Life and Laughs in Lockdown

We have now been in lockdown in India for 7 weeks, so seems like a good time to reflect on how we have been coping and what we have been doing to keep ourselves entertained. As the COVID-19 pandemic tightened its grip, we began our lockdown in Kochi International Marina onboard Aroha, which has been our home base since arriving in India in December 2019.  Having weighed up the pros and cons of returning to the UK or New Zealand, we thought we were just as well off in India. At least we had a safe and secure place to stay, and Aroha offers more home comforts than we would have had elsewhere.

The official lockdown in India started on March 24th. There was some expectation that India would go into lockdown following a test run of a 1-day curfew on March 22nd, but when the full lockdown came it was announced and implemented within 4 hours. This may have been an attempt to limit advance panic buying giving people no time to stock up in advance. Thankfully we had restocked on food on the 20th March so had no immediate need for food, but we were left wondering how we were going to get food and water supplies moving forward.

For the first few days, confusion reigned.  No one seemed clear on what outlets could remain open and what was deemed as essential services. There were also reports about some isolated cases of heavy-handed policing as they also navigated through how to impose the new lockdown rules.  We had been told by the hotel and marina management that we were not allowed outside of the marina. So, if we could not go out, we had to find a solution to get supplies in.   The Marina Manager had a contact in the local fruit and veg market, so we began to use him to order what we and the other boats needed. We would send the order across then he would bring it on his scooter and collect the cash. The first time he delivered he was really nervous about being caught by the police if he stayed out later than 5 pm, but as we continued to use him restrictions on travel eased a little and the police began to be less overzealous.

Getting water proved to be easier than we had first expected.  The water delivery guys were still coming to the hotel regularly, so getting them to stop by the marina was not an issue.  We soon reached an arrangement where we would call them to say when we needed a water delivery and they would deliver on the same or following day. It was actually much easier than the pre-lockdown arrangement when we would go through a middleman helper at the Marina.

Initially, there were no online grocery options so the hotel provided access to a rickshaw driver who would go out on our behalf and pick up grocery items for us.  This did mean that we were paying by cash and, as we were running short of rupees, we did have to get permission first to go the ATM. Only one of us was allowed to go, so I got selected for that mission. It took 3 ATMs before finding one with cash available, but we were able to withdraw enough to keep us going for a good few weeks.  It felt really strange, and slightly illicit, being out on the empty streets. An experience of India I had never expected to see!

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Later in the lockdown online deliveries began for restaurants and grocery shopping making life much easier, but not doing much for our waistlines! Grocery items online were limited to essentials only but thankfully Pringles and Oreos made it onto the essentials list, so these provided us with some treats during the lockdown. There has been a need for onboard rationing though!!

The more limited selection of grocery items has led to us becoming more inventive with our culinary skills to fill the void of some of the items we were missing.  Crackers are in limited supply even in normal circumstances so it was not a surprise that we could not get them in lockdown.  A lentil cracker recipe found online soon filled the gap in supplies and satisfied the criteria of being made on the induction hob as we have no oven.  Next in line was looking at options to make bread.  It had to meet two criteria – not including yeast and being able to be cooked on the stovetop. I began making a sourdough starter in order to make bread.  While the starter was successful, I initially had a pretty poor result when I used it to make bread using our pressure cooker.  My first attempt was a flat chewy, sour-tasting slab that was of more use as a house brick than as part of our diet. Fortunately, one of the benefits of lockdown means that I have plenty of time on my hands, so I persevered.  After reviewing many alternative methods on YouTube, I ended up with a successful batch of English muffins made with sourdough batter and cooked in the frying pan (no oil). 

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So, with no concerns about starving any time soon, we began to create some structure to our days in an attempt to stave off boredom.  Bryan is an earlier riser than me, so he was happy to continue with yoga sessions led by our friend Marcel who advantageously happens to be a Yoga Instructor and lives on one of the other boats in the Marina.  For me, the days were long enough already and the thought of 6.45 am yoga sessions had no appeal whatsoever. I chose to have another few hours lie in and then head to the gym later.  The hotel facilities in the Marina complex are still open for our use. The gym, though basic, has good floor space for yoga and exercise.  We have followed some yoga YouTube channels for a while, so I continued with our favourite, Sarah Beth Yoga and added a daily session of PE with Joe. The PE with Joe sessions are targeted at kids so nothing too arduous, and turns out to be a good way to get a quick exercise session that would work up a sweat and get the heart rate up. 

