After two weeks of recovery from Covid and two additional weeks of waiting for our fuel injector pump to be rebuilt (and a lot of stops by the mechanic’s office, asking if there was any news) our diesel engine is back together!
Monsieur Rubin of Mechabat told me that the clean and shiny refurbished fuel injector pump is “bijoux” or jewelry for Sanitas. He spent two hours contorted into the tiny engine compartment grunting and swearing, finding the parts that fell to the bottom of the space, bleeding the fuel lines… And finally telling Capt. Mike to start her up. She started on the first try! Apparently, mechanics in France have the same saying as they do in the USA, “There’s always one part left over” and Rubin explained that the one bolt remaining in the Tupperware containers wasn’t that important. I hope he’s right š¤Ŗ
We had already taken advantage of our proximity to Le Marin to buy groceries, do laundry, and take lots and lots of warm showers. All we needed to do was pay for our mooring ball (ā¬110 euros for the month) fill up our water and fuel tanks, and we were free!!! Where to next, Sanitas?
International travel is possible again, but youāve really gotta want it
After our epic Long Trail backpacking adventure, Mike and I spent a few more weeks visiting family and attending the Annapolis Sailboat Show and then, suddenly, it was late October and time to return to Sanitas and the Caribbean. Who wouldāve thought weād still be dealing with border closures and COVID restrictions in fall of 2021? Definitely not me!
We found a pirate in Queens!
Our first challenge in returning to the islands was to figure out what to do with all of our stuff. Somehow, whatever we packed to bring home back in June bred and multiplied in the back of our Ford Escape and we suddenly owned way more junk than fit in our luggage. Visiting āThe Land of Plentyā will do that to you. Also, a Costco membership card.š Some of it, weād bring back with us – American toiletries and supplements are very expensive in the islands, as are gluten-free foods. Extra clothing we donated to charity. Luckily, almost all the clothing I bought as āland clothesā for our visit came from a thrift store so it was easy to part with – almost like renting warm clothing that we wouldnāt need when we returned south. Speaking of thrift stores, hereās a great nomad life hack for youā¦if you are returning home from your trip with a little more than you started with, consider buying an extra suitcase from Goodwill. We bought 2 huge pieces of luggage for $6.99 each and filled them as close as we could get to the 50-pound airline limit. Then we donated them on arrival in Grenada. Just donāt forget to pay for your bags in advance to avoid paying more at the airport! Even international flights donāt always include free luggage these days.
Yeah, we’re gonna need a bigger luggage cart
The next challenge is to comply with all the entry requirements of your destination country. Thatās complicated by the fact that restrictions change quickly, based on the number of active cases in a country, and on whether the US is considered āhigh riskā at the time. When we traveled from New York to Grenada at the end of October, the rules were:
Only fully-vaccinated visitors are allowed to enter. We brought hard copy and digital copies of our vaccination cards
Apply for a Travel Authorization form one week before your flight
Have a negative PCR test result, taken within 72 hours of travel
Pre-pay for a 2nd COVID PCR test to be administered at the airport upon arrival in Grenada
Book two nights in an approved quarantine hotel in Grenada where youāll stay until your arrival test results are available
Print everything to show the airline prior to checking in, or use an app such as New York’s Excelsior Pass
Our flight from JFK left before 7:00am on a Monday morning, so our covid tests were complicated by the weekend. We tried to take advantage of free testing at a Rite-Aid on Friday morning. But when we didnāt receive results by Saturday afternoon I panicked and paid $160 per person to get a test that guaranteed results by Sunday at 5:00 pm. It was a good decision. Capt Mike didnāt get his free test results until we arrived to the airport – I would have been totally freaking out if the results of our paid tests hadnāt been available!
Nomad manYou gotta wear your hat, so you don’t crush it!
After that, everything went smoothly. A 3am alarm got us to JFK in plenty of time for Mike to drop off me and my massive pile of luggage while he parked. I have nothing but positive feedback for JetBlue. Just a week after the Southwest flight cancelation fiasco, and a week before the American Airlines meltdown, every JetBlue employee we interacted with was professional and helpful. Our flight was about half full and on time, and it felt wonderful to take our first breaths of warm, humid island air when we deplaned at Maurice Bishop international airport. We arrived on a local holiday, but the clear-in process was still smooth and efficient. After our third nose swab in four days, we collected our bags and hopped into a taxi for the short trip to Sunflower Apartments.
