Lu read one out earlier from her friend. Boomer remover. Sorry – hope that doesn’t cause offence. It just made me smile. From her generation’s point of view anyway – since kids aren’t getting sick by and large. They are watching this illness so far from the sidelines, thank goodness. Their wit comes for free.

With the closing of many countries’ borders, there have been developments affecting the sailing world too. The Panama Canal locked its locks yesterday to pleasure vessels – who don’t already have a pre-approved canal transit pass. It seems that no one is going across to the Pacific anytime soon. 

The other way is also becoming more restricted. The Atlantic crossing to Europe looks suddenly trickier – since the borders to the Azores have been closed to pre-approved pleasure vessels wanting to stay more than twelve hours. This makes things trickier for us sailing back to the UK. The Azores is where most boats stop en route. It will be interesting to see whether this closure continues into peak season. In the meantime, you’re stuck with us in the Caribbean! 

Barbados hasn’t shut their borders, or restricted any flights coming in and out of the country. Still, there are no confirmed cases here yet. Once that happens, all bets are off. There has been a slow rise of coronavirus cases in nearby Martinique – around 10 so far. As of yet, Martinique hasn’t shut its borders either. Other countries, such as the BVIs, St Martaan/St Martin and Latin American countries such as Belize and Guatemala, are beginning enforce closures.

With Alicia arriving by plane from the UK just over seven days ago, we’ve decided to be more careful with our own movements for the next couple of weeks. We postponed the walking tour. At least I was sad about that!. We’ve started restricting our contact with others. Not going to lie though; self-isolation is lush. This is definitely the introvert’s dream. Enjoying these introvert memes too – ‘you had me at isolation’. Especially since none of us are showing any real viral symptoms. Temperatures are being checked on Quest – I found the thermometer and discovered it still works!

Jack and I made a morning run to the supermarket in Speightstown. We figured we’d go when it was nice and quiet. Ha! Queues went halfway down the aisles at the big Jordan’s supermarket. The mood was quiet – not the usual Caribbean banter between the shoppers. I knew we should have gone to Eddie’s. No one’s ever even in Eddie’s.

People are definitely stocking up here. It’s the first time we’ve seen it. We too bought a month’s supply of UHT milk. This is normal for yachties to buy it like this. Otherwise we are constantly lugging it from shop to dinghy to boat. It’s not panic buying – ok! Do I sound defensive? Oh dear. I think I just answered my own question.

There’s still lots of toilet paper in the stores here too – but I’m a bit confused. Whole countries use jugs, soaps and water instead of toilet paper. Us yachties? We use a little. We don’t flush it down the toilet though. Better find a meme for that.