So, here we are in Antigua, unsure about what to do next.  Even with all the uncertainty in the world the sun came up today as expected and it was beautiful.  The view around the harbor is very serene with extremely light winds forecast for the next few days. The news from the US seems to be worse every day and CT, our home state, is looking like it will soon become yet another major hotspot as the infections from nearby NY continue to accelerate and bleed over state lines.

Pandora is registered in Newport RI and I received some information saying that any non RI residents are not allowed to enter the state to work on their boats.    While that doesn’t apply to us right now, it’s a sobering realization.

My brother, who drives up and down the US east coast, moving show horses, told me that he has encountered roadblocks with troopers stopping passenger cars to see where they are headed and why.

The Bahamas, part of our “escape route” for heading back to the US in a few weeks, has tightened down their borders even more, to such a degree that the US Embassy in Nassau issued this alert for US citizens.

“LEAVE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE – Whether you’re at a hotel, on a private boat, or anywhere else, if you are a U.S. citizen and at any point in the near future may need to return to the United States, we urge you to leave as soon as commercial flights again become available, or as soon as you are able to depart by boat or private charter.

Do not wait, and do not assume this message doesn’t apply to you. As we have seen, we cannot predict if, when, or how severely movement within and out of The Bahamas may become restricted, whether by air or by sea.

Anyway, here we sit in Falmouth Harbor not knowing what to do next, knowing full well that we are way safer here, where there is only a few infections,  a fully locked down island and a government that is very clear about the existential threat that they face.  When the one week shutdown is over this coming week, I fully expect that it will be extended.

It’s interesting to see how cruisers, locked down on their boats, are keeping themselves busy and as active as possible.   This morning Brenda and I witnessed a couple nearby dancing together wildly on the bow of their boat.

Brenda and I are taking twice day swims, with laps around the boat.  She was disheartened when she realized that to walk from one end of Pandora to the other was only about 40.  Not likely to get us to the recommended 4,000 steps any time soon.  Not sure exactly how many calories our laps are burning but it’s very enjoyable for us both.Brenda has also been knitting and weaving up a storm and is making great progress on a tapestry “A Caribbean diary”, that will have images highlighting some of our experiences here this winter.   She also finished a shawl using yarn that our son’s partner Melody gave her for Christmas.  Visiting them over the holidays seems like a thousand years ago.  So much has changed. While it’s too hot to sit up on deck when the sun is high, mornings and evenings are times when Brenda and I enjoy time on deck to read, enjoy an adult beverage or just enjoy the serene view that belies all of the ill in the world these days. We have also been spending a lot of time with video calls to our family using WhatsApp on our Google Fi phone.  Two years ago, this wouldn’t have even been possible.  Getting that phone was a stupendous idea.

Last evening we realized that we could, in a single call, set up a video feed with Rob in MD, Chris in CA and our friend Craig in Detroit.  We all had our “happy hour”, and it was a full hour together while watching Tori and the twins terrorize Rob and Kandice.  The contrast from their “screen” to the relative serenity of the other three of us on the call was amazing.

Happy hours aside, the Antigua Coast Guard patrolling the harbor provides daily evidence of the need to pay attention to the threat and rules that have been put in place here to protect everyone.   Our friend Lynn on Roxy, complete with their flamingo, Pinky surveying the harbor this morning, with the Coast Guard cutter patrolling in the background. Every day a few more of the mega yachts leave the harbor, I guess heading to the Mediterranean or Newport.  I heard that at least one of them had a confirmed case of the virus on board and were quarantined while that case was being monitored with the hope that the rest of the crew won’t become infected. With the idea of cutting hundreds of miles off of our trip north by transiting the Bahamas looking less and less likely, Brenda is working hard to come to grips with the likely reality that she and I will be running Pandora home with just the two of us on board.  The longest non-stop run that she has taken with me to date was from Georgetown Bahamas to Santiago de Cuba back in 2016, a three day run that she did not like at all.    That 350 mile run is a lot shorter than the 1,100 run from the USVIs to Florida and we will still be 1,000 mile from home once we arrive there.

Alternatively, we could just opt to head north to CT, directly from the USVIs but that option is a whole lot riskier as we will be hundreds of miles from land and any hope of help if we get into trouble.

