Yesterday we enjoyed a cooked breakfast for a change, complements of Roy, before he dinghied ashore for a walk and to reserve a hired car for us.

While he was away, Elaine continued her efforts on finalising the passage planning activity before we both got stuck into a task that we’ve been procrastinating for some time; removing all the bits of “glue” stuck to Paw Paw after our time in Malaysia when we used duct tap to secure the tarps that covered the saloon louver windows and to hold the piping of the standalone air-conditioner in place, as well as the strips of masking tape Roy had placed on the topsides to mark where the belts of the travel lift had to go in order to haul Paw Paw out of the water. It was a very sticky mess to clean up in the sweltering heat and humidity, fortunately made easier by the spray “glue remover” we found in Malaysia. We eventually got finished by late afternoon just before the rain set in again.

It was the COVID-19 numbers, however, that were the real concern of the day, with the weekly total just under 900; 10 times the original threshold for reevaluating the Phuket Sandbox, although the criteria for evaluation have been modified constantly by the authorities over the weeks as each threshold has been reached, rendering them pointless.

Yesterday’s total set yet another daily record of 189 cases reported, excluding the 3 new Phuket Sandbox infections found in international travellers who had recently arrived on the island.

More disturbingly, though, is that the official totals announced each day do not provide an accurate account of the case numbers, since several demographics are excluded; totals to date too that are on the increase, namely:

• 73 Phuket Sandbox travellers who have tested positive for COVID-19 sometime after arriving on the island
• 39 Phuket natives infected in other provinces, but brought back to the island for treatment under the “Bring Phuket People Home” programme
• 23 infected Thai nationals returning home from other countries 10 cases infected in other provinces, although we have no clue what this group actually represents
• An additional 19 people testing positive yesterday with a rapid antigen test, but are unconfirmed until the results of their RT-PCR tests are returned, with a total of 430 people in the COVID-19 Care Centres also currently awaiting their RT-PCR test results after receiving a positive result on an antigen test.

Not knowing these numbers before we reserved the hired car, we continued with our plans for today regardless; to purchase fresh produce since we’d run out, run a few errands and enjoy a beach day, killing two birds with one stone as we also considered a supermarket recommended by Derek, the Ao Po Grand marina manager, in lieu of shopping at the very busy Makro store.

That meant we were up early to collect the car before driving to Boat Lagoon marina, where we enjoyed a morning coffee and baked delight at Dean and Deluca, stopping en route at Electrical Marine to top up our generator spares. Then, while Elaine whiled away the time in the luxury of the air-conditioned restaurant, Roy completed his errands doing the rounds at the various chandleries, primarily to purchase the bits and bobs he needs to redo the piping on the starboard fuel tank’s polishing system, as well as some initial parts needed for the installation of the lithium batteries.

From there we headed to the beach closest to the supermarket we’d been referred to in Boat Avenues, Bang Tao Beach, and in doing so stumbled upon the rather upmarket expatriate’s enclave of Laguna. We were quite surprised to see the remarkable contrast of this area compared to the local areas of the island we’ve frequented up until now. We were delighted, though, to find a fabulous long sandy beach, where we didn’t feel threatened in any way while we walked along it, especially since it was deserted for the most part. We also found the Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket 5-star hotel which had a handful of sun worshippers and some swimmers, following which we found a shady spot under the trees and enjoyed the scenery. Another of our finds, as we enjoyed our stroll along the beach, was the Xana Beach Club, although open, was completely deserted as well. We could only imagine what a fun spot this would have been pre-pandemic, not to mention the bikini clad girls who most likely would have been playing volleyball, the lack thereof, a huge disappointment for Roy.

For lunch we decided to continue our Thai gastronomic adventures at the Tawai Thai Cuisine restaurant, where Elaine enjoyed a Pad Khing Nuah (Stir-fried Ginger Beef) and Roy opted for the Gaeng Keow Wan Neua (Thai Beef Green Curry) before getting most of our fresh produce at a roadside stall, the owners of which were delighted with our purchases. This, however, was another occasion during our circumnavigation where we received gifts from people who have so little, but still generous and willing to share; bunches of the exotic fruits, Rambutan and Longan. Delicious!

What struck us, though, as we stopped at the ATM, en route to the supermarket, the latter also completely deserted, except for a few statues, were trucks spraying some or other antiseptic or disinfectant liquid along all the streets and over the pavements; something we had not seen before, except on videos out of China and Singapore. The authorities were clearly pulling out all the stops to try and curtail the further spread of COVID-19 on the island.

Our final errand for the day was to purchase a local gas bottle, an undertaking which took some convincing using simple English words and hand gestures to validate that we intended to return the bottle to be refilled at a later date. From the safety of the car, Elaine watched what looked like a game of Charades which Roy was playing, the smiles of the owners indicating that he was getting his message across, thankfully!

We were both exhausted by the time we returned to Paw Paw, but having our usual stairs and ramp to the dinghy dock closed off and having to enter the dock area via a single checkpoint where temperatures were taken, hands were sanitised and a notebook was updated, was another indication that the unabated spread of COVID-19 on the island had upped the ante everywhere, especially since a further 169 cases had been reported, excluding the demographics noted above, bringing the total number of people under medical care or supervision to 1,309 and an additional 103 new cases of people suspected of being infected after testing positive by an antigen test, the latter awaiting confirmation through a RT-PCR test, not to mention the other 443 people currently held at “COVID-19 Care Centers”, also awaiting confirmation of their RT-PCR tests.

By this stage, though, we were just grateful that we’d enjoyed a lovely day out, although busy, that it wasn’t raining when we got back to the marina and it wasn’t low tide, so we could get our dock cart down the ramp and to the dinghy without further ado!