Well we were to self-isolate until April 5th, at which time life might begin to return to something a bit less “abnormal”. That got extended by the government until April 15th, and at this rate it might get extended further. Likely depends on any newly identified cases of covid-19. French Polynesia has virtually stopped all inter-island air travel, and only essential personnel are allowed on the inter-island supply ships. The last international flight, an Air Tahiti Nui Boeing 787, will depart tonight from Tahiti and then the doors will officially slam shut. Or so we understand. . .
The world ARC (Atlantic rally cruisers) has been officially cancelled, however at least some of those that had already arrived in Nuku Hiva elected to secure their vessels at anchor and have a charter flight today from Nuku Hiva to Tahiti where they’ll board the international flight tonight. Interestingly enough they’re all probably healthy as horses, having been at sea for weeks on end, but tomorrow they’ll arrive in Paris, exhausted after the very long flight and then get in line with zillions of others to clear into Europe. What a great opportunity to expose themselves to covid-19! Good thinking guys.
Weirder still is the possibility that they’ve just put their boats to bed in very rapid fashion and they’ve no idea when they may be allowed to return to French Polynesia. The Marquesas are a pretty decent place to store a boat at anchor if it must be done – we did it for 7 weeks – but I’d really struggle with the notion of doing that for an indeterminate amount of time.
Of course their only other option was to either store the boat and fly away, or reprovision, make repairs, and sail away. Only problem with sailing away is “where do you go”? Sailing West doesn’t offer a bunch of options unless their home country is out there somewhere. Until recently Fiji was an option if we could prove we either had the measles jab or anti-bodies for measles, but now they’ve slammed their doors too. Sucks to be them.
We’re listening to their morning SSB net where all the boats check in with position, sailing conditions and any medical or other issues. The World ARC is expensive to participate in, but it does come with benefits. Perhaps the organization can lobby Fiji or some other country to let them in after a suitable quarantine period? Some of the folks checking in, but it must be observed that the English sailor sound particularly chipper. Stiff upper lip and all that – party in the rain and just hold your hand over your drink so it doesn’t get diluted. Tough folks. Many of the boats are within a couple hundred miles of us on their way to Papeete to see what fate awaits them. We wish them luck!
We’re going to ease on up towards the Northeast corner of the atoll today, as the wind is finally piping up a bit and our anchorage is getting a bit choppy. Moving within the atoll to ensure a safe anchorage is permitted, although there’s really nobody here to bust us anyway.
Reuters doesn’t report the news on the weekend. I did download it this morning only to read the same thing from yesterday. It’s almost as if nothing of import happens on the weekend, which isn’t so different than reality, really. It used to be that the world news was on TV Monday through Friday for a half hour, and that was all the time necessary to bring up what was important. Nothing has really changed except now the news organizations have generally sold out to ratings and selling adverts so sensationalism and “breaking news” and screaming at each other is what’s being served up.
We’re lucky all we get is Reuters.
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