Despite the strangeness of life avoiding Covid-19, it is good to know that some of the world's leaders are, well, leading, still have a sense of humor, and know that children are just as involved in all of this as the adults. New Zealand's excellent Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, addressed part of one of her public announcements concerning Covid-19 to children. She reported, with great seriousness, that despite the shelter-in-place and social-distancing rules, the Easter Bunny would be allowed visit families. A mask and gloves would be worn but the Easter Bunny could still leave the traditional treats. Brilliant! We are glad to report that the Easter Bunny certainly visited us...and was quite generous.

While I am always appreciative of an excuse to eat chocolate, Randall was particularly relieved to have something to cheer him up when his face and head were very sore and itchy. While we are not socializing, this seemed to be a good time to for him to apply a two-week treatment of fluorouracil. Rubbing the cream twice a day on his face, head, hands, and forearms is intended to eliminate any small basal-cell carcinomas that might have formed in the six months since his last trip to the dermatologist. However, the red sores that develop were so irritated that they kept him awake for hours some nights so he was not a happy camper. Fortunately, the rashes disappear quickly once the treatment is over. During the treatment, it is important to keep the treated areas out of the sunlight, so while we were rowing around to get exercise, Randall was keeping his face covered with his sun-proof "buff". At least, this covering did not look quite so unusual in this time of Covid-19 face-masks.



Randall rowing in his buff (not in the buff) and broad-brimmed hat

As our life starts to revolve around the excitement of visiting a grocery store about once a fortnight, enjoying nature, and working on boat projects, this blog will likely undergo something of a role-reversal. For the last 12 years, many friends have told us that they like to live a little vicariously through the stories of our adventures from around the world aboard Tregoning. Now we are experiencing the Covid-19 world vicariously through our friends and relations. Keeping in touch, principally by email, Facebook, and phone calls, I hope that I am not breaking any confidences by sharing some of their tales (as usual, no last name).

I greatly appreciate hearing from as many of our contacts as possible. I try to focus in these posts on the stories that give us the widest perspective on how Covid-19 is affecting the lives of people that we know. Not a globally typical group, of course, but often people known to, or similar, to those who might be reading this blog. Just as when we are at sea or otherwise isolated, I am currently finding that the sense of connection that the blog provides is important to me. I hope that it provides some of that reassurance to some of you.

Nephew Tom, who works for Rolls Royce Aerospace in Birmingham has suddenly had his projects changed from designing and testing parts for aircraft engines, to testing valves for ventilators that his company is now making. Rolls Royce is part of a consortium that is challenged with the production of 20,000 ventilators for use throughout Great Britain. He has been working in his office for 12-hours days for 6 days a week designing and building test rigs for the valves. The RR staff actually building the ventilators are locked-in the factory, staying in an accommodation compound that was quickly built within the site. It is anticipated that they may be there for three months.
https://www.rolls-royce.com/media/our-stories/discover/2020/how-we-are-tackling-the-ventilator-challenge.aspx
Tom's is the last photo on the montage of faces.

Although Tom is able to go home, he has little available time to help with eight-month old Lucas so Hannah is having to juggle coping with a crawling, slithering infant with working at home (also for Rolls Royce) on long phone calls. We wish them well.

Friends who are doctors are having a mixed time. Anesthesiologist Karen in Seattle actually has more free-time as all non-urgent surgeries have been postponed to save supplies and room for potential Covid-19 patients but she is bracing for a huge rush when restrictions are loosened and they have to deal with the enormous backlog. Meanwhile, her husband Mike, as manager of the operating rooms in a big Seattle hospital, has been having to deal with reprioritizing and reorganizing all of the scheduled surgeries and changing facilities and protocols to cope with the potential extra ICU patients on ventilators.

Dressmaker niece Calla in Montana, and others, are making surgical masks for local medical facilities.

Louise in Antigua is having to decide whether, and how much, to adapt her very hands-on business of training hospitality-personnel, to an online process. Luckily, her elderly mother was visiting her from Cornwell when the pandemic developed and, sensibly, rather than return to the UK, she has stayed with Louise. The number of cases is very low in Antigua but like all island nations dependent on tourism, the dilemma will be in deciding when to allow and encourage the return of international visitors.

