As time has passed with this pandemic, it has become more difficult to find the joy in our every day life here in Straits Quay Marina. While a pinch of variety helps, like seeing a beautiful bird we haven’t seen before or seeing a windsurfer out enjoying the breeze or having a rain shower pass over to cool the tropical heat, it is still not the life we chose. As Roy succinctly put it: “this is worse than being on Gough Island”, an uninhabited island where he spent 15 months with 7 team mates; the difference being they were working and, on their days off, there was something interesting and exciting to do. For us, although we’ve been working to get Paw Paw in top notch condition, which hasn’t been easy with the challenges of finding parts or having to get them delivered from outside the country, when the work day is over, there’s been nothing we’ve been allowed to do under the MCO (Movement Control Order). More importantly, with the lifting of some restrictions, the risk of contracting COVID-19 looms constantly and overshadows the joy of most outings. In other instances, there have been events that definitely would have been enjoyable, but we’ve simply had to gracefully decline; like being invited to dinner at the home of newfound friends, but they have a child attending school, presenting far too high a risk for Elaine.

These feelings seemed to resonate more on Tuesday morning when all the yachts bound for Europe by cargo ship, left the marina, destined for their new homes. This exodus left us feeling stuck, in limbo and wondering what the future held for us. It didn’t help matters that, once again, the uncertainty around our visa amnesty has been looming with the MCO rescheduled to end on the 31st March.

Looking at this situation from a different perspective, however, there’s the philosophy of: “better the devil you know”, so we should be content to stay put, we should acknowledge we’re not the only cruisers in this situation, we should be patient, we have everything we need here and, for the most part, we’re safe. However, if we’d lived by this philosophy all our lives, we would never have left Arizona to undertake a circumnavigation in the first place. At the heart of it, we are adventurous souls; the mundane and ordinary bores us to tears, there’s no challenge to keep us stimulated, there’s no excitement like setting sail for pastures new, there’s no thrill like experiencing new cultures, customs, cuisine and history. We’re basically sitting here watching our lives pass us by and, worst of all, there is absolutely nothing we can do about it; not only was the situation too precarious for us to set sail into the unknown across the Indian Ocean at the start of the year, we missed that window of opportunity due to delayed deliveries of parts and spares and now it’s the wrong season to even set sail for Thailand.

So, when St Patrick’s Day rolled around yesterday and we realised we’d been in various forms of lockdown for a year, never mind the fact that we’ve also watched an entire bridge be built in this time, Elaine decided to try and add some festive cheer to Paw Paw and hoisted our flags in celebration. Although, it was a small gesture, it was a gesture nonetheless. Roy added his dash of cheer by ensuring we had our supply of chocolate muffins and cooked up a delicious Irish stew to mark the occasion! Enjoying a Guinness on the patio of the Irish bar a stone’s throw from Paw Paw’s bow, then listening to some Irish music over our dinner, followed by a chat to Elaine’s folks in Ireland, all went a long way to creating a festive mood. A good dollop of perseverance and a freshly baked French pastry thrown into the mix from time to time will, no doubt, help sanity prevail too moving forward!

Receiving a phone call from Keenan on Tuesday night, the first in weeks, was also a pleasant surprise and watching the Americas Cup races have definitely helped too. Congratulations to Emirates Team New Zealand. While the Italian Team, Prada Pirelli Luna Rossa, put up a fantastic fight, the best team ultimately won the cup yesterday. While an entire race day was cancelled on Sunday, along with a race cancellation on Tuesday due to weather, we still witnessed some fabulous racing nonetheless.

On Tuesday our day started with an early morning downpour which was a lovely start to the day, but unfortunately, created very hot and humid conditions for the remainder of the day. Elaine decided the best way to pass her time was to complete the video she was working on, “ Magnolious Malaysia - Malacca”, which brought back wonderful memories, while Roy was invited out for an afternoon coffee by Howard, an owner of one of the motor yachts in the marina, who’s lived in SE Asia for many years and befriended Roy a few months ago.

Today was a relatively quiet day onboard; Elaine continued work on her next video, “Magnolious Malaysia - Langkawi Archipelago”, while Roy applied some finishing touches to his latest version of the Anchor Plus application.