Since arriving on March 15th, there really isn’t much exciting to report except that we are still Quarantined to 5KNOTS. Today is Day 24 of our confinement! When you say day 24, that is quite a long time for us because the only place we stayed this long at one time was a couple of years ago when anchored at Long Island in the Bahamas. We stayed there not because we had to but because it was a great island to visit.
Restrictions here in St. Martin have been progressively getting tighter. The Dutch side of the island has instituted a 24 hour lockdown. This means that nobody is allowed to be out and about unless you have a pre-approved form from the Ministers office. Since we are anchored and cleared with the French, we are no longer allowed to even go to the Dutch side. As for the French, only one person can go ashore with the appropriate documents and only for groceries, fuel or water and only for one hour at a time. I have been ashore twice, once for groceries and the other to get water. Renée has been ashore for groceries four times. I never thought going to the grocery store would be such a treat.
So what have we been doing? During the day we use our phones to get on the internet, read, do Fill-In puzzle books, clean the boat, nap and then repeat. All-in-all it could be much worse and we are making the best of it. Renée continues her usual great job of provisioning for us so we have a healthy variety of things to eat and snack on. She has also baked fresh bread for us to enjoy. Renée also switches out our cockpit sun shades periodically so we stay protected from the sun and never get tired of our curtains.
The cruisers here in the bay have organized an informal stay on your boat Happy Hour starting at 5:15 and runs until sunset. The format is that you tune your VHF radio to Channel 72 and any boat can either tell a joke, story or play a song. After the song the other boats can guess the name of the song, artist and in some cases the album it was on. There is usually interesting trivia that accompanies the songs that add some color. There can be a theme to the music such as 80’s, Country or female vocalist or group. Tonight there is going to be a Trivia contest that should prove to be a good time. After HH we will follow with our showers and then play some cards and/or dominos followed by watching movies.
In the meantime we are waiting for Trinidad to open their borders and allow the entry of yachts that are planning to stay or store their boat for hurricane season. Basically we have no place that we can go at the moment so we continue to Live the Dream in Quarantine! Best of luck to everybody and stay healthy.
Cheers!
