Living on a Boat During a Pandemic: An optimistic "mid-way" reflection
(Thumbnail photo cred: Claudia Wii via Facebook)
Scalp laceration? No problem, we have pain meds, a medical staple gun and staple remover.
Sea sickness? No problem, we have patches, pills, suppositories and various items I would file under "possible placebo effect".
Shingles? No problem.
Food poisoning? No problem.
Skin infection? No problem.
Burns? No problem.
Anxiety? No problem.
Pandemic that closes all boarders and majorly limits personal freedoms such as the freedom to move about on land? Ummmm....
Well of course in all of our boat planning we didn't plan for this.
Before we reached this point globally I wrote a blog post about how we are doing our best to prepare for where we are at. After that I tried to focus on non-COVID related updates to share a sense of what our days are like. Haha…how cute that I thought we’d do dailies right??? A blog a day during isolation is TOO MANY BLOGS WHEN ISOLATION HAS AN UNKNOWN END. At least for me ;) I mean I love writing and I love sharing our shit with you but I honestly think that after a week you would all be super bored with our days given that we are almost 4 weeks into this isolation thing hahahaha.
Ok maybe that’s an exaggeration - we’ve been able to do some cool stuff on water if not on land. We’ve done some spectacular snorkelling and free diving. Practiced shooting lion fish and gutting them (sooo tasty). And been stung by jelly fish several times…that one kinda sucks as it’s always these tiny effers that you can’t really see and they hurt like a MoFo.
But now that we are several weeks into quarantines and curfews we've also had some time to reflect on what's going well and what could have been better if "pandemic" was one of our "what if's". Disclaimer: I am talking here about comforts mostly in this post. Not power or water generation since we've covered these topics already in other posts. Though at some point Greg will go into more detail about power generation...
What we (coincidentally) got right.
Let's be clear...we didn't get these things right because we have a magic 8-ball. We just got lucky that these things are working for us in this scenario.
Smitten Kitchen Jacked-up Banana Bread was freaking amazing…
1) Solar oven: Our GoSun Fusion has been a great addition to the galley in the pandemic scenario. We bought this little solar oven last year after watching copious YouTube vids where sailors spent copious amounts of time trying to get propane bottles filled in islands where they didn't have the right adaptor or there weren't (readily) available filling stations. We thought...well damn, our family eats A LOT of food and if we can't cook that could be a huge issue. So a solar oven was the back-up to not having propane. Here in Dominica we are fortunate that Kish (local owner and operator of a bar, kitchen and yacht services business) fills up gas bottles down in Roseau once a week...that said we have started conserving our propane in case that process is disrupted for one reason or another. Annnndddd guess what? Cooking in the solar oven is pretty cool (actually it's hot lol)! We've made breads, cakes, roasted provisions (aka various root vegetables), and today I think I am going to make some rice / fish / veg dish for dinner. All you do is put your uncooked food in the tube, unfold the two sun-reflector / collector sides and orient it toward the sun and then wait for your food to smell good :) I find it gets about 350-400F and takes about 25-50% longer to cook whatever it is you are cooking (e.g. 2 loaves of bread might take 45 mins rather than 30)...but it is totally effortless and resource-free so I'm happy to give the extra minutes it requires. It is a HUGE relief to know that, even in overcast days, we can prepare hot meals.
We’ve got very nice stuff for the kids in particular…I could use a mask upgrade but it’s not bad. Greg and I would like new fins but only because now that we are free-diving we appreciate minimizing effort to move (uses up all your O2 :P)
2) Snorkel gear: Ok this one might seem unrelated but it's not. I am so glad that, since we can't go on land at the moment, we have good snorkel gear for Greg and I as well as the kids so we can all enjoy hours in the water looking at the amazing world beneath the surface. Every time we go on a snorkel adventure we all come back feeling physically and mentally satisfied. Snorkelling is kind of a moving mediation where you totally loose yourself in the moments of watching fish, eels, and various little crustaceans. It's a break from those other thoughts that can take over these days as well as a bit of exercise. If we had ill-fitting masks or crappy fins this would be much less enjoyable. That said, we still plan to upgrade our fins if / when we are someday able to enter (and leave) another island. Dominica doesn't have a place where we can get good fins (I think people usually either order them online or buy from neighbouring islands) so we'll have to wait until we can order stuff and be able to actually pick it up, or go to Martinique, St. Lucia or Grenada...whichever comes first.
