What a difference a day makes!

One week ago, I was writing about my fairly limited, but tolerable schedule under the COVID-19 restrictions here in St. Lucia. That day, we went about life as usual getting some boat projects done (dremel work, cleaning mildew, laundry, taking down the Salty Dawg flag that has seen better days, etc.). At some point in the morning, this fellow with one red and one green shoe walked up to introduce himself. He said he knew our boat and had done all of the bright work below. As soon as he said his name was Vision, I remembered Scott, the prior owner, telling us about the great work that he had done. We asked Vision to come back the next day to discuss some projects.

Little did we know, the next day we would be under 24 hour lockdown, unable to leave our “place of residence” for any reason other than a medical emergency! With no warning and no indication of how long we were going to be living with these new restrictions, we were confined to the boat, grocery stores were closed, yoga was cancelled, liquor was not allowed to be sold, etc. We were going to be living on our stores of canned goods for who knows how long. Fortunately, I had made a lasagna the prior evening and there was enough leftover for two more dinners.

Somebody must have come to their senses and realized, people need to eat, so by Thursday of that week, we were able to go to the grocery store during limited hours. For one hour, I stood in a line that extended out the parking lot, with 6 feet between customers in order to let 10 people in the store at a time. By the time I got in, I was able to purchase 1 apple, 1 tomato, a container of UHT milk and some fake orange juice.

That day, the topic of discussion on the VHF cruisers net was the definition of “place of residence”. Was it your boat, the boat and dock your boat was on, the marina (with all of it’s facilities) or what? I spent the day testing the limits by taking walks on the docks, swimming in the pool, paddling my SUP to the marina, and taking other people’s trash to the dumpster for an excuse to get out. Someone accused someone of stealing trash the next day so I stopped the later operation!

Now we fill our days with some boat projects, lots of reading & internet surfing, daily cocktail hour chats on What’s App with anyone who wants to talk to us, and visits with the security guards in the marina. I’ve been instructed on how to cook roti and fish stew from Edgar, the guard pictured below (who just barely fits in the guard station).

The yachties have determined that our place of residence is the marina and yesterday, the Prime Minister announced that effective on Tuesday, April 6th, we will go back to the 10 hour (7pm to 5am) lockdown with essential services being open from 8am to 1pm on select days. We need to adhere to the 6 foot distancing when in public and use proper coughing etiquette. We’ve made masks out of a T-shirt to match the kelly green of our canvas and we are ready for whatever this week brings.

Meanwhile, Mother Nature never ceases to amaze with this friendly black bird that visited us on the boat and the incredible halo rainbow that was observed from Rodney Bay during all of this human commotion!!