The recent deaths of some of my brother, Mike's, very elderly neighbors, may have been from Covid-19 as the southern Lake District has been quite a hotbed of both cases and deaths. However, patients are only tested if they are in the hospital, so it may never been known whether Covid-19 killed these people who died at home. It is thought the virus was brought to the area by the many (often Chinese) tourists who flock to Lake Windermere and other popular Lake District tourist sites. They are currently trying to keep tourists away, including a signpost on one of the main highways (A591 near Kendal) proclaiming that "Lakes Is Closed". While it is the first time the Lake District National Park has been essentially closed (unlike in many countries, there can be towns within UK National Parks), the foot-and-mouth outbreak in 2001 had a very similar impact on the tourist industry there. It is a shame as the weather there has been lovely but that has allowed Mike to enjoy some long walks by himself. His is staying very well isolated including ordering groceries online and collecting them outside the supermarket, and having frozen meals delivered from the suppliers of, the currently closed, local cafés and pubs.

Doria at the Environmental Defense Fund in Washington DC, is working from home and had not had to make any major change in focus yet but the organization is concerned in the long-term about reductions in individual donations (as so many are anxious about the value of their investments). Also EDF keeps a close watch on the organization's carbon-footprint so it will be very interesting to see how this is changed with everyone working at home (their DC office-building has been closed and the locks have been changed...) and, if so, whether that will lead to long-term changes in work patterns.

The eldest son of Rob on SV Zoonie, took over the family business a few years ago but they are very worried about him staying safe from Covid-19. He is a funeral director.

Sadly, Gill the mother of our Cousin Sarah (who lives in Victoria) died unexpectedly in the UK after a week of severe illness. She did not have Covid-19 but the travel risks and restrictions prevented Sarah from leaving Australia to see her. Thankfully good telephone and internet connections allowed Sarah to stay in touch with her mother. The hospital made an exception to the "no visitor" rules so that Sarah's brother James could be with Gill until she returned home with hospice care. Sarah's son and his wife, were able to join the vigil at Gill's house but James has had to stay there for two weeks of quarantine after leaving the hospital. It is all very sad but the family are coping admirably. No more than six people can attend the 20-minute cremation service but a live video-feed will allow Sarah and others to watch online. They will save the memorial gathering and scattering of the ashes until Sarah can safely travel to the UK and back to Australia, whenever that might be.

While there are limited options for postponing funerals, what of people who had planned to marry this April, May and beyond? Luckily, the weddings for Sarah's son Miles, and friend Hazel's daughter not only went ahead just before the Covid-19 social-distancing restrictions, but no one became ill afterwards. What has happened to all the planned weddings that were not so lucky? Have they been completely postponed or is it possible to have an official wedding with minimal witnesses and just postpone the celebrations?

On the topic of official paperwork, after several weeks of uncertainty, there seems to be some action now on extending/renewing Australian visas. This is a big issue for the nation, not in relation to the relatively few international cruisers like us, but due to the huge numbers of backpackers who spend part of their visit working on farms throughout the country, particularly harvesting fruit. Many of these, generally young people, did not go home as expected when the pandemic started but have stayed. With much of the harvesting work occurring in the summer, that is when the need for international backpackers will be greatest so the question is whether to hope that the current visa-holders will stay through that time or hope that international travel restrictions have been lifted by then. The cruising contingent had been hoping for a free visa-extension for a year, especially as no one new is arriving in the country. But the latest news is that short-term, 3 - 5 month, visas are being issued to cruisers. This implies that either expensive reapplications will need to be made several times a year until it is possible to leave or there is an expectation that it will not be too long before people can leave Australia (maybe just to go to New Zealand) and will have to reapply outside for a new visa (starting the clock again). Somehow, this money-making, short-leash approach shocks other cruisers but it does not seem very surprising to me. We are very fortunate to have the luxury of not needing to renew our visas before December so we can wait and see what travel or renewal opportunities have arisen by then.

As the worst effects of maximum daily death rate and full ICU beds have peaked in some places, such as Australia, many of us are wondering how the response to the pandemic will be managed over the next few months. Will we be released from some restrictions, then have these retightening if new cases reemerge? It seems a reasonable approach (the Hammer and the Dance alluded to in a previous post) but will populations be willing to re-isolate once they have been released?

