May | 2020 | What Floats Our Boat

That’s a great question! When you figure it out, could you let us know? 🤣 Just kidding. Sure, we’ve found a calm spot in Antigua to wait out coronavirus quarantine and curfew. But we can’t stay here forever.

Our 90-day visa expires on 22 June. Even more importantly…HURRICANE SEASON IS COMING! (Say it in your best Robb Stark, Game of Thrones voice). Hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea officially starts 1 June. But as I write this on May 15th, tropical storm Arthur is already forming between Florida and The Bahamas. Insurance companies usually require boaters to be safely outside the hurricane box during this timeframe, and they define the hurricane box as the area north of St Vincent in the eastern Caribbean and south of the Chesapeake Bay on the US east coast. This doesn’t mean you can’t get a hurricane outside the box, but they are much less common. If your geography is a little bit rusty, Antigua is smack in the middle of that box. 😲 Hundreds, if not thousands, of sailors plan to spend the summer in Grenada or Trinidad in order to get “outside the box”. But with borders closed to prevent the spread of coronavirus, all those boats are stuck in place and chomping at the bit to move south as soon as Caribbean governments allow.

We made a reservation ages ago to store Sanitas in a boatyard in Grenada and we planned to fly back to the USA for the summer. We also put a deposit on a boatyard here in Antigua as a Plan B. But now, like everyone else, all of our summer plans have been canceled. And we don’t know when flights between the Caribbean and the States will resume. If we do make it back to the States, we don’t have a home to go to, and we don’t know when we’d be allowed back to our boat after the visit. A recent study suggests Covid-19 has been contained within the Caribbean, but many countries view visitors from the US as high risk to their health and safety because so many new cases are still being identified there. Heck, what if we do make it “home” this summer and one or both of us gets sick? We sure can’t afford a hospital stay under the US health care system. I don’t think our international medical insurance covers us for Covid-19 treatment if we travel back while State Department “Do Not Travel” warnings are still in place. That alone makes it feels safer to stay in our small island bubble that to get on an airplane back to New York.

The Marine and Yachting Association of Grenada has been working behind the scenes on a proposal to the Grenadian government on how to open the borders to incoming yachts safely while protecting the residents of the country from importing coronavirus. We’ve been waiting impatiently to learn the results, but things are finally looking positive! Over 1100 boats have registered in a database to state that they want to travel to Grenada when borders open. Yesterday, MAYAG posted the first details on the plan. Of course the cruising community was immediately abuzz with excitement. Here’s the plan as we understand it so far….

We had a meeting today with the various authorities in Grenada who we are coordinating with and have agreed on an implementation protocol for arriving yachts. This needs to be approved by cabinet, which will be one of the final steps before we get the go ahead.

All yachts intended to come to Grenada need to complete the Maritime Health Declaration Form 48 hours ahead of your scheduled arrival.
A designated quarantine area has been set up. The GPS coordinates of this area will be given to you.
Quarantine will be 14 days with no shore leave granted and this will be on your yacht in the quarantine area. Provisioning supply chain has been set up for you during this time but we advise provisioning as much as you can before you leave for Grenada.
After the quarantine period you will be required to take either a PCR test or a Rapid Test. The cost will be EC$200 for the PCR Test or EC$75 for the Rapid Test. There will be a Statutory Regulation published requiring you to do this. If you object to taking this test then please make alternative arrangements as you will not be able to clear into Grenada.
There will be an arrival schedule set up where yachts will book an arrival date and be expected to arrive within 48 – 72 hours of that date. There will be a small admin fee of US$20.

