Cruising in the COVID-19 pandemic

Well, time to pull our toes out of the sand and confront what the rest of the world is--the COVID-19 outbreak. The Bahamas just had their first confirmed case Sunday (in Nassau) and made the call immediately to close schools for a month. Yesterday we went into Governor's Harbour and didn't sense too much panic and the store we went to was well-stocked, but at the food truck the owner talked about possibly having to shut down to watch her child even if the government didn't force them to close. It will be interesting to see how activities on the Family Islands change in the coming weeks.

As far as preparation, we feel ok. We had food in the hold and were starting to eat through that as we headed north, but we decided to lay in a few more staples (flour, yeast, rice, pasta) yesterday. We have a fair amount of beans and dried vegetables onboard and we make our own water. And if we need to get away from population centers we can do that pretty easily. And since we were already homeschooling, classes have continued without disruption.

So, what do we want to do? We just renewed our visas with the immigration office in early March so we have some time. We had some important mail that was to come to us via a visit from Mom, but that got called off both to protect her and ensure she doesn't get stuck here or somewhere in between. Thankfully she has agreed to "process" our mail for us so we can stay here. Thanks, Mom! We were going to head north exploring Eleuthera this month before heading to Abaco in April to see where two handy adults and two mature kids could lend a hand, and for now we will likely continue along that path. It's tempting to head back to the Exumas for some prime snorkeling and fishing! So far, no one is kicking us out of this beautiful country or making us feel unwanted, so we will continue to explore and support their economy as they continue to recover from Dorian. We have met many cruisers from many countries, all trying to figure out what to do. We all normally have weather as our biggest decision factor--this is much more challenging.