So, here we sit, wondering what will happen next and hoping that the news, which seems to be getting worse every day, will begin to turn around.

As long as each state is left to their own devices and are forced to make their own decisions on how to handle things, I fear that tomorrow will bring more bad news that things will continue to get worse.

So, we have to decide when to leave the relative safety of Antigua and head home.  The good news is that we have support, weather, tracking and moral, from the Salty Dawg flotilla that will have staggered starts, heading to the US, from the USVIs and other locations.  As of today about 100 boats have registered to do the run, most opting to head west toward Florida, passing through the Old Bahamas Channel, the route that we will use as well.

So, now it seems that any option of shortening our trip by running through the Bahamas isn’t going to be likely so we will have to decide when we will leave Antigua and head north to an overcrowded USVIs and beyond.

Of course, once we arrive in Florida we will still be 1,000 miles from home.  It’s gong to be a long trip.

Great…

 

Last night Brenda and I headed ashore to pick up the last takeout pizza available in Antigua.  Perhaps it wasn’t the last but it sure felt like that.   I say last because as of midnight last night, all non-essential businesses on the island are closed for at least a week and a 24 hour quarantine is in effect.

Along with every other island in the Caribbean, Antigua has effectively been turned off.

Realizing that our freedom, such as it is, was down to the final hours, a number of our nearby cruising friends decided to get together for one last visit before the new rules went into affect, rafting four dinks together off of one of our boats.

Our thought was that by rafting dinks out in the breeze and not climbing into anyone’s cockpit, we’d be being responsible and still have the opportunity to do some socializing.  I expect that it is going to be a while until we are able to enjoy such social activities again.  Open air or not, Brenda and I were careful to place our dink upwind from the group.

And, speaking of social distancing,  I wonder what a proper caption for this photo might be.  “Tony, for God’s sake, I REALLY need some space.   Go to your dink.”And, speaking of confinement, I would not be surprised if the ban is renewed for yet another week as I am not sure what will be accomplished after only a single week given the history of infections spreading elsewhere in the world.   The good news is that only a handful of infections have been identified on the island and I understand that they were from passengers on flights from the UK and were discovered promptly.  Let’s hope that they have been contained.

I only wish that the US was so diligent about locking things down.   The patchwork approach, state by state, does not give me a lot of hope that things will be anything but catastrophic.

It is unnervingly quiet in the harbor today and in spite of dozens of boats anchored here, there has been none of the usual buzz of small outboards speeding around the harbor. While a lot of the big kids have left for the season, there’s still plenty of hardware in the two mega-yacht marinas. Everyone has been ordered to stay at home on the island and all cruisers are confined to their boats.  Even cruising around the harbor in a dink is prohibited.  And, if you wish to move to a different harbor permission you must be specifically granted approval to move by the Antigua Coastguard.

The island-wide lock down was announced two days ago from the office of the Prime Minister to give everyone time to adjust and prepare for the new rules.

The day before the announcement, Brenda and I made our last trip to get groceries, which I wrote about in a prior post, and while that experience was unnerving enough, it was only a dress rehearsal for what happened at the same grocery the day that the shutdown was announced.

By the next morning there was a line of some 200 shoppers waiting outside the market in Jolly Harbor when it opened, mostly locals, and there seemed to be little concern for any sort of social distancing, with everyone crammed close to each other while waiting to be allowed to enter the store.  Scary stuff.

A local friend told me today that the lock down was announced because nobody seemed to be taking the threat seriously on their own.

Yesterday we moved from Jolly Harbor, to where we are now, Falmouth, knowing that it was “now or never” if we wanted to change our location.  We did this for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that we could not run our water maker in Jolly as the water there has a very fine silt that clogs the filters in short order.

Another reason is that Jolly Harbor is much more exposed to waves and the forecast calls for a north swell to come into the harbor, beginning in a few days, which would make it very uncomfortable.  And, lastly, I was a bit put off during the morning VHF cruisers net yesterday, listening to cruisers lecturing other cruisers for not adhering to the restrictions in quite the right way.   In particular, one complaint was that some cruisers were touring the harbor, stopping to talk to friends while standing alongside.  Ok I get it but it’s hard to imagine infecting someone from 6 feet away with a 10kt breeze blowing between you.

