What if …

It’s been a while since I have posted anything myself. But for the last two days and nights, words have been spinning in my head eager to get out. They wanted to find the right way to tell you what has been going on.

Let me go back one week: Friday morning- May 29^th –  the official authorization to sail to Bonaire popped up in our mailbox. Hurray ! We actually did a victory lap to celebrate! 

We were all set to go, and just before noon we left the marina heading west. Most of the time, wind and waves and current were favorable, making this 3 day passage the nicest and fastest we’ve done with O2 so far. Smoothly speeding over a calm Caribbean sea we regularly reached peaks of 8,5, even 9 knots. Truly a sailor’s delight.

Sunday, Viviane complained of a headache, which we cured with a good caffeine-shot. True, that morning I hadn’t prepared her coffee, shame on me !

As soon as we approached Kralendijk, Bonaire, both customs and police rushed in our direction with their speedboat: Border is closed, … ok, they too got the message that O2 was allowed in. More so, they escorted us to the marina, and even helped us dock. Minutes later, the ‘royal marechaussee’ arrived, and they explained that we will be cleared in only after our two weeks of quarantine, and that we may not leave the boat. No fever nor illness aboard ? Of course not! They were all so friendly and helpful, that we really felt very welcome indeed. Finally we are in a place where there is no Covid-19 infections. If another 2 week quarantine is the price we have to pay for that, it’s our pleasure.

Tuesday at noon, Viviane wasn’t feeling well, and took her temperature: 37.8°C. Since mid-March we do that every day, but we never had more than 36.8°C. By late afternoon she feels horrible, and her temperature climbed to 38.3°C. She immediately decided to self-isolate in one of our guest-cabins, and we contacted the authorities by mail. Because I was fever free and feeling great, it was probably nothing serious. The health officer decided to send somebody to do a SWAB-test on both of us anyway. At that time, Viviane was feeling quite miserable and badly needed the Paracetamol to alleviate the body aches and fever. Thursday at noon I too started with a mild fever, that evening I had 38.4°C. A terrible night was following: images of doom ransacked my brain all night long. What if … this is IT ! What will they do with us if we are infected ? After all the efforts we made in the previous weeks to stay clear of the virus. Also feeling guilty about bringing Corona into Corona free Bonaire. 

Today Friday, our bodies still ache all over, a mild fever is still present, I have a dry cough.

Wondering what could have happened, we traced back the events to our week in Le Marin Marina. There we had taken down our mainsail for a repair, on Wednesday. While Viviane and I were struggling to get the huge sail onto the pontoon, four helpful hands jumped in, but without wearing protection … That matches with an incubation time of 5-6 days. Don’t tell us that this was enough to have Viviane infected ?

At 10am today June 5th, the health officer called us: tests are negative for Covid 19 ! It is hard to express our relief. We are probably stuck with an old fashioned flu. And unpleasant this may be, the moment the body aches subside we are ready for another victory lap.

To be continued.