Unfortunately, as luck would have it, we arrived in Thailand just after the nation had celebrated New Year, Songkran, on 13th April, a holiday that was extended in 2018 to five days, enabling citizens to travel home. In 2020 this holiday was cancelled due to the pandemic, but this year the fatal mistake was made to allow the celebrations, and worse, the associated travel. Within weeks, Thailand was at the start of its worst ever wave, a wave that has continued unabated with daily cases exceeding 20,000 for weeks now. Of course, the spillover took place on Phuket Island too before the island was sealed off, but it appears to have been too little, too late, as daily cases here have continued to rise here too.
So, what does all this mean for us? Well, with only 32 total active cases on the island when we first arrived and everywhere open, we enjoyed a few wonderful weeks of immersing ourselves back into our sailing lifestyle. It was a fabulous breath of fresh air and one we were extremely grateful for, after spending close to 18 months in one or other marina in Malaysia, in and out of lockdowns, as COVID-19 cases fluctuated there.
However, as the weeks have passed, active cases have crept up on Phuket Island, with now in excess of 600 active cases and, with that, came the inevitable lockdown, one that prevents us from re-entering Phuket Province if we leave and, since Elaine’s medical care is only available on Phuket Island, that dictated our circumstance. Compounded by the southwest monsoon, we have, therefore, had no option but to remain in the best anchorage we could find for the conditions; the anchorage off Ao Po Grand marina.
As time has marched on, though, other cruisers have come to the realisation that this anchorage, which we have occupied for weeks on our own, is the preferred anchorage for them as well. Additionally, tourists have discovered the Port of Call restaurant, where, on Friday, Elaine had to confront one foreign tourist who thought it was quite alright to prance around the interior of the restaurant without wearing her mask; you could see the penny drop, though, when Elaine indicated that she was immunocompromised and was “just trying to stay alive!”, the latter in light of her conditions being out of control, yet again, and now on an additional medication in an attempt to suppress her immune system further; an event that is forcing us to be even more careful in our shielding and throwing a major wrench into our circumnavigation plans, never mind increasing our loneliness factor tenfold. The latter has become more prevalent when, on two separate occasions during these past few days, we were unable to socialise with fellow cruisers; the first on Thursday when Richard, off Charon, arranged a get-together lunch at the Port of Call restaurant and the second, although not invited, a get-together on a yacht for all the cruisers in the anchorage, except us. While we assume the reason for the lack of an invitation was based on knowledge of our particular circumstance, it was, nonetheless, very upsetting. It’s Roy, unfortunately, who is suffering the brunt of this isolation as he has no choice but to shield with Elaine to keep her as safe as possible. We did, however, undertake a “dinghy drive-by” visit to Charon on Thursday afternoon and Craig, off Il Sogno, did the same when he visited us briefly on Friday evening after he too had arrived back in the anchorage.
To pass the time, though, we’ve tried to concentrate on what we have versus what we don’t have, albeit very difficult. We’ve enjoyed phone or video calls from family and friends, we’ve walked ashore whenever the weather has permitted and enjoyed a morning coffee at the restaurant. We’ve eaten fruit we don’t recognise and baked treats to sweeten our days. Elaine has watched a few “girlie” movies, while Roy has continued with his lithium battery project and further enhancements to the Anchorage Plus project. We’ve enjoyed sundowners on the foredeck. Elaine also spent Thursday afternoon going through her medical supplies and today prepared a medication summary, including all the medications tried to date, as well as all the dosage changes, thereby providing a trend analysis of treatments, in preparation for her next specialist appointment. Today we enjoyed a dinghy ride to the next bay south of us, where we enjoyed an ice-cream, the perfect treat to compliment the only sunny day we’ve had in ages where we didn’t have a single drop of rain. Throw in the beautiful butterflies seen around the gardens of the marina and flying around Paw Paw at times, and we’re doing our best to get through these tedious, monotonous, lonely, boring days.
We did, however, receive some good news in that there are two islands in the South Indian Ocean where Elaine’s new medication is available, although on two entirely different routes, La ReUnion and Mayotte. This, however, has provided an alternative to being forced to do the Red Sea route in order to get to Europe, the only other destination where this medication is available after leaving Thailand. While options to ship Paw Paw have also been explored and considered, these are definitely no longer cost effective for us, based on recent quotations received and the astronomical increase in shipping costs.
With that said, we’ll end this blog with a quiz: In 2019, how did you recognise a good restaurant in a foreign country? Answer: By the number of locals jammed into it!
Now, in 2021, the same question. Answer: By the number of Grab motorbikes parked outside it (the local food delivery service)!