So we headed off to Falmouth, a really nice harbor.  So nice in fact, that the British used it as their primary commercial port for over 100 years when the Navy was in control of nearby English Harbor.    Fortunately, we were able to take advantage of the light winds and the final day before all boats are to be locked down to make our way here.  Our plan, subject to change, is to remain here until we have a clear plan for making our way north to the US.

One of the things that I most enjoy doing when visiting Falmouth, pre-lock-down has been to tour the harbor (and I took these photos yesterday, before the restrictions were in place) and look at all the great yachts.  Antigua is often referred to as the Sailing Capital of the Caribbean and is surely THE place for huge sailing yachts to hang out for the winter.  And while a lot of them have already left to head back to Europe, the harbor is still packed with all manner enormous yachts.

So, in a time with so much bad news, I enjoyed touring and photographing a few of these beauties.  Here goes…

A yacht that I  have admired for a number of years now is Meteor, docked for much of the season here in Falmouth.  Launched in in the Netherlands in 2007, she is a thoroughly modern classic.   This photo of her doesn’t begin to do her justice.  This short video shows how amazing she is.  And you would expect amazing for $30,000,000. Brenda would happily shelter here in their salon.  There’s even room for a small loom.   However, I expect that the crew would freak out when she began scattering bits of yarn and fuzz around her on that beautiful white carpet. Indeed, a proper place for a nap.  And we all know that Brenda loves a good nap. 
Still want to see more about Meteor?  Follow this link.  You can even charter her.  How much?  As was once said, “if you have to ask, you can’t afford her”.   I remember racing against her in Newport a few years ago when we were invited aboard Marie for a few days of racing.   I wrote about that magical experience in this post.

Another yacht that I have long admired is Bystander, launched in 2007.  She is the “tender” to the Classic J yacht Velsheda, launched in 1933.   Bystander was designed to look the part of a proper 30s yacht.   She is a regular here in Falmouth.  Beautiful from any angle.
Brenda would love the galley.  And, if the chef chased here out, the engine room is clean enough to eat in.  An awkward segue I’ll admit but I wanted to use the photo.  Of course, she was designed to shadow the owner’s sailboat, Velsheda, launched in 1933, one of the iconic classic Js.   I am sure that she is in the harbor but I don’t have any photos of my own to post.   There’s more information at her site if you’re interested.   Imagine what it costs to keep a yacht of this scale and age, nearly 100 years old, in perfect condition. Bystander is described as an “escort vessel” offering the comforts that perhaps Velsheda doesn’t have.  Sure, if you say so.  To me, it seems a stretch to imagine that her amenities are anything but luxurious.

I have mentioned in past posts that a new trend among the uber-wealthy yachting set is to have “shadow vessels” to carry all their toys so they can avoid cluttering up the “mother ship” with all manner of stuff.   I have posted about Garcon, a shadow yacht that’s been here in Antigua for several months now.  Her name, I imagine, grows out of Garcon as in “Garcon, please fetch me another mint julep”. It appears that they were getting everything ready to head out yesterday, the chopper all set and covered for being at sea. Not certain, but Alpha Nero at 270′ long, featuring 4,000 square feet of living space, seems like the only yacht in the marina big enough to have or need a shadow yacht.  She features a large pool on the aft deck that can be converted to a landing pad for the chopper, by virtue of a hydraulically lifting bottom.   “Garcon, please fetch my chopper from Garcon”.

