Stuart and Anne on Time Bandit are hanging on in Penang and Michael and Priscilla on Hylite have been in Rebak marina at Langkawi in Malaysia with the small shop at the island marina bringing in extra weekly supplies for the yachties. Priscilla has gone to stay with her family in Bankok while Michael plans a single handed sail back to Australia.

David and Susan on Enchantress and Michael and Caroline on Golden Spirit of Islay have returned to Scotland from Malaysia and plan to stay in the UK until late 2021. Ingvar and Tujia have left Hakuna Matata in Phuket and returned to Sweden and now face exactly the same issues as Annie and I.

Those who started their Indian Ocean crossing this year have had to take refuge wherever they have been allowed which, for EU citizens seems to have been the island of Reunion or the Seychelles or even the Maldives if still there from earlier in the season. Madagascar has been closed to new arrivals but Tanzania has remained open and welcoming. To the relief of everyone wishing to get out of the southern Indian Ocean before the cyclone season starts South Africa has opened its borders again and many yachts are now heading for Richards Bay. However, there are problems with entry and leaving documentation for yachts and no-one has been allowed ashore other than one person from each yacht for provisioning and supplies. Rubicon and Pit Pony have recently arrived there from Reunion and Henrietta will be joining them.

Those yachts that have been in the Indian Ocean have been able to maintain their circumnavigation timetable, even if without being able to visit the likes of Madagascar. If we are unable to continue in 2021 we will then be two years behind our original plan and, keen as we still are to complete our adventure, the prospect of crossing oceans may become less attractive.

For those still in the South Pacific a particular problem is that Australia and New Zealand have closed borders and are making no exception for yachts. One German family arriving in New Zealand had their yacht confiscated and were put onto a flight home. This is a big issue for yachts travelling westwards across the Pacific and that would now be expecting to head down to New Zealand from Tonga and Fiji. Last year Fiji was hit by a cyclone with 200mph winds that killed 44 people and so the prospect of spending a cyclone season there will not be enticing. There may be one or two cyclone refuge anchorages in Fiji but none in Tonga that I can recall. The only alternative will be to sail eastwards against the prevailing wind all the way back to the Marquesas which some yachts based in the Pacific do but as part of their planned season of cruising. Given that New Zealand is a sailing nation, annual host to many yachts on the pacific cruising circuit and could easily manage a quarantine anchorage the decision to remain so inflexible is puzzling. Some yachts, such as Loupan with Swedish friends Ulla and Pele on board have been in New Zealand throughout lockdown and continued sailing there. Others such as Ian and Stephanie on Nautilus have been back in France and the UK and face a similarly uncertain prospect of not knowing when they might be allowed to return to New Zealand.

So, lockdown continues here in the UK with no coherent strategy for dealing with the pandemic. Lockdown measures have been implemented by government regulation through a series of disjointed local measures. There is no debate, no consultation and no published data or criteria to inform the imposition of each local measure or to gauge when it might be lifted. And now we are about to re-enter another national lockdown due to last until 2nd December with no exit plan or strategy to improve track and tracing. Grand platitudes are issued about how our recovery will be “greener and better” (apparently we are to become the “Saudi Arabia” of green energy supply to the world). None of this is true or backed up with any policy support but is designed simply to resonate in the minds of loyal supporters. It is how populism works these days and to compound matters we have all the issues of a no deal or, more likely, limited deal Brexit to deal with. If only we could sail away from all of this!