29 June 2020

A sobering note on my birthday

COVID-19 CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC


I haven't written much since the start of the coronavirus or Covid-19 pandemic. I've been telling myself it's because I've been so busy helping the yachting community get home or at least to safe harbour through the Ocean Cruising Club. The truth is that I haven't been motivated. It seems that there is little reason to be productive when the world is crashing down around us. Today we've surpassed 10M confirmed infected with coronavirus and >500,000 dead of Covid-19. With 5.5M recovered that leaves 4M people sick throughout the world. Probably ten times more can be assumed not to have been diagnosed. 
Then again, the weather is Ireland has been so great that we've spent an inordinate amount of time outdoors. We've had a prolonged drought during which I went kayaking daily on the Bay. Now the weather has broken and we've had a ridiculous amount of rainfall over the past three days, 75 mm yesterday alone. So maybe that will encourage me to sit still and get back into doing what I have been intending. 
I'm 66 today, a nice round number. I will fill out my Free Trave Scheme form but I don't intend to use it just yet. Had it been before pandemic, I would have taken a train ride to Belfast where I haven't been yet. It will have to wait. Hopefully, a vaccine will become available within the next six months or so. Hopefully it will confer long-lasting protection. Hopefully, we'll have access to it. Hopefully, I'll get to take that train ride. 
For now I'll just go wash my hands while singing happy birthday to myself twice -- the length of time it takes to kill all the pathogens that hands carry. 
Last updated: June 29, 2020, 09:52 GMT

Coronavirus Cases:

10,267,270

Deaths:

504,757

Recovered:

5,568,672

22 June 2020

Getting the word out about cruisers stranded in paradise



I've been helping cruisers find their way home or to safe harbour for the past couple of months through the Ocean Cruising Club. I was approached by a journalist, Susan Smillie, about stories that she might use to bring awareness to cruisers' plight in an article she was writing for the Guardian. So I spent about an hour on the phone with her - me in the west of Ireland, she alone on her boat in Greece. Then I directed her to stories unfolding in the OCC Facebook groups. She penned an article that was published yesterday morning.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/12/long-journey-home-the-stranded-sailboats-in-a-race-to-beat-the-hurricanes

The BBC World Service read the article and contacted me about doing a radio interview, which I did this morning at about 7:20 am. Anyone who knows me knows I don't do well in the morning. But I got up at 630 and took a shower and had a cup of coffee and some yogurt. From the sounds of it, I came across okay.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00w940j/clips

Next comes an article for CNN.