The World has moved on.

[Ozzie]

If you haven’t read this on the abc website today it’s interesting and another reason why floating your own boat may turn out to be the preferred form of recreation for a long time to come

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-01/ ... /100333024

Stay safe. Commiserations to those still under lockdown

[Ozzie]

Well, the Hunter and Lake Mac are back in Lockdown from 5pm today, at this point for seven days. As before that may not include boating but then again with this new strain two dozen dimbulbs at the boat ramp all milling around does not sound like a good idea so maybe TPTB with ban it this time. Mrs Ozzie and myself are due for our second AZ shot next week or so but even then as per my last post it does not look like that is going to mean much. Our cruise line send us an add by mail to book an Asian cruise for Nov 2022 with a money back guarantee . Cant blame them for trying I suppose. The industry is hemorrhaging money at a great rate of knots and anything they can get in the bank is needed. I only feel sorry for the many crew we met over our travels who work looong lonely contracts to often support whole families from poorer countries. They are not getting retainers from the cruise companies.

Update: Mrs O rang the docs on a chance and they had the esky open and two cancellations so we’ve just had jab no 2. I expected a gold framed certificate to show at the boat ramp or at least a Koala stamp or something. Talk about disappointment

[Peter T]

Hi Ozzie, soon after I had my 2nd jab, I was able to go to the My Gov Web site and download my " govt Covid 19 digital certificate " . I have it on my phone and it can be used as proof of my vaccination. Might come in handy I suppose. Cheers

[Andrew]

Keep on staying safe, good to see vaccination availability and jab rates are ramping up. Sorry to hear regional New South and Vic is under threat now,

My second az due next week, mrs is 100%. Kudos to all having the guts to get immunized, future freedoms depend on it.

Saw they are cutting up/recycling cruise ships en-masse in Turkey, at least is a bit safer than Bangladesh's ship graveyard. As long as Investigators survive the pandemic, hang in there mates !

[Ozzie]

Thanks Peter I’ll check that, keeping it on your phone is handy I did not fancy carrying extra paper in my wallet.

As this is boat related...
Yes, I read Princess was losing 1 billion a month on maintaining an unusable fleet . The article below ...

https://thecruiseherald.com/luxury-crui ... york-post/

...has mind blowing pics . Elsewhere I’ve read these ships are only halfway through their normal economic life, now they are just metal value. If mooring and maintenance are an issue I can’t understand why governments like ours don’t offer free berthing at some remote industrial port and pay for mothball level maintenance (look it up) and use the vessels for instant quarantine facilities. They are self contained, have facilities for medical, catering and exercise, balconies on many cabins . It would be thinking outside the square. But rather than coming up with reasons it won’t work we need people who can make it work. After the pandemic they can go back into normal service. Many civilian vessels and planes and buildings were pressed into emergency service during the World Wars. Rant over.

Cruise companies should use Investigators ...quadruple their economic life

F0DD3EFA-B38F-4F2D-AA78-E8D19C880EAE.png (147.82 KiB) Viewed 15576 times

[Peter T]

Well Ozzie, they would be just as good as hotel quarantine anyway, and as you say, with their catering and medical capabilities,
they would be a great idea. I reckon outside cabins with balconies would be great so long as they only used every second one for distancing. Not sure that the air conditioning would be up to scratch though

[Andrew]

Ships are floating petrie dishes, more so with passenger ones.

Up here the snap short lockdowns with a wider cast net, with masks, checkin app etc gives the contact tracers time/info to get the exposed into iso before it can run wild. The feds recently endorsed this as the best approach.

[Ozzie]

Yes Peter and Andrew , air conditioning in many of its current forms will probably need a complete rethink in any shared facility in a Post-Covid world, if such a thing ever happens. From now on any new viruses will legally need to be contained no matter where you are, ships, planes , hotels, shopping centres. It will be another advancement in the operating systems much like Legionnaires changed the way they were maintained.

Hope everyone’s ok. Filled up car tank this morning. Thankfully shoppers are light on the ground down town but “click and collect” at the local Coles was absolutely bedlam on Thursday night. I felt sorry for the poor staff as they were copping abuse from customers. People are so impatient. There is a blasted war on f’godsake. Not their fault.

I apologise for accusing dimbulbs of milling at boat ramps. It turns out they milled at the local Blacksmiths Beach for a big party last week, special guest, oldmate from Sydney that’s what started the local outbreak

[Andrew]

It only takes one...

We went through it last month in tsv, two weeks restricted etc, fortunately it didnt spread, whew

But our carrier behaved differently, didnt go to a potential super-spreader event like newcastles beach party..at least the hunter is a spread-out place with not too many vertical petrie dishes , should increase your chances

Boat ramps prob not too bad if everyone stays 2 -6 m apart. Wearing a mask acts as a kind of social repellant too, reminds others to back off.

Yeah it gets a bit hectic/emotional when panic shopping happens. Saw it last year during our first and only wave. Now we stock-up during good times, or as soon as a cluster happens elsewhere in state (always around SE megopolis first)

Hope more purpose-built quarantine facilities (a la howard springs) are set up. Brissy is getting one near airport, to open early 2022. It will have negative pressure separate ¹bungalows. Even with high adult vax rate in aust by xmas the virus could still breach defences and find a new path to the unvaxed. Also many countries in Asia, Africa could be poorly vaxed for years more, (places where misinfo, superstiton, conspiracy, mistrust of govt etc is also rife so they won't jab) so Corona will be endemic there, evolving new strains and keep breaching our borders.

It is "World-war V" (not wwZ the zombie apocalypse movie starring Brad Pitt )

[Ozzie]

Yep, it’s funny how sci fi writers always got it wrong with super fast spreading plagues that took the major population down in a few weeks. The reality is much slower and indirect with the economy slowing gradually.

My grandparents talked to me about the Spanish Flu and what happened then but there is a major difference now economically. More people work and in far more peripheral jobs. Back then not many women worked. Most people were employed in industry, agriculture and distribution with little retail which for the most part were essential and kept going.

Now you have millions of part time baristas, gift shop owners, boat chandlery, hair salons, travel agents and a million other things that people rely on for a living to put bread on the table and pay the rent. And that’s where the big problems are going to come from this time around. The economy is a big merry go round. Take off half the horses and the whole thing goes out of balance.