Mana Marina (near Wellington)
Tuesday 7 April 2020
Having locked myself down aboard Chimere, for nearly two weeks now … only going out for brief walks, and like everyone else, avoided human contact like the plague – perhaps not the best analogy, but I can see now where the phrase might have got it’s origins – I was ready to brave the local supermarket.
Who would have thought, entering a simple supermarket could become the suburban equivalent of … getting out of your vehicle … on the African savannah.
It’s not as if I hadn’t been building up to it. Last week I swapped a gas bottle using hand signals and a touch-and-go credit card through a glass window. Yesterday, I’d even walked NEAR the supermarket and observed the long queue of patient souls, all maintaining their required 2 metre distance from each other.
This morning, it was my turn to set phobias and paranoia aside and actually venture INSIDE the building.
In order to avoid a long queue, I’d banked on getting to the store for opening time, which I took to be 8:00am. My newly acquired habit of sleeping-in soon put paid to that, and so it wasn’t until 8:30 that I was donning rubber gloves and reaching for a trolley, as I engaged in friendly chatter with the only guy there outside on the pavement; who I initially thought was wanting to use the ATM at the supermarket entrance.
Reading the sign on the window, I noticed that the store didn’t open until 9:00am … well, that accounted for the very small queue … of two. Pretty soon, another couple of guys turned up, and seeing that there were “customers”, the store manager came out around 8:45 and in a friendly tone said he’d, “open up early” … which was nice.
Inside, it was eerily normal. Lots of stock on the shelves – even toilet paper, on special. Friendly helpful staff. Nothing really to suggest that I was undertaking what could be termed in the current environment … a “high risk activity”. As more customers entered the store, it was clear however, that some had moved well beyond the mere rubber gloves, as a form of protection, with a variety of masks and face coverings employed. Including one guy, with what looked like multiple scarves wrapped around his head like an Arab Bedouin, or an Egyptian mummy, with a gap just big enough for his eyes to see out … and viruses to get in too no doubt … but I wisely didn’t engage in conversation.
Twenty minutes later I was packing my “essential items” into bags and onto my little two-wheeled trolley, for the short walk back to the boat, stopping a little distance down the road to dispose of the rubber gloves in a bin. Oh, and spray everything I could with my trusty bottle of hospital-looking-pink-liquid.
So ended my one outing for the day, with the rest of the time spent, pretty much in front of the computer.
Between “compulsory”, Youtube viewing that included … “10 Fastest Planes Ever” … “Simon Cowells Favorite Britain’s Got Talent Acts” and “11 Construction Fails…”, I was mostly communicating online with boating folk … in my continued attempt to find crew to help me sail home.
Despite my initial, unsuccessful attempt at finding crew online, and the polite warning from the NZ Customs to … “more fully check out potential candidates”, I still have a small amount of hope that there are stranded, sailing-Aussies out there – somewhere in the Wellington area – just waiting to step aboard Chimere.
Perhaps it’s the optimist in me, but apart from anything else, this online social networking thing is occasionally amusing. Certainly, there are some yachties out there doing it tough in some remote and far-away places. Others are very keen, as it turns out, to give gratuitous advice, suggestions, pearls of wisdom and whatever else, to … pretty much anyone.
Along with a few choice photos, of Chimere etc … my Facebook post included the usual … “Greetings all, I’m still looking for crew to help me sail my 16m Chimere home to Melbourne (Aust) ASAP bro. Crew need to be Aussies, or Australian residents – already in NZ and can get to Mana without breaking the lock down rules. Tall order I know, but no harm in asking …there might just be a few Aussies stuck in New Zealand who’d like to sail home.”
In response, a lot of people might post a supportive comment, or a thumbs up about a photo, or perhaps an observation like… “be sure your crew have proper health check etc”, but one person posted … “Maybe the crew should be only women”.
Say what??!! Why would someone write that?! Who would write that?! … A man, or a woman?!
Obviously, this isn’t something that deserves too much thought, but of course with just a couple of clicks you can end up at THEIR Facebook page. Which curiosity did of course. And in this case, under the heading “Intro” … I see that they studied … “Fat at … Puting on Weight University, Little Rock AR”
Which seemed a little strange I thought. But let’s face it, anyone who doesn’t know that the word “Putting” has got two “t”s in it, should probably have gone to a different university.
On the topic of social networking, I had an email from a German chap, Heiner, that I met in Vanuatu in 2017, under what you’d call, unusual circumstances, which are described in detail here … (if you’re interested)
https://msm.org.au/sea-rescue-lift-raft-red-flares-sinking-yacht-action-stations-the-works/
… but since 2017, Heiner has continued his circumnavigation of the world.
As it turns out, he is currently in Deshaies, on the island of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, which just happens to be the location of the fictional town of Honoré, in the British-French crime-drama television series Death in Paradise is filmed.
Well, like me, Heiner has been looking for crew. But in his case, it’s back to his home port in Germany. His creative solution has been to by pair-up with another German in the same location, with the same problem. Their plan involves the other guy leaving his boat on a mooring, and them both sailing home on Heiner’s yacht… The other chap will obviously return at a future time to resume his journey.
While engaging in semi-useful, online activities I also checked out a website I used to visit a lot. It’s called … “The American Life”, and it’s essentially a weekly radio show out of Chicago that has been running for more than 20 years. Each week they present a story … sometimes funny and sometimes poignant or sad … or bizarre or unbelievable.
One of their most popular shows, investigated what constitutes a Fiasco. That situation that no one really wants to occur, but can result when plans are big, there’s a lot at stake and everyone is reaching just a little further than they normally would. They use as their case study, an extremely ambitious school-production of Peter Pan, remembered decades later in intimate detail, for all the wrong reasons. If you get a chance, and like me, you’ve got time on your hands … it’s well worth a listen …
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/699/fiasco
Another, This Is Your Life story, but this one falls into the very, very emotional category, involves a story of a man who installed a public telephone in Japan, in the place where over 400 people are still missing, following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami which killed around 16,000.
The public phone box is not connected. It’s called “The Phone of the Wind”. And people come to use the phone, to speak with lost and missing relatives … sons, daughters, parents, grandparents …
From one man’s way of dealing with his own grief and loss, it has now become an avenue through which hundreds of grieving Japanese can “communicate” with lost loved ones. It’s well worth a listen, but have a box of tissues at hand.
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/597/one-last-thing-before-i-go
And this is a link to the film documentary of the same
In Vanuatu, Cyclone Harold has now left a path of destruction across the southern part of the island of Santo, and the main city of Luganville. It seems that our friends and their families have come through okay, but with communications still down in many parts, it’s hard to know for sure.
The latest report I could find, relayed the following
“Reports of extensive damage are emerging from parts of Vanuatu struck by Cyclone Harold yesterday, but communication with much of the battered region is proving difficult.
Winds in excess of 230km/h tore across the country’s northern and central islands, and heavy rain has damaged many roads and food gardens.
On Santo, where Harold first made landfall yesterday, damage is understood to be extensive.
Already, pictures sent from the region have told a grim tale; a large ship shunted ashore by ferocious waves; palm trees splintered and stripped of colour; rivers spilling over banks and into villages, forcing residents to flee in the backs of utes; roofing iron being thrown across towns.
In Santo’s main town, Luganville, a local MP, Matai Seremaiah, said initial reports suggested about 50 to 70 percent of buildings in the town were damaged, with hundreds sheltering in evacuation centres.”
It seems TC Harold, which is still a Category 5 hurricane, is now continuing on to Fiji
Smooth seas, fair breeze and the supermarket experience
Rob Latimer
NZ2020 