Cruising in a Time of Uncertainty

I thought it would be a good time to update everyone on our current situation. Every day this week things have been changing so fast, it was hard to figure out where we stood and possibly by the time I finish writing this post some things will have changed again, but here it goes.

First, I will let you know we are currently in the US Virgin Islands (USVIs), we are safe, healthy and happy. We have a support system of other kids boats around us, which helps us maintain a level of sanity in all this confusion. There are people all over the world in a far worse situation than we are, those suffering from the virus, those that have lost loved ones, those in the medical profession on the front lines of all this, they are our heroes. Even in the cruising community, we are probably in one of the best situations. There are other cruisers all over the world that are being denied entry into ports, some were completing large ocean crossings that take several weeks, to be quarantined or even denied entry when they reach their destinations. Some are having to leave their boats, which are their homes, and fly back to their homeland because they no longer feel safe where they are and others can’t leave their boats. We are very fortunate.

Essentially as of a week ago, more and more information on the Coronavirus was trickling in, we had guests on board from Ottawa and of course, they were giving us a lot of updates on the situation back home, but there was still no impact here. For us, things started to get real after Puerto Rico declared a state of emergency. At the time, we were in the Spanish Virgin Islands (SVIs) which is part of Puerto Rico but we saw no major impact, we enjoyed the rest of our visit while staying tuned in to all the news coming in from around the world. We returned to the USVIs Sunday for our friends to fly home Monday, but by Wednesday we were getting reports from cruisers that the situation in Puerto Rico had changed entirely from when we had left two days prior. There was now a curfew in place, the only places open were the grocery stores, pharmacies and gas stations. No one was allowed out (other than to go to grocery stores) and would be fined if they did so, which, I understand, is the situation a lot of people are facing in other countries around the world. The confusion started as some cruisers were being told, by police and coast guard that they could not remain where they were, they needed to keep moving or be in a marina, however, most marinas had closed. Cruisers were confused as to the situation and it seemed so were the officials. Since then, things seem to have been clarified, those living on their boats are allowed to be in Puerto Rico, borders are not closed, however, they are not allowed to move around from anchorage to anchorage or go to the beach. Everyone is expected to be social distancing themselves, the curfew is in place, but grocery stores are open and well-stocked.

As the week progressed, more and more countries closed their borders, including the US/Canadian border. This is now impeding the cruisers’ ability to move between countries or their ability to return home. However, as long as most cruisers are safe and have access to necessities such as food, water, gas, and propane we are for the most part fine. In fact, once stocked up cruisers have the ability to isolate themselves from society for weeks or months at a time, which is the bonus of this lifestyle in a pandemic.

For us we are aware of two potential issues we may face, the first is marina closures and the second is hurricane season. If marinas close the water is our first concern, we don’t have a water maker on board, therefore we need to buy our water from land, usually from marinas. Fuel would also be an issue if we didn’t have access to it, we need fuel for our generator to power our refrigerator. The good news is we can last about 2-3 weeks on our fuel and water capacity. The next issue will be hurricane season, which officially starts in June most cruisers usually plan to be north or south of the hurricane belt at that time, but with movement impeded it may not be possible to do so. For us we are in the USVIs which is not an ideal place to be during hurricane season, therefore we would prefer to be north or south of here. The bright side of being here is we have both options available to us and easily attainable. So we will watch and see what happens in the next weeks, or months as hopefully the situation stabilizes and we can make the best decision for SeaSparrow and her crew.

At this point, borders continue to close daily, and in other countries such as the Bahamas, restrictions are getting tighter, Grenada is no longer allowing cruisers ashore. The uncertainty is continuing to rise, cruisers have moved past plan B and are on to C or D. People are speculating and questioning how far this will go or how long it will continue. However, in all this craziness we are fortunate to have a great community of cruisers that provide a support system for one another which allows us all to breathe a little easier.

If there is anything that the cruising lifestyle has taught us it is that plans are fluid and we need to be able to adapt to any situation. Countries are trying to restrict the movement of cruisers which is uncomfortable for us. However, as I indicated above SeaSparrow is in a good place at the moment, our new plan is to remain in and around the Virgin Islands, we will keep ourselves well stocked and will continue to monitor the situation from the safety of our boat.

Stay home, stay safe

#flattenthecurve

(pictures to follow, the internet is too slow at the moment)