These reports (part 1 and 2) by Daria Blackwell of the Ocean Cruising Club give an excellent overview of what has been going on around the world within the cruising community during the covid-19 crisis and give the bigger picture of how so many cruisers have been affected.

Published 4 years ago

Read Parts 1 and 2 on the OCC Website.

Reports from China of a highly contagious novel coronavirus began circulating in January. But China was far away from most places in paradise. At first, tourism remained active and cruisers went about their business blissfully unaware of the mounting threat of a pandemic.

As tourists flying in from severely affected European nations began to show signs of infection and coronavirus began to spread, the local governments responded. Many of these island nations have limited medical resources and a history of devastation due to outbreaks of diseases against which native islanders have no immunity and no defences. Very quickly, the situation began to change.

Distance sailors were facing an especially difficult challenge. Many were far from home, living aboard their boats, and had to keep moving with the seasons. Some on circumnavigations were halfway around. There was a good deal of desperation caused by misinformation circulating among the cruising community. Island after island began restricting the movement of populations.

First, stay at home orders were issued and social distancing recommended. Tourism was curtailed and businesses shut down. Only essential services remained operational. Not bothered by such restrictions, cruisers are used to long periods of isolation and provisioning for extended periods when crossing oceans. As borders began closing, and distance sailors realised they might end up in a hurricane or cyclone-prone area without insurance coverage, many took action early to lay up their boats and fly home while they still could.

For others, this was not a possibility. Some could not afford to fly out, others did not have a space reserved for haul out, and still others have no home to fly to as their yacht is their home. Some who had arranged for their yachts to be shipped across the oceans were told the transports were cancelled. What to do? Suddenly, as borders shut around them, hundreds of yachts became stranded in places they did not expect to be at the wrong time of the year. What were their options? Stay where they were and sail out of the way should a storm be forecast? Sail south hoping to get entry to an island or a country out of the named storm box. Sail home when the weather permitted, taking a chance that they wouldn’t be allowed to refuel or reprovision en route? The worst off were those who set sail when everything was fine, only to arrive at a closed border at the other end.

Suddenly, the Q flag, which for decades had been just a formality, had meaning again. Yachts flying the Quarantine flag at anchor were not to be approached and their crew was not to disembark for 14 days. In some places, the crews were not even permitted to swim around their boats.

In a similar boat were those who were told to leave when they had no place to go. For example, the French islands of the Caribbean and French Polynesia took the home directives of ejecting foreigners quite literally. It didn’t matter that other borders were closed and the cruisers would have to sail thousands of miles in challenging conditions — sometimes without even being able to take on water, food and fuel — to reach home, or at least an open border. There were no guarantees that after a month at sea, the situation when they arrived would be the same as when they left. And there was no amount of explaining that a month at sea meant no virus was aboard.

The World ARC was called off mid-way in French Polynesia. That was a clear signal that things were about to get worse.

Continue reading on the OCC Website.

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• COVID-19 Resources Page

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The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of Noonsite.com or World Cruising Club.