. Some days I still go back to denial down to depression and back up again. But we have a new plan, we put the options on the table continue the trip, stop the trip, change the itinerary. Each option comes with pros and cons but with the time in hand we have been thinking on all that.
We can’t take a decision now, there are still lots of moving pieces. How long is the lockdown going to last? when are other islands opening? how safe is for us to move somewhere else? what if one of us or both of us get sick? and many more
So we have decided to stay in Dominica, another 2 to 4 weeks to see how things progress and decide on our next destination. It seems that as of next week we will be able to go to rivers and beaches and move a bit more in the island.
We probably can’t stay here pass end of June, as hurricane season will start then, so we need to move out of the dangerous zone!!!.
Will keep you posted!
Happy Days 