31st March

18 20 N
64 56 W

Weather; sunny, wind n/a, waves n/a

OMG here we are at the end of March, where did it go? It's certainly been an interesting month as far as the world at large goes; sitting here in St Thomas we have watched the world react to Covid 19 with horror but even more concerning to us is the misinformation and media hype which isn't helping an already difficult thing to deal with. Almost everyone is doing their best to overcome the pandemic but from our point of view it seems that different countries are doing things in sequence, rather than trying to anticipate the needs of the people they are waiting until its almost too late and then implementing measures which may or may not help to contain the virus. I guess on the whole we are amongst the lucky ones as we are virtually in isolation all the time on our boat in the middle of a harbor, social distancing only comes into effect for us when we have no option but to go ashore for food water, laundry and possibly fuel. We are enjoying the fact that the noise in the harbor has reduced to almost total silence due to there being no cruise ship activity and no day "fun" excursions going on, however we are also aware that this means people are without work and the effect on the economy is going to be beyond belief. Unlike some places in the world at the moment, we have food on the shelves at the supermarkets and toilet paper in plentiful supply ( what is wrong with you people who are hoarding enough to see you through until Christmas?). Our main concern here is that we are stuck, we can't move forward for the foreseeable future, which is fine except we are rapidly heading towards hurricane season and need to be outside the hurricane box for our sanity, safety and insurance purposes - goodness knows how we will fare if some of the islands down the tract don't open up to let us pass through soon, plus the visa problems will kick in next month making it difficult for us to stay here even. As there is nothing we can do about it we'll just have to take it one day at a time like everyone else and hope for a good outcome soon. For everyone who supplies essential services, including food provision and health care thank you for all you are doing, you are the best!
Enough about that, today was the day that we elected to go to Home Depot for a few things that are required to keep Dale 's and our boat from falling apart under the pressure of not having access to all the stuff we can normally get. As Home Depot is close to Cost u Less super store we thought we would combine the two jobs and do some provisioning at the same time. We chose to hire a taxi for the trip as there were 4 of us and its quite difficult to socially distance on the safari buses, plus it would mean that we didn't have to walk up the damn hill to the places from the bus stop. We walked as far as Pueblo where there was a taxi waiting in the car park ,the guys negotiated a fare for the driver to take us to both places and wait to bring us back, at $40 for the 4 of us we thought it was well worth it. The guys got out of the taxi at Home Depot and Lorie and I went on to Cost U Less where we began a leisurely wander around the store finding almost everything we needed to stock up our stores. The store had implemented a few measures to sanitize the trolleys, our hands and how we handed over the money / cards for payment, they also had a well thought out check-out line organized which kept everyone at a reasonable distance from each other - as I said before, everyone is trying their best! The guys joined us in Cost u Less well in time to pay and help pack and carry the bags ( just as well as they were heavy). Our taxi driver was waiting in the car park as promised and we were soon on our way back to the dock where we unloaded everything, carried it down to our dinghies and headed out to our boats. Dale had one more job that he needed to do today, he had sourced a distributor for a maintenance kit for his engine water pump and wanted to go and pick a kit up so he asked Gerry to go along with him after lunch. We had a quick sandwich on board and then both went across to Gypsy Palace, I was going to keep Lorie company whilst the guys were gone. The guys took off across the harbor and Lorie and I played amongst the ancestors for the time they were gone - I'm on the track to find Gerry's paternal grandfather but its taking a lot of time and sleuthing and I'm not there yet! The guys arrived back empty handed and a bit miffed, although the distributor had given Dale directions as to where he works out of, what he didn't say was that he was closed for the duration until the Covid 19 measures are lifted in full! They did have one bit of success though, they spotted the boat that the cruiser's network is being run from at the moment and went over to chat with the man that is running it to see if there is any new information about cruising grounds - there really wasn't but at least we know that we aren't alone with our concerns about how long we are going to be allowed to stay where we are at the moment, some cruisers have been turned away from countries without so much as a fuel top up, never mind rest, water and re-provisioning. Gerry and I went back to our boat to turn the water-maker off (we had left it on for a couple of hours to make enough water to have a shower tonight), close down our hatches as it was bound to rain and then we returned to Gypsy Palace for sundowner cocktails and Pot stickers - Yum! With the sun gone it was time for us to return to our boat and call it a day. I can't wait to see what new measures every country down the island chain has made - maybe the restrictions will all be lifted and we can get moving forward!