She is owned, you guessed it, by a Russian, Andrey Guryev, who made his fortune in phosphate.  So, this morning, off went the “mother ship”.  Garcon isn’t here now so I guess she left earlier and I missed her departure.   Interestingly, when a large yacht leaves the harbor for the season her horn is blown loudly and the remaining yachts salute her in kind.  In the silence of this morning, the salutes were particularly obvious. It’s hard to really appreciate the scale of these yachts, lined up in a row.
Except when you realize that the “little one” in the middle has someone high up surveying the rigging.  And, “amazing” doesn’t just apply to the huge yachts.   This boat says “fast” even tied to a mooring.   Shockwave has a vinyl “wrap” and yes, it really is that shiny, even up close.   She’s fully carbon and as is the case for so many performance multihulls, was built in France.  Check her site out to learn more. If you, like me, are curious about how you’d go about wraping a complex shape like Shockwave in chrome, check out this video.  And, I can tell you, that it looks perfect, even up close.  No “ten foot view” required.And, Shockwave isn’t the only speeder in the harbor.   Meet UltiMotion.  This is one high-tech machine.   I have to wonder how much the windscreen on the right really helps when the going gets rough. Imagine the loads on the main cross beam when she’s blasting along at 30+ kts.  She’s all carbon, I am sure and as I understand it, carbon doesn’t give a lot of warning when it’s going to break, it just explodes into a shower of splinters. So, here we are, hanging out in Antigua waiting for well, waiting to see what happens next.  Good thing that the hurricane season is still two months out.

That’s the good news.  The bad news is that today the National Hurricane Center announced that they expect this year’s storms to be “above normal” with four powerful storms.

All the more reason to be sure and get Pandora home.  However, we aren’t in a big hurry.  Our son Chris is adamant that we not come back too soon.   And, as much as his mother doesn’t want to make the 1,000 mile run to Florida, he REALLY doesn’t want her on an airplane ride.  His advice, “Mom, this is a once in a hundred years thing so 1,00o miles aboard Pandora really isn’t all that big a deal when you think of it that way.”  Not sure Brenda buys that logic.

So, there you have it, we are in Antigua and somebody just closed the Caribbean.

When will the door open so we can go home?  I have no idea.

Nobody does.

For many years Brenda and I have been told that we are “living the dream” to be free to sail wherever we want, whenever we want.   To be aboard Pandora for months at a time does feel, to me at least, to be a bit of a dream at times.  Brenda, on the other hand, may not always have the same view.

However, right now, as we sit here in Antigua, unable to do much of anything ashore and completely unsure how we are going to get Pandora home before the hurricane season begins in June, it is feeling like more of a nightmare than a dream.

Don’t get me wrong, we are in an idyllic spot, here in Jolly Harbor, with views each day that most will only see during a week long tropical holiday.    Today’s sunrise over the distant mountains.  Montserrat, in the distance, complete with it’s own active volcano. A couple out for a bit of early morning SUPing.Yes, all of this is wonderful but for us, but much different than in past winters, when we spent time with friends and could predict, with certainty, when and how we would be heading home in the spring.  After 7 winter seasons afloat, we have more or less, gotten into a pattern and one that has been predictable, until now.

Now the only thing that has been predictable for the last few weeks is that we can’t predict what’s going to happen at all, even a few days from now.

Every day seems to bring yet another change, often more dramatic than the last.  As an example, about an hour ago the Prime Minister of Antigua announced that a week long 24hr curfew will go into effect as of midnight tomorrow.  This means that only essential travel will be allowed, limited to food shopping or emergencies but that’s it, stay home or risk arrest.  Gatherings will be limited to no more than two individuals and no kissing on the lips.  (Ok, I made the no kissing part up.)

It has been breathtaking to see how fast predictable has given way to unpredictable.  A month ago we headed to St Lucia and the marina at Rodney Bay to spend a few days while having a new refrigeration compressor installed.  Nearly three weeks later, our plans were totally up in the air and we decided to extend our stay to a full month only to make a decision to leave abruptly and sail to Antigua two hours later.  A last minute change of plans prompted by hearing that Antigua was planning to close the island to any and all arrivals in two days.

Since we have been here, and it’s only been a few days, Antigua has gone from closing their boarders to a complete lock down.   Yesterday we went to the grocery store and to us it felt like we were courting death.  The space between the shelving felt particularly tight and it seemed like there just too many people in a small space.  We heard from friends that today there is a line out to the street, even to get into the store and no amount of social distancing to handle such crowds.

Yesterday the crowds were very light and yet we still felt very exposed, with shopper feeling like a threat and them viewing us in the same way.    One shopper, obviously a cruiser, somehow managed to touch every one of the rotisserie chickens on the shelf, trying to choose the best one.  It was all that I could do not to call him out on it.   When I came around the end of an isle, I turned the other way if it was too crowded, which always seemed to be the case.  No squeezing by for me, but as a result, so we were in the store for nearly an hour.