Bryan and I have been learning to play instruments for a while.  Bryan is re-learning the saxophone that he used to play when he was younger, along with guitar.  I am learning the Ukulele. We use the Yousician app along with YouTube videos for specific songs.  We are nowhere near ready for a public performance yet but there is a definitely a gradual improvement in our ability to play our respective instruments.

We have also been able to tackle some pending boat jobs that we hadn’t previously found time to complete – or at least, that was our excuse at the time.  For me, I had been intending to replace the curtains on the boat since buying the material in Dubai last year. Using the old curtains as a guide, I also employed a fair amount of improvisation to complete all the curtains for the hatches and replace the skylight covers. This has had the added benefit of providing better sun screening to help keep the temperature down inside.

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We had replaced our old and non-functioning chart plotter a few months back but had not got around to finishing the installation.  This involved taking half of the boat apart to remove the old cable from our radar that we would no longer be able to use with the new system and pulling through the cable from inside the boat to the cockpit for the chart plotter. It was one of the jobs that took longer than expected but was very satisfying when finished.  The big question is when we will get a chance to use it back out on open water. At least we should take comfort that we will be ready to go when we finally get the all-clear.

Bryan completed as much of the re-caulking of the teak as was possible with the remaining caulk that we had. Further supplies to complete the job are in the UK, with our crew member and long-time friend Peter who was due to join us mid-April for our sail to Sri Lanka. We are not likely to get those to complete the job anytime soon!  There have also been a couple of maintenance jobs on some essential parts of Aroha – the loo plumbing and on the air-conditioning! One of the jobs on the air-conditioning was created by a mistake on my part when I accidentally threw a small round Perspex plate that seals the top of the seawater strainer unit into the sea.  We had no replacement for it so needed to source something from the boat given that we could not venture out to buy anything.  Bryan did a sterling job of fashioning a solution with Perspex taken from the front of the bathroom shelving. I will try not to create any further extra jobs as I fear for how many bathroom fixtures we will have left!

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We have made sure we have had plenty of fun along the way too. This included getting creative at Easter making our own version of the Easter Bunny. Using what we had to hand, this meant the rabbit was made from Watermelon. He looked cute until it was time to eat the melon and it all started to look very sadistic with bunny ears next to the chopped melon innards! Bryan has missed not being able to have a bath and had his eye on an old bath he had found up in the Engineers scrap yard, so decided to turn it into a pontoon spa with great success. Just as well there is very little marine traffic though as it is very public bathing. He has also taken his electric skateboard out for a spin a couple of time, albeit on a very short route given our lockdown restrictions.

We are also fortunate to have a small group of fellow sailors that make up our marina community. Early on in the lockdown, we started what was to become an important daily feature – Sundowners! Respecting social distancing rules, we meet at 5.30 pm each day to socialise and enjoy a beverage. We ran out of alcohol quite early in the lockdown, and with no liquor stores open have been improvising making various soft drinks such as Tepache – a fermented pineapple drink, and a lime lemonade. The social aspect is the most important though, with talk about what we have read in the news, or heard from our respective home countries and sharing views on our plans and what comes next. We stay out until the sun goes down and the mosquitoes come out to play!

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Our unintended stay beyond April has also meant that our yearlong visit visas were due to expire after lockdown had started.  In normal circumstances, you cannot remain in India to renew tourist visas but, with no means to leave and no new tourist visas are currently being issued outside of India, Indian immigration has made an exception by extending visas from within the country.  They have taken a cautious approach only extending by a few weeks at a time, but the whole process is completed online and has been done free of charge.  The latest news we have is that this in-country renewal will continue until international flights are operating again, and we will then have 30 days to exit.  Our Indian mobile SIM cards are linked to our visas also, but these have also been extended each time we have renewed the visa.

The Indian authorities have been pretty good overall overseeing our welfare. Midway through lockdown, the Kochi Police set up a Foreigners Outreach service. Contactable by phone, WhatsApp and email they encouraged us to contact them if we had any issues relating to medical assistance, accommodation, transport or assistance for ticketing and visas. They have called us regularly to check if we needed any help. It was a nice and unexpected service and has been good to know we are on their radar if help is needed.

So, for now, we continue to wait this out.  A totally unique and unexpected scenario that we could never have foreseen when we left Dubai to start our adventure at the end of last year.  We are thankful to be in a safe and secure location and in a far better situation than some other yachts who have been less fortunate finding safe harbour during this global lockdown.  We are also fortunate to be in each other’s company. Despite being in such a small space for such a long period we get on incredibly well and share a fairly relaxed attitude to what comes next.  There are certainly worse places to be and we are happy to make the most of this unplanned and unexpected extended stay in India.

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