Lockdown lift up

Steep Green Island Road

Phase 1 of the lifting of coronavirus restrictions is coming to and end. Phase 2 starts on Monday. Cases of Covid-19 have continued to be low in Western Australia with only two new cases in two weeks. Yesterday, the last person in hospital due to Covid-19 was discharged. More shops will open from Monday along with libraries, churches, pubs serving food and cafes, as long as numbers are no more than 20 and social distancing is maintained. Some internal borders will be open. WA has been divided into four chunks. We have to stay in the southern part but we can travel as far as Freemantle/Perth. All this is good news.

Sunrise from our pen

So how have we spent Phase 1? The golf club office re-opened and we were told “there are no public hiking paths on the golf course”. Even though we had permission, we felt we should keep a low profile, so we have mainly walked on the public footpaths that are just outside the perimeter of the golf course. Most days we go for walks of at least 10,000 steps and have found several off road short cuts and have even walked some of the national Bibbulmun Trail that stretches from Albany to Perth.

Rob's birthday lunch

We’ve had a fair amount of paperwork to attend to. Our Australian Medicare was coming to an end as we were expecting to be in the UK at the end of April. Re-enrolment meant completing a 13 page form and providing evidence of visas and passports. The office that usually processes this was unable to do so, due to staff working from home, so we had to do it online. We applied for a refund for our flights to San Francisco, which were booked for the end of May. We might hear in 21 days if we’ve been approved for a refund! Then there was the travel and health insurance, which is multi trip, but our current trip runs out at the end of May. We have an extension of 21 days before we have to take out a new, Covid excluded policy.

Out and about again

Socially, we’ve been busy. After 6 weeks of no socialising, we had two engagements on the same day. Fortunately, we were able to bring one of them forward and met Geoff and Lorna for sundowners in the BBQ area of Princess Royal Sailing Club. Geoff sailed from Albany to Cyprus via the Suez Canal in the 1990’s. It was fascinating to hear of his adventures and compare them with ours.

Bad weather approaching

The next day we met British couple, Barbara and Rob, for a walk and picnic lunch. It was Rob’s birthday so we had bubbles, candles and chocolate cake as well as sandwiches and snacks. Barbara and Rob then moved into a cottage on a station about an hour’s drive inland, which had been offered to them by friends of sailors they met in New Zealand. They delayed their departure by a few days as we had the first of the damaging winter storms, which occur only two or three times a year.

Sampling the local beer

While they sheltered aboard their boat ashore, we were advised by locals to get out of our pen at the sailing club and go as far north as possible. We’d heard about the north westerly gales, which blast across Princess Royal Bay, so we left and motored north to Oyster Harbour. We found the northern DoT mooring, tied to it and waited in calm, sunny weather. There was a coastal warning for storm force winds and they arrived at teatime, along with thunder, lightning and heavy rain. Geoff phoned us to make sure we were all right and so did Jason. We were fine. There was no swell and only a short reach for the wind waves, so it was a good place to be. Lots of people asked after us when we returned to the sailing club, so it was like a homecoming.

Sunset and Sal Darago

When the weather improved, Jason invited us to his house for a BBQ. We looked at each other's charts and discussed the benefits of sailing north to Shark Bay, where it is much warmer. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait for Phase 3 before that can happen. Meanwhile, we’re waiting for my medication to arrive from the UK. It’s been 3 weeks in the post already, but we’re all used to delays in these unprecedented times, so no worries. When the meds arrive, we’ll decide whether to sail as far as Freemantle. Now that we can move about locally, we’ve decided to leave the sailing club on Friday and return to our nomadic lifestyle. Just recently Jeremy has written a report for Noonsite. You can read it here:

https://www.noonsite.com/report/australia-wa-albany-covid19-field-report/

Torndirrup National Park

Thank you to everyone who remembered my birthday and sent greetings. I had a great day. It was hot and sunny. Jeremy prepared a roast chicken lunch which we washed down with white wine. He also prepared smoked salmon for supper and, yes, we had cake and candles!

Birthday lunch in the cockpit