Life in the Age of Pandemic: A cruiser’s perspective

After spending the first 5 years of our retirement in carefree (and I admit humbly and with some guilt often self-indulgent) worldwide travel, sailing across seas and oceans interspersed with lots of land and air travel, we find ourselves, as with the rest of the world, in quarantine, locked down in St Martin, a French Overseas Territory in the Caribbean during the Covid-19 pandemic.  

The coronavirus

As cruisers, living on our sailboat, self-isolation is often the default position.  We frequently spend long periods alone on the boat.  We are self-sufficient.  We always have at least a month or two of food and supplies stored in the lockers and bilges.  We make our own water and have electricity and power.  However, this self-isolation is now not a choice but a mandate.  

Approaching St Martin where we thought we would spend 3-4 days before making our way west to the British Virgin Islands

We use to joke and take pride in the fact that our plans were written in the sand at low tide.  We had and liked having only a very general idea where we might end up in the next few weeks hence in our peripatetic lifestyle.  Now we are at anchor in Marigot Bay unable to move.  France has locked down.  The borders are closed.  No one is allowed to enter.  We might be able to leave but the borders of the other islands are closed as well.  A fellow cruiser tried to go to the next island, Anguilla, 6 nm away and was turned away.

The anchorage looking north with Anguilla in the distance - so close yet unattainable

The town of Marigot - view from Songster

So how are we spending our days during quarantine?  Our days are much the same.  We do boat chores, read, write, listen to music, watch the other boats in the harbour, have a swim and marvel at the sunsets at the end of the day.  

Sunset Marigot Bay

What we don’t do is go ashore to have long exploratory walks followed by a cuppa in a café or meet up with other cruisers for sundowners.  Being a nerdy, retired epidemiologist, extra activities for me include spending hours each day pouring over the publicly available raw data of the pandemic spread on the WHO, CDC and Johns Hopkins Dashboard web sites to keep informed and cross check the media reports. 

Korea has done a fantastic job of containing the virus.  Pandora's box has truly been opened in Italy, Spain and France. I fear the same fate for the US but am a bit more hopeful for Australia.  Time will tell. No one knows what might happen with this new virus. So far there has been an unfortuanate unco-ordinated and generally weak and late world response.  Will humans ever learn?

 

 

We also check the cruisers websites, such as Noonsite, for the latest updates on border closures and entry restrictions.  The morning VHF radio net, a great cruiser resource in all large harbours that gives weather forecasts, treasures of the bilge for sale or swap, and announcements of social activities, is now taken up with queries on what documentation is needed to go ashore, what is considered an essential service, can one still buy LPG or diesel, are laundromats open and uniquely here in St Martin, are regulations different on the Dutch side across the lagoon.

French form which must be completed and carried with you if going ashore

A few days ago this health declaration was all the additional paperwork that was needed to enter the BVIs.  Now the borders are closed to all visiting yachts

The Dutch and French sections of St Martin-St Maarten

So we wait and watch developments.  The main concern for cruisers in the Caribbean is whether mobility will be restored in time to get our boats out of harm’s way before the start of the hurricane season.  We were intending to sail up to Deltaville, VA to put Songster on the hard and on the market so we can return to Australia.  Once again our plans seem to be written in sand at low tide.

Caribbean Reflections

I am way behind in writing these blog posts.  It has been over six weeks since we have left Bequia and we have sailed to four island countries in that time.  Yet I am having a hard time writing about these beautiful places.  There is no doubt that the Caribbean is an ideal holiday spot.  Compared to the Mediterranean the sailing is much better with good consistent winds.  The beaches are sandy and lined with coconut palms.  The weather is balmy with a pleasant breeze to keep it comfortable.  The snorkelling is fantastic with an abundant variety of beautifully coloured fish.  But the Mediterranean has the extensive culture and antiquity that is missing here.  Now we are slowly discovering and appreciating the very different Caribbean history and culture and the beautiful people of the islands. 

To catch up on our travels, I will let the pictures do most of the talking.  After Bequia we went to Saint Anne in Martinique where we stayed for two weeks.  We were back in Euroland where there was good coffee, great provisioning and reasonable prices.

The anchorage of Sainte Anne

Provisioning Caribbean style - dinghy dock behind the supermarket

Another beautiful Caribbean sunset

We then moved on to the pretty bay of Anse Chaudiere with a charming village, crystal clear water and good snorkelling.

The dock of Anse Chaudiere

Beautiful beaches and clear water

One of my favourite fish - jeweled damsel fish

We moved north into the large bay of Fort de France, first spending a night or two in Anse Mitan (birthplace of Empress Josephine) then going across the bay to anchor under the old fort in the capital.  There is a lot of history here of sieges, conquests and slavery – old buildings, street art and introduced iguanas.

Schoelcher Library

 

Street art

Fort Saint Louis

One of the introduced iguanas.  Unfortunately they are killing off the native iguana species.

Anchorage under Fort Saint Louis

Our final stop in Martinique was Sainte-Pierre.  In 1902 Mount Peéle erupted killing 30,000 people and destroying this once premiere city of Martinique.  The town has never recovered.

Mount Peéle

Photo of the destruction from the volcanic eruption in 1902

Sainte-Pierre today still with the ruined buildings

Sunday boules

We moved up the island chain to Portsmouth, Dominica, a poor but very proud island nation of stunning natural beauty.  The country was devastated in 2017 from Hurricane Maria but with substantial aid from China and lots of hard work by the locals, this beautiful island has made a remarkable recovery.

Miracle Beach - created by nature only a few years previously

Trafalgar Falls

Indian River - quite magical

 

 

 

We returned again to Euroland when we arrived at another French overseas territory, Guadeloupe.  Our first stop was, Les Saintes, a small group of islands to the south of the main island.  This was a great little anchorage where we snorkelled and took long walks ashore.

The main anchorage of Terre de Haute

The main island of Guadeloupe is in the distance

We crossed over to a very nice little marina, Marina de Riviere Sens, just southeast of the capital, Basse Terre.  Here we enjoyed a week of the convenience of staying at a marina, catching up on laundry and provisioning while exploring the city and its history and renting a car for a road trip around the western ‘wing’ of this butterfly shaped island. 

Fort Delgres

Tribute to Louis Delgres, resistance fighter whose final words were 'Live free or die'.

Carnaval celebrations near the marina

We moved up the west coast to Plage de Malendure/Pigeon Island part of the Jacques Cousteau Marine Park.  The snorkelling was superb and I managed to get some wonderful underwater photos.  The green turtles swam within a few feet of me – beautiful creatures.

Queen Parrot fish

Yellow cheeked wrase

Blue stripped grunt and blue tang

File fish

Green Turtle

Our final stop in Guadeloupe was the northern town of Deshaies.  This attractive town is known for the film set of the British/French TV series, Death in Paradise.  But Deshaies is special in its own right.  We enjoyed Carnival here and some of the best and worst of nature.

'Police Station' in Death in Paradise

Carnaval

From the float

Boys crack these robe whips making a sound like firecrackers exploding

High winds saw boats dragging their anchors and drifting into other boats

Then Mother Nature provides exquisite rainbows

and stunning sunsets

That was a very brief account of our last six weeks in the Caribbean.  We are now in Antigua and I hope to keep up with the blog better in order to give a more detailed account of these beautiful islands.