Iād planned ahead and ordered delivery of grocery basics (eggs, fruit, pasta, potato chips, and booze) for our 48-hour quarantine. It was brilliant! The delivery van from IGA arrived at the apartment at the same time as our taxi. After Lauren in security took our temperature and showed us around, we settled in for quarantine, aka well-deserved rest and recovery period. With air conditioning and lots of Netflix movies, we barely minded, and we were officially cleared around 4:00 pm on Tuesday. Just in time to go out to eat at Greek Kitchen before restaurants closed round 5:00 for COVID curfew.
Sanitas is one of those masts, way over there. (View from our quarantine apartment)
Do all these Covid protocols sound strange to my fellow Americans? Well, Caribbean island nations are still taking Covid quite seriously, especially since many have limited medical facilities. But they are also balancing safety with the need to improve the economy and to restore tourism. Both Grenada and St Vincent have recently removed the quarantine requirement for fully-vaccinated visitors. Grenada now only requires a rapid antigen test on arrival, rather than the costlier PCR test. And they’ve significantly lowered the cost of the tests for departure, which are required when you return home to the States. While Covid-related protests have turned violent in the French islands, Grenada feels safe and peaceful – especially as the beautiful weather means we live our lives almost entirely outdoors all winter long. I’m very glad we were able to return to Sanitas this fall, and I’m really looking forward to being able to sail more and explore more than we’ve been able to for the past two years!
Way back in March 2020, we said to ourselves, āLetās just sit tight through this Covid-19 thing, and weāll be able to cruise again next year.ā Cue 2021, and weāre STILL sitting tight and waiting for the world to open up again and to let us travel freely again. Iāve seen a lot of friends recently posting warm weather travel pictures on Instagram – and youāre mostly visiting US states territories such as the USVI, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, or the Florida Keys. So you get it! While travel is possible again these days, testing costs and quarantine requirements still make travel between countries tricky and expensive. Or maybe Iām just trying to convince myself that we made the right decision to spend five whole months in the Grenadines š
June 1st is the official start of hurricane season in the northern hemisphere so after our extended farewell party circuit of the Grenadines, we dug out our boat paperwork, To-Do lists, and links to government websites and started planning our trip back to Grenada. On May 1st, Grenada issued a new policy stating that fully vaccinated visitors could bypass most of quarantine. Hooray! Instead of the two-week quarantine we performed last year, vaccinated visitors just need to get a PCR test within 72 hours of arrival in Grenada, submit a bunch of health forms and documents, get tested again on arrival in Grenada, and quarantine on the boat until we get negative results from the arrival test – from 24-48 hours. This makes a lot of sense, and hopefully will allow the Caribbean islands to fully reopen to tourism in the fall. We used the two weeks after our second shot to say goodbye to all of our favorite places, as described in my last post, and then I went to work planning for a smooth transition between countries.
The swab up the nose doesn’t get any easier
Sunrise on Monday May 10 found the crew of Sanitas at the dinghy dock in Bequia, heading to the hospital for our āleaving SVGā Covid test. These tests must be processed manually in a lab on the main island. Test appointments are super early so that the nasal swabs can be put on a ferry and sent north to St Vincent. It sounds so logical but… island time! Capt. Mike and I sat on the ground in front of the tiny hospital from 6am until about 7:15 when we handed over 104ec per person (around $40) and finally were taken into an air conditioned shipping container and got the old swab up the nose. Our test didnāt make it on the first ferry, but they must have made it on the next one – we were thrilled to get our test results via email first thing Tuesday morning. By that time, weād sailed back down to Union Island, the southernmost point available to clear out of SVG.
Negative test results in hand, I pestered the ports authority in Carriacou until they replied with an email granting us permission to sail to Tyrell Bay exactly five months to the day after we cleared in. How crazy is that? We cleared out on exactly the day our cruising permit expired and made the short nine-mile sail south. The travel gods continued to smile on us, as we passed our health assessment quickly, and before we even made it back to the boat, we got called back for our āarrival in Grenadaā Covid test. Before noon on Wednesday, we settled in cheerfully on Sanitas, making the best of our 48-hour wait for results and freedom.
