April 18th, 2020
In the Netherlands we are still under a lock-down light -or as our Prime Minister calls it- an intelligent lockdown due to the corona virus.
In addition to the regulations that were imposed at the beginning of this month, the marina is now completely closed down. Since the 7th of April no boat may enter or leave the marina. No-one is even allowed to be at the marina at all and all the sanitary facilities are still closed. They made an exception however, for long-term residents -or in boat jargon- liveaboards. Thank goodness we were allowed to stay, because otherwise we had to find another place to wait out the pandemic. A lot of other boatowners who were not permanent residents were rather disgruntled. The weather for the coming days promised to be perfect for a day on the water or to polish your boat, but now they have to stay inside their stuffy houses.
In these trying times lots of Dutch citizens are suffering from loneliness and supermarkets are ransacked because everyone is hoarding pasta and toilet paper, being a liveaboard has it advantages. Apart from being the only ones allowed in the marina and to spend the warm sunny days in the cockpit, we are sort of prepared for a quarantine-like situation. We like to spend most of the time at anchor somewhere in a remote area and limit our visits to the shore only to do the necessary shores like filling up the water tank, buying groceries and do the laundry. Spending lots of time in the limited space of our boat is therefore not much of a change.
The empty supermarkets are also not really problematic. Even though we have a small boat, we have a reasonably large food supply with food that keeps for a long time, like rice, flour and beans. Next to the dry stuff we also have lots of preserved foods. Things like home-canned pate, stews, fruits and even home-brewn beer. In the worst case scenario we can make our own tofu with the dry soy beans. With a helping of rice and some home-grown microgreens we have a complete meal, ideally enjoyed with a glass of our own beer
So even if the shops are ransacked or if we are really quarantined, we won’t starve. On the contrary.
In that sense the lockdown isn’t such a radical change for us. But some other things have become more complicated. The sanitary facilities in the marina are closed, which means we have to wash ourselves and do the laundry by hand on the boat. And we don’t have warm water. So if we want warm water we first have to put on a kettle and bring water to the boil, just like the olden days. Doing the laundry by hand is a time-consuming task, and is everything but fun especially when it involves big soggy things like towels.
And today we were also told off by the harbor master for using the trampoline on the playing field here at the marina. All the facilities in the marina are out of bounds, he said. Disappointed we headed back to our boat. No more jumping summersaults for us.
But the most difficult part is that we aren’t allowed to go sailing, and can’t travel anymore. All our plans for this year have to wait.
So, we just grab one of our beers and enjoy the sunshine in the cockpit. Under the circumstances, things could be worse.
