Diary of a live aboard in lockdown - CV Week 3

Sunday 29 March - Saturday 4 April 2020

With the sun shining and another two weeks of lockdown in place, we have, for us, had quite a lazy week.  Well, when I say lazy, I mean we've been doing light work rather than hard physical jobs.

The week started with a beautiful sunny day and a 2 mile run on our pontoon. Being plugged in to Steve Wright's Sunday love songs helped me through.  I'd forgotten how much harder it is running in full sun!

At last, lunch in the sun!

It was such a lovely day that we took the canvas tent off Offbeat and had our first meal of the year in full glorious sunshine.   

Naturally it had to be accompanied by wine and beer!

The ever changing weather! 

Tuesday saw the return of the wind and rain and it's been like for most of the week.  We try and keep our spirits up with keeping busy doing project work, baking, playing card games, reading or updating the blog.  

Mark has been busy this week with his virtual race as it drew to a close on Friday night. He was leading in his group of friends and as they were only a few miles behind him and he didn't want to loose his advantage. 

Keeping the boredom at bay

So, Mr Competitive stayed up until 5am Saturday morning to make sure he came in first in their group.  Overall he came 4,080th out of 34,000 competitors which is good going considering it was his first time in a virtual race. The next one starts tomorrow from Cape Verde Islands to Cadiz, racing 16th Century 'Caravels', which will keep him busy.

We try and keep up to date with what's happening in Spain and the UK even though at times it can be hard going.

This week was a particularly difficult week for Spain, with the number of new cases and the number of deaths increasing every day.  Thursday was indeed a bleak day, when 950 deaths were reported in a 24 hour period.  This figure will most likely increase as it is currently counted by those who died in hospital. The current number of reported cases of Coronavirus are 130,759 and reported deaths stands at 12,418.  Sadly, these figures place Spain as the second highest country of recorded cases (second to th US).

Such is the strength of feeling across Spain to try and stop the virus spreading any further, the Government announced on Saturday a further extension to the State of Alarm meaning that the country will continue with its enforced lockdown until April 25.  For us that means no movement from Estepona at all, not that we would want to leave without saying goodbye to our friends. 

Speaking of which, we have made good friends with the ladies who look after the marina and clean the facilities. We tend to see them most days, either to wave and shout 'hola' or have a chat with them (observing the 2 metre rule).  It's a great way for us to practice our Spanish and for them to practice their English and we often share stories of our children and families. 

Yummy!

Friday morning one of them, Paci, was calling to us from the pontoon.  Mark went to see what was up, but nothing was wrong, she had just brought us a selection of homemade cakes.  Her mother is with her and loves to bake and we were the lucky recipients. 

The cakes were traditional Easter cakes that are made to celebrate Semana Santa (Easter Week) and as everyone is confined to their homes this year, what better way to celebrate than to eat lots of sugary cakes. Delicious!