What do we do to occupy ourselves while confined to a teeny boat during quarantine? Well, Iām obviously catching up on blog posts š We cooked up some comfort food treats, like homemade gluten free pizza, and a delicious steak dinner. We reviewed our To-Do list for prepping Sanitas for hurricane season, and started to check off a few items that could be performed in advance. We did more planning; booking our haul-out date and an apartment, and even booking flights back to the US. We binge watched a young adult fairy romance series on Netflix (donāt ask how the algorithm decided weād enjoy that one) and rewatched both seasons of Derry Girls. We even (and this is a little pathetic in retrospect) packed go bags. So if we heard the Port Authority call us over the VHF radio, we could simply pull on our nicer ācustoms and immigration clothesā, grab backpacks stuffed with boat paperwork, wallets, and swim suits, and after clearing in weād be all set to walk over to Paradise Beach to celebrate our freedom. But… Thursday crawled by. And Friday morning turned into Friday afternoon. And other boats in the quarantine anchorage started calling the ports authority asking when we could expect results. About 4:00 I got an e-mail addressed to āDear Captainsā stating that they hadnāt received our test results, so weād have to stay in quarantine through the weekend. Say what? Our 48-hour quarantine just turned into five days. I didnāt bring enough Netflix or sweet and salty snacks for that much time!
Go bags at the ready!
Capt. Mike and I took turns being grouchy and then optimistic all weekend. We have a rule in our marriage that only one of us is allowed to be in a funk at a time. We polished stainless, wiped down closets with mildew killer, ate the rest of our cheese and crackers and chips and cookies, and somehow made it until Monday. Finally, at 10:30 we got the call on the radio to come in for our health clearance certificate. As I write this, it is 11:30 Monday morning, exactly 5 days or 120 hours after our supposedly 48-hour quarantine started. We brought our health certificate over to customs and immigration across town to FINALLY check in. The customs officer told us they are open from 1pm to 3pm. The officer must have seen my face, ’cause he said “ok, I know this is a stressful time. I can process you now” I gotta say, I’ve had my fill of Island Time for a while š¤£ We’re official now, and planning to sail to Grenada tomorrow. Phew!
First of all, the protocols for entering each country have been changing weekly – itās hard to keep track! St Vincent has actually done a pretty good job of updating a web page with their requirements. In a nutshell, we have to pass a Covid test in Grenada, then travel to SVG and take a second test, quarantining while we wait for the results. If both tests are negative, we are free to clear in and explore the country. Sounds easy, right? š Obviously, you are not familiar with the concept of island time. (Skip to the end if you just want to know how much it cost)
Weāve spent the past three weeks on the island of Carriacou, a pleasant day sail north of the big island of Grenada, and still part of the country of Grenada. From our anchorage, we could look northwest and see Clifton Harbor Union Island – the southernmost island in St Vincent, less than 12 miles away. But …. until last week, the only open port of entry for SVG was on the main island of St Vincent, over 50 miles further north. AND the only clinic in Carriacou that does Covid tests only performs the tests on Mondays and Wednesdays at 1:00pm. Then they put the tests on a ferry and ship them back to Grenada for processing. Talk about adding time and complexity to the process! We waited until Union Island reopened to visitors (giving them a week to work out the kinks) and then Cheryl on SV LeefNu put together a spreadsheet of all of the steps in the process and we went to work!
Step 1: Request permission to travel to St Vincent
On Wednesday December 2, I sent an email to SVGARRIVALS requesting permission to travel from Carriacou to Union Island over a week later, on 10 December. I attached a āRequest to quarantine aboardā form with lots of details about our boat, crew, travel history and health status. I didnāt receive any sort of response until late Friday afternoon when I wrote back and asked politely whether I should cancel my PCR test appointment on Monday. That did it. I received an email stating we were approved!
