In an upended world with Covid-19 (yes, I have made the terminological switch), this seems like the time for sharing reassurances. We are doing well on the boat in Port Stephens and our immediate family is fine in the US and UK. Heather is feeling much better after her bout with what appeared to be Covid-19. The shortness of breath was understandably alarming but with no obvious temperature she could not get tested, leaving her frustrated by the uncertainly as to whether she had the virus or not. No symptoms shown yet by Atleigh, Kaeden, or Paul, which is a relief.

After spending a week enjoying the nature-show in Fame Cove where the forested and steeply sloped shoreline provides a natural amphitheater for bird song, we moved to North Arm Cove. This is a shallower but much bigger bay and we anchored in the middle because we needed to increase our power generation. Increasing our exposure to wind and reducing the shoreline shadows helped a little, but still cloudy days are a frustration wherever we anchor. When we do have sun, we have been treated to some glorious sunsets in both locations.

I may have sounded a little flippant in previous posts about "Welcome to our world" in terms of isolation, but I seriously hope that everyone is coping with the sudden changes in social interactions. It is likely to be easier for some of us than for others, as the Facebook poster said, "Introverts your time has come: you must help your friends who are extroverts as they don't know what to do."

While Randall and I may have the advantage in terms of being able to isolate ourselves on the boat and being fairly used to so doing, we have some different constraints that most of our house-dwelling friends do not have to think about.

Power supply - multiple cloudy days with little wind force us to have to decide how long to use our computers each day if we cannot can we recharge them, and allow no background music and no movie in the evening unless we run the engine.

Water supply - we can make our own water but that needs power, preferably excess solar and wind or when underway motoring, or we can go to the public dock to fill the tanks.

Waste disposal - Every two weeks or so, we have to empty the holding-tanks (using the pump-out facilities at the public dock or go out to sea), and dispose of compost (with other garbage at the public dock or out at sea).

Fuel - We have plenty of diesel for the engine and heater (not needed yet) and we have mostly been rowing to shore rather than using the dinghy outboard but we need to be sure that we can get propane/LPG for our stove every month.

Laundry - hand-washing uses our precious supplies of water and I loathe it but we do have good opportunities for line-drying. I need to find out if the laundromats in town are operating.

Shelter from waves - OK, this is not the typical concern of land-dwellers but it does keep us watching the weather forecasts everyday. With many anchorages that are protected from different directions, this is why we came to Port Stephens and why we enjoy a change of scene every few days.

Exercise - This is fine when we can get to roads or paths on shore where we can run or walk, and on the boat we can do our stretches and static exercises. If it is too windy, it makes it more difficult to do our aerobic exercises that consist of me skipping (jumping-rope) on the deck and Randall's rowing.



Randall rowing the dinghy in Fame Cove

Still, now that we have been in Port Stephens for a couple of weeks we are finding ways to fulfill these needs although the energy supply can be a bit limiting sometimes. Our visit to Nelson Bay to get water and sewage pump-out was initially thwarted by a couple of boats occupying the public dock. Luckily, we saw a NSW Maritime boat as we were circling and asked them if the facilities were still available. They requested the owners of one boat to move it around the corner which left us enough room to pull-up to use the pump, faucet, and dumpsters. The other owner returned soon after, so we are now feeling more confident that these facilities should be available to us when needed.

On leaving Nelson Bay, we anchored for a couple of nights at Salamander Bay. From there the row to shore provides good exercise (assuming the wind is fairly light) as does the walk to the Salamander Bay Shopping Center. We found the mall busier than we had expected, but people seemed to be respecting the need for social-distancing. Having been two weeks since we last visited a store in Eden, we were intrigued by the stickers on the floor to show customers where to stand (to stay 2 m apart) when lining-up to enter a store, which was usually allowed on a one-goes-out, one-goes-in basis. Even inside the supermarket, people were generally polite and accommodating about staying well-spaced. A few people in the mall were wearing masks. We did not have any medical masks (and we would have given them away if we had) so we used bandanas to help us to remember to keep our hands away from our faces. Only one smart-Alec loudly asked if we were going to rob the place.

Some of our Australian friends had told us when we first arrived that Australians love to make rules and laws and then break them. We suspect that this might explain the larger number of people and vehicles that were moving around compared to what we expected but mostly, especially older people, everyone seemed to be making a conspicuous effort to keep at an acceptable distance. We were particularly glad to see that the Google Doodle was not only thanking health-workers and emergency staff but also cleaning and sanitation staff. We think the latter have been seriously under-appreciated in this crisis, along with workers in the functioning service and supply industries who are still exposed to the public such as in grocery stores, pharmacies, meal and fuel suppliers, deliveries, etc.

