Life Goes On

It is hard to believe what has happened to the world this year. We are still on Avante in the far north of New Zealand, and for us, the good news is that spring is coming. It is getting warmer, the days are getting longer and it is not raining as much. The other bit of good news is that life here is covid-free. New Zealand completely closed its borders early, and they remain closed to everyone except NZ citizens and residents who must undergo mandatory supervised quarantine for 14 days when they arrive. At the present time, the only cases in New Zealand are from new arrivals, and they are being caught by testing during quarantine. There is currently no community spread of the coronavirus, and life is totally normal. Everything is open, social distancing is no longer required, and we almost never see a mask. The only reminder is a phone scan or sign in when you enter a store or restaurant that facilitates contact tracing in the event of an outbreak, and unlike the resistance seen in the States, most people here see the necessity and reassurance of this and are following the guidelines.

The Captain and The First Mate have been in New Zealand for over seven months. While we have sometimes been out of the United States for over half the year, we are rarely gone for more than three months at a time. Sometimes, we are only gone for a month. This is the longest continuous period that we have been out of our country since we lived in Europe 50 years ago, and we do not see us returning home any time soon!

For the last 50 years, we have both done a fair amount of international travel, and The Captain often flew hundreds of thousands of miles each year on business. The fact that borders are closed and that we just cannot get on an airplane and go where ever we would want to go is mind boggling. As American citizens abroad, we find the fact that Americans are currently among the least welcome in many places embarrassing and something we never expected to hear about our country.

We had planned to sail to French Polynesia this year and had gone through the lengthy process of getting long stay visas for this French Territory. Unfortunately, toward the end of March, all the Pacific Island Nations began closing their borders leaving us with nowhere we could go. Fiji did open its border in July, and a number of boats that wanted to escape the New Zealand winter headed there. However, unless they are New Zealand or Australian citizens, many boats are now in a quandary about where they can go to safely hide out the Southern Hemisphere cyclone season that is starting shortly. Our insurance, like almost all marine insurance policies in this part of the world, requires us to be in either New Zealand or Australia by the end of November so that we are out of the cyclone zone (although they do get cyclones in Queensland). If we had left for Fiji when they reopened their borders in July, we would be stuck there now. Neither New Zealand nor Australia are allowing foreign crew members into their countries. Recently, a German boat tried to come to New Zealand even though their request to do so had been denied. They were met at sea at the international maritime border, promptly arrested, thrown in jail, and deported back to Germany on the first available flight. Their boat was impounded.

Thus, we have stayed in New Zealand. In the first year of Covid-19, it is hard to imagine a safer place to be than on a sailboat in the waters of New Zealand. New Zealand has welcomed us and extended our visas until the end of February. Although we have been to New Zealand many times over the years, we have never needed anything more than the standard tourist visa which is normally granted automatically on arrival and is good for three months. Now, we regret not having something more, although exactly what that would be is problematic. We are now too old to become residents.

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During the roughly 80 days from mid-July to the end of September, we spent about half of our time tied up in the marina and the other half sailing out in the bay. We tended to go into the marina when a particularly bad blow was coming in, although we did head in several times just to meet friends for dinner or to play golf.

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So, our life goes on. It is not as adventurous, glamorous or exciting as our usual sailing time on Avante, but everyone we know has been living a curtailed life this year. It may sound like we are adventuring, but in truth we are mostly moving between 5 or 6 different anchorages within a few miles of each other. It may sound like we are doing a lot of hiking, and though we are doing as much as we can, the weather has caused us to spend long stretches of days ensconced on the boat. The First Mate laughs when she thinks of those walking apps. How many steps are one supposed to take in a day? Several thousand, she recalls. A day or several days in a row on the boat finds The Captain mostly sitting at his Nav Station and The First Mate going from a seat at the dining room table to sitting up against the bulkhead in bed. A change in position, she figures, will keep away bed sores and keep the blood circulating. All told, maybe we each get in 500 or so steps a day. Those apps would be screaming at us!