Step 2: Pre-travel Covid PCR test
I canāt believe I made it all the way to December 2020 without a q-tip up the nose! Well, no longer. We dinghied ashore and joined a small parade of other sailors walking toward the Lāesterre Health Clinic. The nurse looked a bit taken aback to see us all lined up at the front door. She muttered, āI hope I have enough swabsā and directed us one at a time to the office to pay. Then another long wait in the hot airless clinic until being called into the nurseās office to get poked. She had exactly enough tests for the 16 people who showed up that day. The nurse was surprisingly gentle, and we were free again one hour and 820ecd ($300) later. Yikes! Now the clock is ticking. We need to make sure we can get to SVG within the 72 hours that this test is valid. Iād cry if we missed our chance and had to get a second test and shell out ANOTHER $300 bucks.
Step 3: Wait for test results. Stress out. Jump each time you get an email notification
Thereās a long list of paperwork we need to submit to St Vincent 24-hours before we arrive. But the very first item on the list is our negative test results. So we hold our breath, cross our fingers, and hope the tests made it onto Monday nightās ferry to Grenada and hope that the General Hospital isnāt too overwhelmed to process our tests quickly. Did I mention that St Vincent only performs tests on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday? So if we miss our scheduled arrival on Thursday, weāll have to go on Friday, wait on a quarantine mooring ball until Monday to get tested, and THEN stay in quarantine until we get the results. Or, they might not let us in at all because our Grenada test results would be older than 72 hours. Oh, the stress!
Step 4: Lots more paperwork – finalize permission to travel to SVG
On Wednesday morning at 8:30, our friends on SV Holiday and SV LeefNu received their negative test results via email. But nothing for Sanitas. I sent an email. I made a call. Nothing. We waited…and waited…and grew more and more nervous. Finally, around 11:00 we hopped in the dinghy and traveled back to the clinic. Apparently they spelled our name wrong when they wrote down our email addresses. Thatās an easy fix! With the correct address, they sent the results and we were good to go. Negative, as expected, of course- thereās only one active Covid case in all of Grenada, and it was imported on a flight from the US š
I rushed to a picnic table outside the grocery store where I could get free wifi and started filling out the rest of the required paperwork. My goal was to get everything submitted before noon (island bureaucrats take long lunch breaks) and to meet the āsubmit 24 hours in advanceā requirement. I barely made it!
Step 5: More waiting…for final approval from St Vincent
Now we needed to wait for St Vincent to reply to my paperwork with a āStamped Approval Form.ā If we show up without this approval, St Vincent can use their coast guard to turn us away from entering the country. However, we still need to clear out of Grenada, and the customs and immigration office is only open until 3:45pm. So more nervous waiting. Finally, I emailed St Vincent customs. They replied that they were waiting for my negative Covid test results. Aargh! Thatās what I spent an hour at a supermarket picnic table working on! So…I sent all that paperwork in again. Finally, I received approval.
Step 6: Clear out of Grenada
Captain Mike took our passports and boat paperwork to customs and immigration, paid to catch up on our cruising permit fees, and successfully acquired our exit papers. Phew! We celebrated with burgers and gin & tonics at Big Citi grill ššøš
Step 7: Travel to Union Island. ANOTHER Covid test
We woke at first light, as excited as if it were Christmas morning. It feels great to be moving again! Anchors up at first light, and we had a lovely sail to Clifton Harbor on Union Island. Upon arrival, a gentleman in a dinghy marked with a yellow flag met us and escorted us to a mooring ball in the quarantine area. More waiting. Eventually, we were paged via VHF radio āSanitas, you are cleared to come ashore.ā We donned clean clothes, masks, and actually remembered shoes. We dinghied to the Bougainvillea dock, also marked with a yellow flag. Only one boat was allowed ashore at a time and once there, we handed over our boat paperwork and passports (Gulp. I hate to give up our passports. But they are successfully ensuring we wonāt skip out on quarantine). We got our second PCR test in less than a week, and boy this nurse really went after it! She didnāt just tickle my brain with the swab, she really twisted and turned it and ground it around – ouch! Back to our mooring ball to wait. Again…. Did I mention the test swabs in SVG also have to take a ferry ride north to St Vincent to be processed? š
Our quarantine view…
Step 8: Another quarantine
We kept ourselves busy through yet another quarantine by cooking, studying French, doing our Christmas shopping, and doing boat projects. But after a few days with no update on our test results, we stayed to get antsy.
