‘We could no longer produce fresh water'

Bill and Kate Gover set off to see the world on a well-planned voyage to New Zealand, only to find themselves confined for three months aboard their 35ft boat, overlooking an island paradise

- Bill and Kate Gover

The Pacific Ocean is full of life. We should know, we’ve spent the last three months looking at it from the decks of Seneto, our 33-year-old, Hallberg Rassy 352.

Anchored off Isla da Contadora in the Gulf of Panama, we have looked longingly at this island and yet never once stepped ashore. The reason? COVID-19.

Panama and its islands were incomplete lockdown and had been since 21 March. The beaches, bars, restaurants, chandlers, marinas, nonessential shops and services all closed. The port authority and immigration are now all closed, and countries beyond here, our stepping stones across the Pacific, have shut down their borders. Our dream to sail to New Zealand has been well and truly stopped in its tracks.

We left our home in Steyning, West Sussex, at the beginning of September 2019 to embark on our three-year adventure to sail to New Zealand and potentially beyond. We’d been planning this trip for nigh on two years and in our minds, we're as prepared as anyone could be – we had the spreadsheets to prove it! Little did we know the impact lockdown would have on both ourselves and the boat.

BLUEWATER PREPARATIONS

As with any couple about to embark on such an extensive sailing trip, we’d focused our attention on some key priorities that would enable us to be as self-sufficient as possible whilst maximising the limited space that we had available to meet our needs for ocean passages. The Pacific was always at the forefront of our minds, aware that we could be at sea or in isolated anchorages for long spells (we certainly hadn’t envisaged being at anchor in the same place for three months though!).