Covid-19, countdown and departure in 80 days!?!?

It is in many ways a strange time right now. Not that it was unexpected, but the way things are different is unexpected.

Now should have been the time where we should spend time with our closest to pre-fill the vaccum that will emerge over the next years. We should spend time on “till-we-meet-again” trips to family and friends, celebrate birthdays, celebrating them a little extra.

Now should also be the time when the butterflies in our stomach should really catch on, and the time when counting the days down to departure would get very real to us.

And also the time where we had to visit embassies, offices, get vaccines, manage blacksmiths, marine electricians, can food and much more.

But Covid-19 happened, and it has also affected life on board in many ways. There are now several ways to work on the boat: In addition to preparing the boat for a long trip, the boat has also become Sørens office. No, he does not work full time on the boat yet, but he works from home (read: he is forced into training long-distance cruising, because he rarely leaves the boat and never more than a few hours. He and Laura have found a really good everyday routine, which is only disturbed when June is having a day off from her jobs.

Lately, the countdown has been pushed a little in the background, because it has become a bit of a stress factor. Not because of a concern whether we can get ready in time (and yes Søren we can ;-)), but because the world has changed from how it was when we sailed Carpe Diem home from Spain.

Right now, there are not many countries and ports we can visit, even in Denmark, and some ports are closed to guest sailors. When we hear news from sailors around the world, they have either gone home, are at anchor with limited access to land and several live with a constant threat of being told to move on. After all, this is not the kind of trip we dream of.

Over the last years we have made contact with a lot of sailors, which also have the summer 2020 as the year of their departure. In recent weeks we have heard almost daily from sailors, that either postpone the departure one or more years. So the small flotilla departing this year has diminished…

We really don’t want to postpone the trip for a year, so we’re working with 4 plans: A, B, C and D.

A	The world is opening up and we can depart as planned (yes, it may be unrealistic, but we have at least one happy optimist on board)
B	The world opens up in some places and we depart as planned, but with some changes in the route.
C	We postpone the trip for a maximum of 2 months, and depart with some changes to the route.
D	This is the plan we are not talking about…

The departure is in 80 days, CAPICHE.