Haircut time!
Final Step: Clear into SVG. And hand over a bunch of cash.
Finally, around 4:30 on Monday afternoon, a dinghy with a yellow flag approached. “Do you have good news for us?” Capt. Mike asked. “Unfortunately, I have bad news,” he said “You failed your test and have to take another.” What?!? How is that possible? The man in the dinghy let out a big laugh. “I’m just messing with you!” he said, and handed back our passports and paperwork, as well as a bill for the tests and processing fees. I don’t think that’s very funny, do you?
How much did all this cost?
Covid test in Grenada (2 people) = 820ecd or $305US
Covid test in SVG (2 people) = 324ecd or $120US
Clearing agent fees = 205ecd or $76US
Quarantine mooring fees (4 nights) = 245ecd or $92US
Cruising permit (1 month)= 70ecd = $27US
Total in US dollars = $619
Stress and worry about missing a deadline, and all those swabs up the nose = priceless š¤£
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not really complaining about the cost or the process. I understand that we’re very lucky to be able to visit these beautiful countries. And, of course, I respect the desire to protect islanders from Covid-19. The hospitals here really couldn’t handle an outbreak. I’m not even upset about the cost – these islands have had their economy tank with the lack of tourism. But now that we’ve got a 6-month visa in SVG, I don’t anticipate moving around much this season!
I get it! You’re all wondering what the global pandemic is like in “Paradise” š“ šļøāµĀ Well, since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic, Grenada has had 23 lab-confirmed cases of Covid-19 and has experienced zero Covid-19 deaths.
The prime minister closed borders and implemented lockdowns early, in an effort to protect the residents of this tiny country which does not have a very robust health care system. Officially, borders are just now starting to open. Letting “yachties” into the country was sort of an exception – remember how we had to comply with strict protocols such as sailing directly from Antigua, 14+ days of Quarantine, and multiple Covid-19 tests?
It seems to have worked. Since the beginning of July, Grenada has been completely Covid-free. And they’ve started to relax restrictions such as curfew and prohibitions on gathering. Here are the current rules:
The curfew has expired
Beaches are open
Gatherings of up to 20 people are allowed
Some restaurants have reopened for dining in, with social distancing, temperature checks, and contact tracing
Masks are mandatory for indoor businesses and on public transportation
As guests in this country, Capt. Mike and I are very careful to follow the rules. We’re starting a collection of colorful cloth facemasks that cost between 5-10 Eastern Caribbean dollars each (between $1.85 and $3.70 US – (Hey! That’s pretty cheap! Maybe I need another cute one!) We avoid large gatherings, and we bump elbows or mime blowing kisses instead of shaking hands or hugging. That being said, we’ve also got a little sailing bubble of couples who arrived here and quarantined the same time that we did and all tested negative for the virus around the same time. We stay in the same southern bays off the coast of the island, and we trust each other’s precautions.
So…. In many of my photos, we aren’t wearing masks. It’s the topics! So almost everything takes place outdoors – with the high temps, high humidity, and sweat that goes along with it! Good thing this blog post isn’t Scratch ‘n’ Sniff! š¤£ And once we’ve entered a bar or restaurant (with the entry restrictions I described above) we can remove our masks at our table or within our group. Or, thank goodness, in the pool! I’ll try to take more pictures of the hand sanitation stations, and social distancing markets on the floor, AND my growing cute mask collection, just to even things out.
However, the airport is not yet open to international commercial flights. In August, the government plans to allow flights from “medium-risk” countries, such as Canada and the UK. Sometime after that, they’ll open to flights from “high-risk” countries, such as the United States. The entry protocols will require Covid tests and possible quarantine. That’s why we come up with a backup plan, to ensure we could spend the summer here in Grenada if necessary.
Like all of you, we’re playing it by ear this year, and adjusting plans as we go. I hope Grenada, and all of the small Caribbean countries,Ā can continue to keep their citizens safe. And I also hope I can sail between Caribbean islands next winter instead of staying here indefinitely!
What Floats Our Boat 