That all sounds pretty reasonable, don’t you think? It’s still gonna be a little bit tricky. If we can’t stop in any countries between Antigua and Grenada, we’re looking at about a 300 nm passage, taking us about three days in good weather conditions. Capt. Mike and I will have to take turns on watch for the entire time – it will be our longest passage so far. I’m sure glad this isn’t our first cruising season! And we’re not really looking forward to another 14-day quarantine on our teeny tiny boat. Especially in the designated quarantine zone which is going to be crowded, rolly, poor anchor holding, and filled with lots of other frustrated and cranky sailors 🤪 But we’ll make the best of it because we also want to ensure that our Grenadian hosts can stay healthy and safe. I guess this is our Plan A for now, and we anxiously await news from Grenada on our scheduled arrival date. I hope we remember how to sail after sitting at anchor for so long! Wish us luck!

After 35 days on anchor at remote Bird Island, it was time to venture briefly back to civilization. My “toxic waste” laundry pile had gotten huge, even though we’d done some hand washing. We had a long shopping list for groceries and medication. And we needed to equalize our house battery banks. So we raised a super dirty anchor (we’ve never anchored in a single spot for so long!) and sailed downwind to the Jolly Harbour Marina.

Antigua is still under a limited state of emergency, but curfew rules have recently relaxed a bit. We’re now allowed to leave the home between 6am and 6pm for essential errands. Masks are required in public and gatherings are banned. When we planned to move Sanitas, we were required to call the Antigua Coast Guard to request permission to change anchorages. They asked for our boat name, the captain’s name, the reason we were moving, and then granted us permission. They told us to call back in the morning when we were ready to leave, and also to call when we arrived at our destination. The Coast Guard is really on top of things!

It was quite a shock to return to civilization after so long. Sailors are lucky that marinas here in Antigua are considered essential services, so boaters have been able to access fuel and water and arrange for boat repairs. Jolly Harbour Marina has been super supportive of sailors, and has been extremely professional through these extraordinary times. But it’s quite clear which services are considered essential and which aren’t. The grass and landscaping at the marina and around town are very overgrown. Garbage bins are overflowing. The pool has a permanent sign “Closed for cleaning.” All the outdoor restaurants still have tables and chairs sitting outside and chalkboards still advertise specials, but only two are open at all, offering take-out within curfew hours. Everyone wears masks. Everyone! Some are made from the coolest patterns and prints ever. It’s also clear that Antiguans are feeling the crunch financially. Every time I left the dock, someone asked me if I had any cleaning projects or repair projects on the boat that I need help with.

But not everything is grim! The beaches reopened for exercise on the day we arrived. But no sunbathing, picnicking, or “liming” is allowed. In fact, the beaches are still eerily empty.

And a small number of restaurants are open for takeout or delivery. OMG! I was absolutely thrilled to eat a meal filled with new and different flavors that I did not have to cook myself. We went a little bit crazy, ordering Bouillabaisse from La Brasserie, and smoked chicken and Serbian specialties from Fort Medieval. It was almost worth the 4-hour sail to Jolly for this wonderful treat! The cruiser community here has kept each other supported and entertained through lockdown by hosting morning and evening VHF radio nets. The evening net is a virtual happy hour. It starts with each boat sharing what they accomplished today, and what adult beverage they’re drinking now. Then each night a different boat hosts a trivia contest. It’s the highlight of the day!

The highlight of our marina stay was a quarantine haircut adventure! My last haircut was in a local barber shop in Deshaies, Guadeloupe. With my super-short hairstyle, three months without a trim is insane! Forget how shaggy I looked, and how glorious my Elvis pompadour was growing….long-ish hair is too hot on a boat and requires too much water to wash and rinse. We used the marina WiFi to watch several YouTube videos on cutting hair, dug out Capt. Mike’s clippers and an old pair of scissors, and locked ourselves into a marina bathroom. I really had to close my eyes and hold my breath for that first snip of the scissors. Ooh. I still get a shiver of nervousness just thinking about it. But he did a really good job! Especially if you don’t look too closely 🤣

While it was great to take care of business, we felt a sense of relief when we untied the lines and eased slowly away from the marina dock. Our Gilligans’ Island paradise feels safer, cleaner, and less restrictive than life in the city during a state of emergency. And, of course, we have friends to return to! We shopped for 4 or 5 boats, and brought back treats for everyone. We’re home!