How long can you survive?

COVID-19 is still in its early stages, but has already impacted all of our lives. People have begun to panic and are trying to gather supplies reactively. Jeremiah and I have always been proactive and planned for something like this Pandemic to occur while living on land. We weren’t quite sure what would take place, but we knew something would eventually happen that could limit our access to everyday essentials. We took it upon ourselves to always have tote storage bins fully stocked with food, many cases of spare water, cash and weapons within our home. 

When we decided to move aboard, it became apparent to us that we would be able to survive for a very long time if needed; as long as we fit the boat accordingly. Luckily, we’ve done just that!  Last night after dinner we were trying to figure out a timeline for just how long we could survive if we needed to. After much discussion, we eventually determined we could survive  for a year, and possibly even longer as long as one of us didn’t need medical attention to survive. 

At the moment we have 6-8 weeks of food supply on the boat which we plan to use before heading back to land to provision. Our watermaker makes 18 gallons of water an hour, and we use that for showers, cooking and drinking. Basically, as long as the water maker doesn’t break  and we have spare filters aboard, we’re good. Thankfully Jeremiah has the boat stocked with spare everything!

Then we got to thinking even further into the details. If we dropped anchor and didn’t move, we could run the generator every other day to keep the batteries charged for at least a year. We could always sail to the next location to save diesel. Another thought was, “What happens when we run out of food?” I’m probably stating the obvious here but we can always fish! 

The current situation for everyone in the world is very unsettling as it has probably taken most of us out of our comfort zones. I know for us cruisers, it can be a bit of an odd feeling since most of us are very far from what we would call home. Naturally you want to be home when something major like this occurs, so the severity of the situation can be hard to grasp when the boat is your home. However, I believe we are in a great situation and well-prepared to isolate ourselves and self-quarantine. 

We’ve decided to lay low here in Grenada since almost all of the Island boarders have closed or require some time of quarantine period. It’s not worth checking out of Grenada only to find ourselves not being able to check into another Island. Unfortunately, that could force us to sail all the way back to the United States since we have hurricane season on the horizon. 

Staying put is the best option right now since we plan to continue on to the Panama Canal at some point. We would like to see the French Islands before heading that way, but it may not be in Calypso’s future plans. Who knows, it’s all written in the sand at this point. All I know is, we are floating happy on the hook and don’t plan to make any major moves during this period in time. As soon as boarders start to open up then we will start moving again!  We hope you all are well and are finding some positives during this time.