This is from last week when we bombed around the north side of the island, in the Atlantic swell and were totally comfortable…we added some chain to our dinghy anchor so we could trust it in these conditions and snorkel around little coves…pretty great to have this escape since we aren’t encouraged to walk around on land for exercise…
3) Dinghy and Outboard: This is related to above in a way...we've been grateful many times for our solid Highfield CL340 dinghy and Tohatsu 20hp motor...really good quality products. But now we are even more grateful because we are allow to "explore" the island from the water provided we don't have multiple families in one boat and don't venture into populated areas. The day before yesterday we went on a dinghy adventure with 2 other families (the same ones we've been with for the last 6 weeks: Alley Cat from Canada and Bliss from the USA) and took ourselves at least 5 miles from our anchorage by dinghy and that included some exposed corners of the island where there wasn't anything to protect you from the Atlantic swell. A shitty dinghy or busted up outboard could lead to some sketchy moments. And yes Dad, we all had life jackets on and our radio with us as well ;) Our "family vehicle" affords us with a precious amount of freedom to still move around a bit and see new things...which I realize is NOT a privilege that some others have on land at the moment.
I don’t think I could troubleshoot it - and I basically rely on Greg and Liam to set it up - but I love this Raspberry Pie thing because it lets me watch LOTR
4) TV and our Raspberry Pie Open Media Vault: While we likely all know what a TV is, the other item may or may not be familiar to you. I can't really explain this well so I have to use Greg's words "The Raspberry Pie running Open Media Vault and Plex media server is accessible via our boat WiFi with external hard drive where all the media files are stored". What I know is that we can put shit on there and then watch it later using an app or web browser to navigate our files...Plex looks basically like Netflix except it doesn't shame me by asking if I'm still watching. Eff ya I'm watching, I live on a boat, at anchor, on a curfew. How did we get this right? Well we asked Andrew (Greg's brother) to help us out and he set the whole thing up as well as downloaded a BUNCH of stuff...so yay for us for asking him LOL. Also yay for me not getting rid of the TV like I was planning to last summer when I thought a white board would be a better use of that precious wall space...as if the white board would be helping us to pass the time right now!?!?! Seriously, Megan a whiteboard??? What was I thinking...
5) DigiCell Plan: We've talked about our data plans before but now more than ever we are thankful for our 40G for 40$ plan and that the cell service in Dominica is fast and reliable. This is actually the first island we've been to where it's been LTE all the time...and it's amazing the lack-of-frustration we feel when trying to do something basic like posting a pick on Insta or putting up a new blog post. That said we are FaceTiming, WhatsApping and generally reading articles much more than we were before so we keep a weathered eye on the tally to ensure we don't go over and get cut off from the world. But thank you French language only Digicell plan that is impossible to navigate online or on the phone unless you are a fully French-speaking human...the 40G is working well for our family.
We we (coincidentally) got wrong.
Ok "wrong" might be a bit strong at the moment but there are a few things that I wish we had that I can't get now.
1) Dry Goods : One of my biggest stressors on the boat (as well as at home to be honest) is feeding my family healthy, nutritious foods of a wide variety. I love to cook and plan so that generally works out ok. But it situations like these, as I know many of you are finding yourselves in, thinking about how to keep my family (including my diabetic husband) healthy has taken on more of a sharp edge emotionally. While we aren't short of food, far from it when it comes to fresh produce actually, there are some things I wish I bought more of when I had the chance because either they aren't available on this island that we have been calling home for 6 weeks and probably will for another few months at least, or because trying to get them through our agent (aka boat boy) is challenging. Some of these items include:
Seeds and nuts and butters: WHY didn't I buy more tahini in the USA? We are almost out and that's only because I found one more jar tucked in the back of a cabinet. We don't have anymore almond butter, are low on peanut butter and I don't have any seeds anymore other than chia seeds. Is this a huge deal? No. Not really. Except the planner in me...the worse-case scenario planner in me...wishes we had more protein-complex carb-high fat - calorie dense - shelf stable items like these in case we had to peel away from this island in a hurry. And of course we really like them. But mostly for the feeling of having very nutrient dense items packed away that could fuel us, or bump up other foods, if we were really living everyday out of our pantries. Not having these things makes me feel a bit exposed. Sure we have lentils and rice and flour and oats (though not as much as I would like) but if the shit hits the fan (or if you are in bad weather)...a few spoonfuls of nut butter or a few handful of seeds can keep you going for a while without having to soak beans.
Dehydrated meals, vegetables and fruits: I hate canned vegetables (my parents fed them to us as kids and I just….can't...) and we have a small small freezer. Meg and Morgan from Ocean Racers had some posts last year about dehydrated foods they use on passages and I always wanted to look into different brands and order some. They had full meals as well as greens that I can't get easily and it looked like a good way to still get well rounded nutrition when you can't get to the market. Buuuut in our LONG to-do list pre-passage, as well as the glut of food available in the USA, I just didn't get around to it. Dammit. If we had cupboards filled with dehydrated foods I would sleep better at night. As soon as I am in a place where I can order stuff again these items ARE HAPPENING. Unfortunately me and there rest of the damn world is looking for this stuff now so I will be paying the COVID-price versus the pre-COVID-the-world-was-normal price of last summer.