Both of us are spending far more time on the computer than ever before. One of the benefits of this is that we have been able to update some previous blogs and transfer them all to one site. The First Mate has been writing a blog since 2006 when we bought Avante, but the blogs ended up on several sites over the years. She has been wanting to consolidate them but had no idea how much time it would take. The constraints of this year have given us the time. Those people who have been onboard Avante over the years should take a look. Just click on the appropriate year at the top of the page and look for your adventure with us.

Yes, we are as Covid-free as can be, but we do not flaunt it or overly risk it. Here in the Northland, there has not been a case in months. We go to restaurants but try to limit that to ones that are not very crowded, and we do so infrequently. We do get together with friends who have not been out of the area. Those who traveled to Auckland when it had an outbreak, for instance, have come back and put themselves under a 14-day quarantine for which all of us are grateful. Naturally, we must restock food and drink on the boat, but we only do so every couple of weeks. We have talked about renting a car and doing a road trip, but though the risk is supposedly low, we have chosen not to take to the road. The First Mate has a few stores in Auckland she would like to visit, but as the Auckland area is where the few cases of Covid have been found, we prefer to stay away. As so many have found in the States, ordering over the internet is a great option, and items usually arrive here in a day or two.

When are we returning home? Friends and family from back home all tell us that we should stay here as long as we can. Now that it is October, our answer is “Probably not until at least the end of February.” Jokingly, we say we have “paid our dues” by living on a boat through a New Zealand winter with 2 little space heaters we can only use twice a day because they eat up too much battery power and windows that drip with condensation. It is time now for us to “cash in” and enjoy the coming New Zealand summer. With weather improving and stabilizing and as it warms up, we are going to head south. The Captain has in mind a circumnavigation of the North Island with a lot of time spent in Marlborough Sounds. We may even spend the Holidays down there!

A sad fact keeping us here is that we are not sure that we will recognize our country if we go home now. The First Mate has never done well in controversy, and she knows she does not thrive on tension and stress. That to her is what she sees her dear friends enduring in the States. The vile name calling and destruction of good citizens’ lives done by this administration has driven her to tears. The very fact that her disagreement with this current administration would have her labeled as un-American or, worse, as a traitor fills her with fear. The disparagement of science when it comes to dealing with this virus not just by the administration but by a huge number of the population fills her with disbelief and dismay. How can she willingly return there? She will; she knows. It is her country. She is an American, and she is not going to let some fool tell her otherwise – but she knows that returning now would be like jumping into a segment from the Twilight Zone, and that we are not willing to do and do not have to do any time soon with the refuge that New Zealand has given us.

Americans who have not traveled internationally recently, and that is most, have no idea how far the reputation of our country has sunk in the last few years. For the very first time in our lives, we have people expressing pity and feeling sorry for us as Americans, and that is almost every single time we get into a conversation with a New Zealander or other international either meeting them on boats in anchorages, on hikes, standing in line in a store or sitting at a table next to us in a restaurant. They hear us, know by our accent that we are Americans and want so very much to hear our take on what is happening. Many tell us that they used to look up to and really respect America, and they cannot believe what is happening. They are puzzled and concerned.

As Americans, who have always believed we lived in one of the greatest countries, hearing words of concern and pity and knowing they are justly deserved is very hard to take. Make America Great Again??????? The Captain has his own take on MAGA: Make Asshole Go Away!!!!!!! That will be a great start, but it will take a decade to restore the damage.

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post script: While The First Mate was intently involved in finishing the editing of 2014 blog updates, The Captain wrote most of this blog — with, naturally, some input from her. Look again at the title photo. See the rainbow. That was her addition. A rainbow to her has always symbolized hope and rebirth, and she purposely chose that photo for this blog. She has hope that as a people we will get through this and come up from the ashes. As a dear Kiwi friend emailed us: “I am only an observer from the bottom of the World without access to all the information that Bill has.  All I can say is that I have confidence that the American people are now awake to what is going on and will do the right thing.” Our hope is that we live up to his faith.