The World has moved on.
Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2020 9:08 pm
The world has moved on . I borrowed that expression from Stephen King from the Dark Tower series but currently seems an appropriate description of the times. Just a little semi sailing related post on the current C19 crisis.
Firstly I hope you are all staying well and you and all your families are ok. I’m going haulout as a way to stay sane while stuck at home . The trip we had planned to UK to visit our daughter next month and the added cruise up the coast of Norway is now in the toilet . Like nearly everything anyone has planned for the next year.
I’ve looked it up online but as I anticipated no government agency has thought to address it yet but I figured sailing , fishing, canoeing and anything boats related might be a good safety valve for the social pressure cooker that’s going to start building up. Yes you can’t get far far away from others on a boat but if you’re only with the people you live with anyway there’s no harm done . It’s easy to keep 1.5 m away from another boat. I intend to go kayak early in the morning just to get some fresh air .
You have probably got health warnings coming out of your ears but here’s a simple observation you can translate to other situations. Last week after years of nagging from Mrs Ozzie I went to a very busy Lidcome Costco to pick up my new hearing aids I’d got fitted for the fortnight before. It was really the last place and city I wanted to be in under the current circumstances. Anyway I went straight in conducted my business and got straight out. The hearing clinic naturally was set up for the conditions and conducted itself accordingly.
It was after heading home I had a revelation. Stopping for fuel at a very busy servo I grabbed an iced coffee for myself and a packet of chips for my wife. When I payed for my fuel I gave my goods to the console operator who touched them and scanned them and handed them back to me. It of course hit me that every person of probably a hundred before me buying Freddo Frogs or whatever that day had touched the stuff and then console guy had then touched it . He had then transferred whatever to my coffee.
This is how C19 is going to spread. It’s that simple. Naturally when I returned to the car we wiped the coffee the chips and my keys down with wipes before using it.
We are more aware or this stuff because we are very regular cruisers and although we have never picked up any crepe from cruise ships we have dodged a bullet a few times when the next cruise on our ship came down with the screaming trots.
It’s no surprise, as I’ve watched people go out of their way to dodge the Mr Washy Washy dude dispensing hand sanitizer outside the smorgasbord or dining room. WTF ....how hard is it.
After a life in road design / road safety I can tell you relying on people to do the right thing don’t work. (Reference Bondi Beach last weekend)
I’m in the loser group unfortunately. Mid 60’s with lung deficiency ( not smoking related) so I’m trying to be extra careful . Personally I don’t know anyone with the bug yet but both my daughters do. But both my father and father in law died of asbestos related lung conditions and my grandfather, an ex miner, with pneumonia. Running out of air ain’t a pleasant way to shuffle off the coil.
Rant and gloom over. Look after yourself and let’s all post some great sailing stories after this blows over. If we run into each other on the water...I can hear you great now.
NOTE REPLIES TO MANY OF THESE POSTS WERE DELETED BY OR AT THE REQUEST OF THE ORIGINAL POSTER.
Firstly I hope you are all staying well and you and all your families are ok. I’m going haulout as a way to stay sane while stuck at home . The trip we had planned to UK to visit our daughter next month and the added cruise up the coast of Norway is now in the toilet . Like nearly everything anyone has planned for the next year.
I’ve looked it up online but as I anticipated no government agency has thought to address it yet but I figured sailing , fishing, canoeing and anything boats related might be a good safety valve for the social pressure cooker that’s going to start building up. Yes you can’t get far far away from others on a boat but if you’re only with the people you live with anyway there’s no harm done . It’s easy to keep 1.5 m away from another boat. I intend to go kayak early in the morning just to get some fresh air .
You have probably got health warnings coming out of your ears but here’s a simple observation you can translate to other situations. Last week after years of nagging from Mrs Ozzie I went to a very busy Lidcome Costco to pick up my new hearing aids I’d got fitted for the fortnight before. It was really the last place and city I wanted to be in under the current circumstances. Anyway I went straight in conducted my business and got straight out. The hearing clinic naturally was set up for the conditions and conducted itself accordingly.
It was after heading home I had a revelation. Stopping for fuel at a very busy servo I grabbed an iced coffee for myself and a packet of chips for my wife. When I payed for my fuel I gave my goods to the console operator who touched them and scanned them and handed them back to me. It of course hit me that every person of probably a hundred before me buying Freddo Frogs or whatever that day had touched the stuff and then console guy had then touched it . He had then transferred whatever to my coffee.
This is how C19 is going to spread. It’s that simple. Naturally when I returned to the car we wiped the coffee the chips and my keys down with wipes before using it.
We are more aware or this stuff because we are very regular cruisers and although we have never picked up any crepe from cruise ships we have dodged a bullet a few times when the next cruise on our ship came down with the screaming trots.
It’s no surprise, as I’ve watched people go out of their way to dodge the Mr Washy Washy dude dispensing hand sanitizer outside the smorgasbord or dining room. WTF ....how hard is it.
After a life in road design / road safety I can tell you relying on people to do the right thing don’t work. (Reference Bondi Beach last weekend)
I’m in the loser group unfortunately. Mid 60’s with lung deficiency ( not smoking related) so I’m trying to be extra careful . Personally I don’t know anyone with the bug yet but both my daughters do. But both my father and father in law died of asbestos related lung conditions and my grandfather, an ex miner, with pneumonia. Running out of air ain’t a pleasant way to shuffle off the coil.
Rant and gloom over. Look after yourself and let’s all post some great sailing stories after this blows over. If we run into each other on the water...I can hear you great now.
NOTE REPLIES TO MANY OF THESE POSTS WERE DELETED BY OR AT THE REQUEST OF THE ORIGINAL POSTER.