Hiatus

I t’s now February 2022, two years since the onset of the pandemic, COVID-19. In late February 2020, I was passing through Dublin on the way back from checking on Sapphire in Falmouth Shipyard. During a cruise in the Baltic in 2019 we had been dismasted for no apparent reason, but that’s a story for another day. In Dublin, I was alerted by Dermot and others to bring back medicated wipes and antiseptic liquid to New York because such products had vanished from shelves in the U.S. A week or so later, we, the family, gathered at a restaurant in Manhattan to celebrate my birthday. I think it was a couple of days later, around the 10th of March, that the whole world started to shut down as the enormity of the consequences of the contagion became apparent.

Soon TV screens were filled with the images of corpses being piled up outside overflowing morgues in New York. Hospitals and ICUs were overwhelmed. Daily deaths, especially among the elderly, reached horrific levels. Governments shut down all activity and people were obligated to shelter at home.

International travel was shut down. Mask wearing became mandatory and the public health preventive measures in the US became politicized with Republicans led by Donald Trump downplaying the dangers of the disease, mainly it seems because the preventative measures were constraining economic activity.

The main remedial response by governments was to urge their pharmaceutical companies to rapidly develop effective vaccines.

In this, they were remarkably successful. And although three waves of the pandemic ensued, with associated hospitalizations and deaths, as vaccination rates increased and population immunity increased, the preventive measures were gradually eased, and by March 2022, they had essentially ended. But what a toll of misery the pandemic has left in its wake. In the US, there have been 80 MILLION coronavirus cases and, shockingly, 960,000 deaths! So one of the consequences of poor political leadership in the US has been appalling suffering for families.

And while it seems a little inappropriate to talk about my experiences during the past two years, I think it’s worth recording. The immediate impact of the coronavirus for me was to shut down the shipyard work on Sapphire, both in the UK and in France. After a couple of months there was a relaxation in the “stay home” orders and the boat could be moved to France for the mast fitting. In late June, travel within the EU was limited to EU citizens, so by flying first to Dublin I was able to enter France in La Rochelle without incident. What a pleasure it was to be back in La Rochelle. Mask wearing was ubiquitous but outdoor restaurants were jammed! After a few days enjoying la vie en rose we set off to deliver the boat to the Mediterranean coast of France. Subsequent stops along the Spanish and Portuguese coasts were delightful. The marinas were empty and so were the restaurants which had few customers for their outdoor fare.

Unbelievably, we were able to get space on the best quay in St.

Tropez. We had a few days overlap with Herve and Margaret Poron before he left to park his boat in Tunisia. Together with George Cox, our skipper, I then moved the boat to Cap d’Agde, west of Marseille, for the winter.

One of the more bizarre consequences of the pandemic and its constraints was that nobody was traveling. It was the strangest experience going through JFK without seeing a human and being on flights both to and from Europe with maybe 4 or 5 other passengers. As Pierce said, “back to the golden age of air travel”!

Unfortunately that taboo on flying was short lived. We had decided to go to Deer Valley in Utah for Christmas 2020. The airport was jammed and chaotic and the airplane was full, full.

To stay as isolated as possible, we stayed in a slopeside chalet. It was a great choice and the skiing too was great because there were no lift lines! (People were still being very cautious about contact with others). The only disappointment was that Pierce, Amy and kids chose not to risk COVID, so stayed home. Of course, the whole idea behind Christmas skiing was to be with the kids!

January 2021 saw the availability of vaccines for the public on a prioritized basis. Aisling had volunteered at a vaccine center in Brooklyn and managed to sneak me onto a list. I had my first shot on 29 Jan and the rest as recommended by the CDC. The arrival of vaccines “globally” was truly a miracle and it was not long before the infections and deaths were being labeled “the virus of the unvaccinated”. For myself, while I was more fortunate than most others in softening the drudgery of stay-at-home orders through travel, nonetheless a degree of lassitude settled in through “stay-at-home-itis”. No going out to restaurants, no gym for exercise, etc. I tried to go to Montreal for a long weekend, but couldn’t handle the mandated Canadian quarantine regulations. Bah, humbug.

The one initiative I took during 2021 in addition to a few posts to StoryWorth was to undertake research on the origins of the O’Connor family in County Limerick. I found some very interesting things that I consolidated and published as a book.

And then it was time to go back to Sapphire. We joined in Nice in mid-June 2021 and enjoyed a great time there, based in the harbor. We then sailed to Genoa and stayed about a month, including taking a car trip to Lake Como for a few days. Then slowly down along the Italian coast to Rome.

We had arranged to rendezvous with Herve in the north of Sardinia, and so we did. We then crossed together to southeastern Corsica for a few enjoyable days.

Sapphire headed back to Nice after making a few stops on the tranquil west coast of Corsica.

Amazingly enough, while we sailed the west coast of Corsica, Hervé sailed for home via the Italian mainland, and yet we crossed each other within a few hundred yards offshore Nice!

Next I picked up Aisling in Nice and then sailed to the beach in St Tropez.

Then we enjoyed a pleasant cruise along the Côte d’Azur until it was time for the overnight sail from Marseille to Barcelona.

We had a nice time in Barcelona, including, a couple of nights in the ‘W’ hotel right at the marina.

And then it was home on direct flights from Barcelona to JFK.

The next auspicious moment for 2021 was the arrival of Gavin and Julie’s daughter Maeve Mira.

Of course, Maeve is a little bundle of joy and perfection (certainly, in Grandad’s eyes!) Soon the Christmas season was upon us. This time we went to Telluride in Colorado. Again nice accommodations and decent snow, though not a lot. Aoife, Nolan and their parents came this time, but not Gavin and family. We had been told on arrival in Telluride that the Omicron COVID variant was rife in the village.

We did take all the usual precautions. Despite that, I managed to get the bug and a couple of days after returning home had symptoms of a mild flu for four or five days. It was not too bad.

In Telluride Aisling gifted us all with cowboy hats for Christmas.

All in all, and on reflection, my 75th year was reasonably active, had good memories and most importantly was a healthy 2021.

One nod to the passage of time, however, was the sale of the house in McLean. Liz was ready for a less burdensome lifestyle and her timing was I think impeccable!