I see some similarities in this pandemic to a big tsunami. We are not very precise at predicting when large earthquakes or emergence of new diseases will occur. However, once it is realized that tsunamis and pandemics have developed, our models can predict the timing and size of first impacts in different places fairly well. What we have limited ability to forecast is the after-effects. Tsunami can have tidal surges for hours or days later and the initiating earthquake may have aftershocks that are usually smaller but might include another big quake. Similarly, a pandemic can have resurgences. The difference is that unlike earthquakes and tsunamis, human actions can provide some control over the management of a disease. Of course, the difficult issues that guide such human actions include the gathering of sufficient accurate information to make appropriate decisions, and the agreement of what actions are medically, economically, and politically acceptable.

As parts of Australia and New Zealand are looking at data that suggest they have no Covid-19 cases, is it possible to allow people to resume work and social activities on a local basis? But how do we know if areas are really free of cases if official counts are nearly always underestimates due to insufficient testing? How can activities be restricted to local, disease-free areas? Will it be possible to reinstate unrestricted travel within countries/areas with no cases? When, and from where, will international arrivals be allowed? Will testing, quarantine, or certificates proving the presence of antibodies to Covid-19 be required? Many countries have managed to minimize the initial impact very well with the heavy-handed approach but until vaccines are developed and widespread, the end-game seems to be much less obvious and, potentially, much more political.

The Australian government is planning to adopt a contact-tracing cellphone app which people will be encouraged to download voluntarily. Despite assurances that this will be managed without invasion of privacy, it will require at least 40% of the population to comply for the app to be effective. We would get it, but for us it will certainly not replace social-distancing. A record is only kept if the proximity to another phone with the app is less than 1.5 m for more than 15 minutes (presumably related to the likelihood of viral transfer and keeping the numbers of contacts manageable).

In addition to the many unknowns about how the end-game for Covid-19 will play-out in different places, it is also interesting to speculate on whether there will be long-term changes in society as we get past this crisis. Will handshaking be replaced by bowing? Will many former-commuters argue to keep working from home? Will cities that have finally enjoyed clean air, increase restrictions on industry and traffic to reduce new pollution? For theoretical learning (not practical training), will traditional universities and colleges change their emphasis from regular attendance of lectures to online material with less frequent in-person tutorials? Who knows? But I would like to include here a piece written and posted on Facebook by our good friend Vandy from SV Scoots (currently in Whangarei, New Zealand).

A Postpandemic Path
I hope that we, as a species - having experienced the Covid-19 pandemic; having seen in vivid images the true colors of the disease and destruction caused by our unchecked actions; the true colors of our leaders (and so-called leaders); the true colors of the unsmogged sky; the true colors of unclogged waterways; the full extent of the disastrous effects that humans have had on our beautiful, unique, and life-giving planet - will emerge from this crisis so chastened and enlightened that, when it's time for us to end our separation and move forward again, we will choose a new path: a path that acknowledges our role in influencing the health of the planet; that recognizes our need to cooperate; and that affirms the value, fragility, and interconnectedness of all life on Earth. Vandy April 2020



An immature white-breasted sea-eagle on the shoreline of Fame Cove

And in honor of her vision, I shall end with a few of our own delightful nature experiences from the last few weeks here in Port Stephens.

Laughing and howling dawn choruses of kookaburras, the loud dipping whistle and cracking calls of the eastern whip-birds, the Australian magpies' warbling, like a warming-up orchestra of flutes, and the hauntingly human, anguished moans of the Australian ravens.

The smiles and rolling dorsal fins of bottlenose dolphins escorting us from North Arm Cove to Nelson Bay, possibly wondering what has become of the daily flotilla of whale- and dolphin-watching tour boats that usually circle Port Stephens.

The black and white-flash of a pied cormorant swimming along the shoreline and diving below the surface every few seconds. The white and black plumage of an Australian pelican, usually solitary but sometimes with a mate, sedately paddling its way across the bay.

A pair of adult white-breasted sea-eagles (a.k.a. white-bellied sea-eagles) soaring over the cove. One is missing one or two of its long flight-feathers so it has to beat its wings slightly more often than its partner to stay in the same pattern of flight. Another adult flying between the wooded shore and the top of the mast of a neighboring boat (and we are glad that it is not struggling to find room between the VHF antenna, masthead light, and anemometer of top of our mast). And an immature sea-eagle with its muddy brown breast, watching for fish in the water below its shoreline perch. And, maybe, waiting a little impatiently for the molt that will provide it with its white plumage and the stature of a fine mature eagle.