While Annie and I have been spending our circumnavigation under Coronavirus lockdown trying to usefully occupy ourselves, son and daughter in law Will and Willa have produced Gilbert, our third Grandchild. Not content with just this, they are completely renovating their house as well as working from home. Fortunately they have been able to take refuge with Willa’s mum as building work progresses painfully slowly. We can now visit and meet in their garden at the required 2 metres distance. 

We can’t however visit our grandchildren in Cardiff where different rules apply and no-one is allowed to travel more than 5 miles (which includes visits from grandparents living more than 5 miles away). So, we are all encouraged to go back to work but can’t visit family in Wales or invite anyone into our homes. 2 metre social distancing applies subject to which there is unrestricted shopping but pubs, restaurants and hairdressers cannot open. The evidence suggests that the younger you are the less likely the virus is to cause serious symptoms but schools remain closed. Children can however be taken to the zoo. Differentiation is made between older and more vulnerable people and those less likely to be impacted by the virus. Care homes have been isolated to prevent the introduction of infection. Except the health service has been discharging elderly patients from hospital into care homes without testing them for the virus and care homes have been the biggest source of fatalities in Scotland and outside hospitals in England. The “world beating” test, track and trace system we were promised is anything but and the app under development has been ditched in favour of the Google/Apple system. Following 10 years of austerity with reduction and centralisation of services there isn’t a local test, track or trace system to utilise. Frankly its all a mess.

“Black Lives” demonstrations are now being held across the country following the killing of George Floyd in the US. Edward Colston has long been a controversial figure in Bristol and even more so since his statue was thrown into the harbour. This has sparked a law and order versus racial discrimination protest debate and a re-evaluation of the country’s statue memorials and indeed whole history since the beginning of the British Empire. It transpires that Colston as an icon was invented by the Victorians to bolster their credentials as industrial benefactors to the city and his closely examined record is not nearly as savoury as portrayed. This whole debate is of great interest to me as it chimes with one of the personal “discoveries” of our circumnavigation and which we have written about. This is that between here and Thailand all the countries we have visited have been the subject of war, trade, exploitation, colonisation and slavery to a greater or lesser extent. The UK’s history is entwined that of the majority of the countries we have visited and yet this is not part of the national curriculum in schools and therefore not widely appreciated - and certainly not by me until our travels. As we have also discovered on our travels the history of the British Empire is a mixed bag of unintended consequences, blessings and unspeakable treachery and barbarity. It is just not acceptable to dismiss slavery, for example, as understandable given the different morality of the time. By any notion of common humanity it should have been as unacceptable in the past as it is today. The mindless barbarity of the crusades was no more acceptable in the 12th century than it is today and look how that set the course of more recent history. The past cannot be undone but at the same time history history should not be altered just to suit current mores. It can be better understood however and a reappraisal of how it is fundamental to our present seems long overdue.

The economic consequences of lockdown are becoming clear in the UK and we can assume there will also be an adverse impact in the rest of the world. Already there are reports of increased piracy against yachts. Right at the outset of our voyage we were nervous about visiting places where our boat could be seen as representing enormous relative wealth. Whilst not condoning theft or, even worse, violence we are nevertheless aware that our presence could provoke or at least tempt some - as indeed we were particularly aware in parts of the Caribbean. As it happens our experience has also been that we have felt safest amongst some of the poorest communities we have visited where values are not tied up with material possession. In our experience the problem seems to be most acute where poverty coincides with wealth - around urban areas and where conspicuous foreign wealth does not cascade down into the adjoining local population. There is a historical legacy that still is a big factor in places such as the Caribbean but the main problem is corrupt government - which is why in any re-evaluation of UK history we should not shoulder responsibility for inequality and poverty in other countries. Equally our trading relationships should not be complicit with corrupt regimes. The economic recession may make us more circumspect about the countries we visit but also may have less impact in island communities with little to lose or where tourism can be quickly reinstated - with the help of visiting yachties.