Presumably because of our own demographic, we do not have many family members or friends who have been deprived of work by this crisis. Most of our associates are professionals who can work at home or have retired. We feel especially sorry for the younger adults who have been left unemployed and the people with family and financial responsibilities that are difficult to fulfill. We are impressed by those who are helping by sewing masks or providing supplies to the elderly and other vulnerable people. We are not quite sure what we can do from our boat with limited access to the internet (thanks to the clouds and lack of wind) but we will do our best to work something out, perhaps, donations to groups supporting nurses and the suddenly unemployed. Maybe just staying out of the way and remaining healthy is the best objective for now.

I am also gradually contacting all of our friends around to world to make sure that they are coping well with the strange situation. So far, everyone has been amazed by it all but is managing to stay cheerful. Here are a few of the more unusual stories:

Most of our cruising friends are, like us, stalled with no idea when they can next continue their travels and, in many cases, worrying about the need for visa renewals (fortunately ours are valid until mid-December). They are mostly scattered along Australia's east coast (SV Zoonie is on the west coast) or in New Zealand. At the absolute last-minute, Gail and Dean had to cancel their multiple-month trip to the US and Hungary, realizing that if they left they would have no idea of when they might be allowed to return to SV Local Talent in New Zealand.

Deb and Rob on SV Avant in Colon, Panama had to ask the Canadian Embassy to help them get to the Panama City Airport in time to catch the last flight to Canada.

Clare and Andy on SV Tintamarre set-out in mid-February to cross the South Pacific but are now trapped in the Galapagos Islands. This sounds idyllic but the isolation rules there are very strict and, like the other six cruising boats in Santa Cruz, they cannot move even in their dinghies except to go to shore for essentials and they have no idea where else they could go that has open borders. Their blog has a good account of their unusual situation: https://www.svtintamarre.com/

Marisa and Bavo on SV Devocean are stranded on a small Malaysian island at the west end Malacca Strait, luckily in a marina.

Mary who lives in Milan, Italy, has been in very strict lockdown with her family for weeks. The local news of a whole generation of grandparents being lost in various communities is especially tragic.

Mark and Elizabeth, who we visited at Bondi Beach in January, were on a ship visiting Antarctica. While they got to see glorious things there, the ship was subsequently not allowed to enter Argentina as expected. Fortunately there were no cases on board so they could disembarked in Montevideo, Uruguay, for an immediate flight to quarantine in London.

Our many friends in Florida and other parts of the US are making their own decisions to stay socially-distanced and shelter-in-place as the variations and inadequacies in some of the state and federal rules are often frightening. Our teaching friends from all levels of primary/elementary to tertiary education are learning to embrace the online methods while having to determine what to do with underachieving and digitally absent students.

And our very own infection-control specialist, Jennie in London, is not only working online at home but is also volunteering at a local hospital that is coping with Covid-19 patients. She is such a superstar and continues to be a magnificent source of reliable and useful information. Thank you, Jennie! We have promised to provide her with the most up-to-date assessments, if humankind is ever similarly threatened by invasive plants...

The deaths associated with Covid-19 of many thousands worldwide is made particularly poignant by the loss of familiar people. While we count ourselves fortunate in not having lost any family or friends, the US national obituaries seems particularly full of elderly jazz musicians and, to Randall's great sorrow, musician John Prine. It is especially hard to imagine how Vanuatu, Fiji, and Tonga will cope with the devastation inflicted by Category 5 Cyclone Harold, when so many global resources are being focused elsewhere.

Easter weekend is a three or four day holiday in Australia so it usually involves much socializing and church-going. Recently, we got a text from the government: "Coronavirus Aus Gov msg: Stay home this Easter & help save lives. Only leave for what you really need + exercise, work, medical & care. Aus.gov.au".

We feel sorry for the people who would normally enjoy their family, friends, and church at this time. But the supermarkets have tried to keep people cheerful. There have been hot cross buns (a tradition since a monk first baked them in the 12th century) and Easter eggs, chocolate bunnies, etc., for sale ever since, well, I think Boxing Day. You can rest assured that we have managed to get some of these goodies and will do our best to stay cheerful and keep that part of the holiday tradition alive.