Tuesday 24 Mar, CY day 10: This morning the wind has reduced enough for us to put up our large over-boom sun shade. By breakfast the sun is already very hot without the wind. But as soon as the sunshade is on, along with its wind-tunnel effect, it’s all very pleasant once more. And again we congratulate ourselves for having this made when we were in south Spain during a heat wave back in July 2016.
Mid morning we listen to the daily government briefing. The positive test number has gone from 3 to 6 in a day and both the Governor and the Premier seem to be very emotional. You can feel the fear in their voices now that they have cases that are deemed intra-community spread (new cases didn’t travel and were not in contact with any incoming persons). At the same time they lengthen the previously announced curfew. It will now start at 7pm.
Late morning we take ashore the plastic material that we had “procured” to make fender blankets from. The objective being to protect the hull when we pass through the Panama Canal. On one of the empty dinghy jetties we lay the material out and mark it up for cutting out. We were on the jetty only 40 minutes but already feeling heat-stroke symptoms. Spring-time Caribbean sun without any cooling breeze feels lethal.
After a swim and rest in the shade back on Cloudy we decide to venture ashore to the supermarket before any potential rush after working hours, considering curfew now starts at 7pm.
Arriving to Kirk’s supermarket we are surprised to find a queue already forming around the outside of the building. Apparently they have reached “safe distancing” capacity inside so are restricting entry of 5 at a time, after 5 others exit the store. And all those queuing are standing 6ft apart. We debate on coming back tomorrow, but decide to be patient and eventually we are allowed in.
While in the queue, staff come passed giving squirts of hand sanitizer and bottles of water to everyone. Very civilized here. Once inside we find the shelves are still perfectly stocked but there are now signs everywhere saying maximum of 2 items per person for any one product. Very sensible frankly. It’s actually nice being in the uncrowded shop and certainly easy to keep the 6ft apart from others. All very sensible.
Back at Cloudy we have lunch then edit more videos for the rest of the evening. Oooph, sometimes they seem never ending!