Wednesday 25 Mar, CY day 11: Helping quarantined yachts before a three days curfew is instated.
We wake to another windless day. and so glad to have the over-boom shade up. While having breakfast in the cockpit we see the couple from the nearby quarantined French Amel yacht approaching in their dinghy. Two days ago we had dinghied to the 3 quarantined yachts, offering to get anything they needed from ashore. So the French couple were here to give us shopping lists for both themselves and another French yacht. They said nothing is urgent and we did not promise to get it today, as we were in the supermarket just yesterday.
After breakfast we continue the fender blanket project. First cutting out the material we’d marked out yesterday on the pontoon, then practicing what type of hems we will construct. After a bit of practice I’m starting to feel quite confident with the SailRite sewing machine. We decide that for the lower hem we will attempt to fill it with lead-shot, from some old diving-weight packets. Hoping this will stop the breeze from lifting the blanket as we motor along.
Early afternoon we decide we should really go and buy the food for the quarantined yachts today, rather than have them wait till tomorrow. And we are very glad we did. At the supermarket the queue is not as long as yesterday but clearly they are preparing for much longer queues, for some reason, already with tents raised to provide shade.
Today we are in and through the store pretty quickly. But when we exit, we are surprised the queue is significantly longer. We then set out in the dinghy doing the shopping deliveries (which, by the way, didn’t include a single toilet roll!). We feel like “boat boys”! Obviously the recipients are very grateful.
When we get to the British Amel, they tell us that a 3 days 24/7 curfew from 7pm this evening has just been announced on one of the local radio stations. The island’s Covid cases are now up to 8 and the authorities seem quite rattled by the increase. They are clearly desperate to keep this in a containment phase and not let the situation run away from them. So it was a VERY good job we decided to shop today, not tomorrow. And it explains why they were preparing for an invasion of the supermarket!
Like the previous evening, by 7:30pm it’s all silent onshore. We only see the occasional blue flashing light as the police patrol the streets and the sound of the police helicopter which seems to be constantly patrolling from the air. The only sound ashore is a distant corus of cockerels crowing. Otherwise, total peace! I bet after all this is over, people will want to keep some of this peace as well as the significantly less pollution. It will be very interesting to see how this experience changes humanity’s habits. Certainly there will be a lot of post-analysis data to be researched and conclusions to be drawn.
After a wonderful sunset a beautiful new moon quickly follows the sun to disappear into the sea. The rest of the evening we relax in the cockpit, with cocktails, as Cloudy gently rocks in the totally calm water. Tomorrow we are under curfew! After all the counties we’ve visited and lived in, we have never been subject to curfew. Another life experience, ticked!