Good Quality Honey: Greg has lots of items he can choose from when his blood sugar is low. He knows exactly what works and the order in which he needs to eat certain foods. Usually if he is low he has to start with a big bump of simple sugar, followed by a more complex carbohydrate and then later something with some protein and fat. Waaaay back in his life that big bump could be a can of Coke or something similar - but that ROTS YOUR TEETH so that's a hard no (unless that's literally all we have...I do have some secret bottles of Coke for emergency) - nowadays he chooses things like sport gummies that have sugar, electrolytes and a bit of caffeine in perfect proportions and easily digestible (and tasty) forms. However - not surprising - these aren't available around here so he has to get them sent from the US or Canada...and orders like this are rare for us. Since these items are packaged and portable we save them for times when we are adventuring off the boat. So a work-around is honey. Good quality, all natural, unpasteurized honey is super good for you anyway and give him the bump he needs before following up with a banana, some cookies and whatever else comes next. We brought some honey from my friend Larry's farm in Milton and IT IS AMAZING; however, ran out of that ages ago while we were still in the USA. So while we were there we bought some "local honey"...6 mason jars of it actually...seems like a lot right? Well we are down to 1 now. And since I was lucky enough to have a friend with an apiary I didn't really how shitty store-bought honey really was. It was labeled as "local" but it tastes like corn syrup :S So poor Greg has to suppress a gag reflex as he swallows it by the spoonful when he is already feeling like garbage. I can buy delicious local honey here, and have been, but it's super expensive (understandable) and I wish I had a HUGE store of Larry's honey on board so I could be assured Greg would have what he needs and prefers when he is low for a year at a time.
Crappy gross burnt-tasting honey on the left…delicious, flavourful, Dominican honey on the right….
2) Medical Kit items: These are minor - we don't actually need them but we did think if we had them...well in a time of many many what ifs we started thinking we might have been a little bit more able to McGiver some emergency care if we we were alone if we had the following.
Malaria drugs: we opted not to get these...we honestly thought at the time we weren't going to be in malaria zones and we also had a massive med kit and thought we should cut it off somewhere. How ironic that honestly one of the most inexpensive drugs in the bag could have possibly brought some experimental piece of mind if we decided to self-medicate a COVID-19 infection. OF COURSE this is not based on solid science, clinical trials or any thing other than anecdotal data at this point but a few weeks ago when the cases were creeping up here we would have slept a little more soundly if we had a very worst case scenario (e.g. Greg gets sick, we can't get him in hospital and have no other options but to experiment with our own kit...yes this is how my brain works). And on that note....
Positive Pressure Ventilation bag: we have a PPV tube that you manually blow into if someone needs help breathing...however we didn't get the squeeze bag (I can't help thinking of old eps of ER when I think of those squeeze bags....mmm...George Clooney....). As far as equipment goes the PPV bag is inexpensive and could help keep someone alive for more of an extended period than without....but again it was bulky and we drew a line. Would it save a life if long-term use was required? No probably not, but again, piece of mind / hindsight and all that.
The very very best thing we did actually was to make friends. Lame? Well sure kinda but also not really. We met our Americian friends on S/V Bliss LITERALLY days after Greg and I had a conversation about putting ourselves more 'out there' and meeting other boat kids and families. Up to that point we'd kinda been doing our own thing and keeping to ourselves. And we actually some really good friends who we enjoy spending time with, care about and trust. Together with the awesome Canadians from S/V AlleyCat (soon to be S/V Mamaosa when they are able to officially change their name) we feel MUCH more secure in this strange new world. Not secure like against the threat of crime or anything like that - Dominica is a lovely island with lovely people and we've not felt a threatening vibe at all here, nor does it have a reputation to be as such. By secure I mean more confident to stay and hack out a limited-resource-existence and know that if we need some help, or a part, or some freezer space...we could get it. We aren't alone. What an amazing feeling that is. Eventually, at some point, maybe months from now, maybe years from now, we'll part ways with these two boats...but they have become our family and we'll have to WhatsApp with them during the next pandemic...if we aren't still anchored here riding it out :P
Very good people here. Canadians Kris and George (left) are adventurous travellers who we instantly loved and have decided to move onto their property in BC…Darlynne and Harry (middle) are some of the most outgoing and generous people I’ve ever known…reaching out to and helping strangers all the time. They found and donated their LAST bottle of Prosecco for our Easter brunch cocktail…that’s LOVE!
When this is all over I will write about the pros and cons of our decision to stay in Dominica and not go back to Canada or sail to another island. But since we aren’t at the end yet it feels premature…and who knows what next week will bring?
Cue back to my optimistic “mid-way”….
MUCH LOVE TO YOU ALL,
