Locked down (Crete)

 

5th April 2020 (Crete)

We left Agios Nikolaos 4 days ago....well we should have done, had it not been for Coronavirus, the ‘rona’ or Covid 19, or whatever history finally decides to name this horrible curse.

We are in fact still tied up in the marina in a curfew/lockdown situation, having returned to Crete from Australia four weeks ago. The marina are trying to impose a monthly summer rate upon us for staying - that’s €434 - which I’ve politely declined to pay at this stage - not sure how that’ll play out, but they do seem to be profiteering from this situation, albeit possibly unintentionally.

At time of writing the disease is still sadly on the rising side of the curve that everyone talks about ‘flattening’. Greece have thus far done a great job of putting measures in place to reduce the spread locally.

 I’m very glad that we’re a) together, b) stuck on an island.. and c) healthy for now. 

Each day brings news of a new celebrity who’s become infected (Prince Charles, Tom Hanks and Pink the notables so far) and in the last week we’ve begun to hear of people’s friends and relatives getting it. Missing being with Charlie - but he’s a well practiced self isolator, so should be fine.

...and although it was an awful conversation to have, we spoke last night about the real possibility of our mums passing and us not being able to be there. Grim times.

We’re allowed off the boat to stroll the marina wall - observing the ‘social distancing guidelines’ which we try to do at least daily. Chez has downloaded a ‘zombie run’ app to make the exercise a little more interesting. Wider excursions to the supermarket etc require a permission slip and passport, which reportedly the police are actively checking.

Rumours and gossip are rife - everyone is reading the same things on Facebook etc.. and those snippets are then parroted over and over again and again. I try to stay away from it, but it’s hard. Chez is taking a slightly more pugnacious approach, and getting into it left right and centre - a notable opponent recently was Steve Swain after he recommended gargling vinegar every 20mins.

We’ve done pretty well cramped together on the boat considering; occasionally having snappy days, but generally both trying to be supportive of each other through this. 

There’s no real end in site yet, the curfew laws were extended yesterday for another 3 weeks. 

As I’m more used to saying during blasts of Meltemi: ‘there are worse places we could be stuck’ - and I really do mean that, suspect the outcomes from all this will get a lot worse before they get better.