I’ve never been particularly good about washing my hands, but now I have become fairly compulsive about it.   The grocery store had two sinks, one on either side of the entrance so shoppers could decontaminate themselves before entering.   And, as if that wasn’t enough, I was still hand sanitizing with my own spray bottle, ever few minutes.  I read that the handle on a shopping cart has more bacteria than a public toilet.  At least my fear of virus means that I have at least one tiny thing in common with Trump.  As awkward as it is to be stuck here in Antigua, just about everyone we talk to in the US feels that we are much safer here.  It seems that in the US, every day brings increasingly bad news, with little improvement in sight.

Sure, it’s beautiful down here but I have to say that it just isn’t the same when things are so up in the air and we are so far from home.

Facebook has never been particularly high on my list but nowadays, I feel like it’s a lifeline to keep us connected with friends and family.  At least it has some humor, if often dark, to lighten the mood.

Being in such close quarters aboard Pandora, with so much uncertainty, has frankly gone better than we might have expected, and that’s good.  This short piece seems to capture the mood pretty well.    I wonder if Brenda would choose A.

So before you think “Oh, poor Bob and Brenda, stuck in paradise aboard their yacht, how sad.”  Think about how you’d feel to be “sheltering” with your partner in a space that is about the size of a bathroom as there isn’t any other option.

While some cruisers are willing to wait it out here to see what happens next, many have had their boats hauled here in Antigua and other islands and have headed home, accepting the reality that their boats may very likely be in harms way, with nearly all of the islands deep within the hurricane belt.

However, finding the best place to keep a boat tough as so many islands have completely shut their boarders.  For those wishing to keep their boats outside of the hurricane belt, Grenada and Trinidad are the only reasonable option and both are completely cut off, not allowing any new arrivals.  So, many cruisers are sitting and hoping that things will open up before the first hurricane of the season hits.

While many of our cruiser friends have headed home, they are still emailing and messaging us regularly, wanting to know how we are doing.   It’s very nice.

To that point, one good thing about the timing of this new-found isolation is that it’s happening in a year when connectivity for us is at an all time high.  Being able to call family and friends at will is making our time away, in the midst of so much uncertainty, makes things a lot more bearable.

After years of frustration in trying to find a way to stay in touch while traveling, our Google Fi phone has proven to be a God-send, allowing us to do video chats with our sons Rob and Chris and their families, nearly every day, from the comfort of Pandora.  As recently as two years ago, during our last winter afloat, we had no way to connect, beyond text and email, unless we went ashore to somewhere with strong WiFi.   With our Google service we are finding that the data on the phone is generally better than WiFi ashore.

Great connectivity comes in very handy for virtual “happy hours” in the evening family and friends, particularly our friend Craig, who is living in Detroit these days, and that’s been a nice way to have a proper evening toast on occasion.

Friends are still getting together here, albeit at a safe distance.  A popular evening pastime is to tie a few dinks together and drift around the harbor.  Out in the wind, a good distance apart, the risk is less, we hope.   However, with the new restrictions in place here in Antigua, groups of more than two are not allowed so even an outdoor drift is no longer an option and perhaps isn’t wise anyway.

Walks on the beach are a nice way to spend time.   Social distancing was very easy on this deserted beach, not far from Pandora. A peaceful moment in a world that feels anything but peaceful. A reminder, a school of tiny fish in the shallows, that life goes on, virus or not.  And its been great to have a beach nearby with decent shelling.    A pretty nice haul.We’ll have to come up with some sort of craft project to do with our granddaughter Tori using these shells.  I expect that Rhett and Emme are too young and would just try to eat them, so perhaps not a good idea just yet.  Perhaps in a year when they are three.

I will admit, that in the middle of the night, I am wondering if we are making the right decision just waiting here to see what the next month brings.  Will we be  able to do the shorter run to the US through the Bahamas, now completely closed off to cruisers not already there, or will we be forced to sail west, the 1,100 miles from the USVIs to Florida with just the two of us on board.  While the run to Florida from the USVIs is only a few hundred miles closer than a straight shot to CT, at least it’s a downwind sail and would be a lot easier on Brenda.

Better yet, will travel restrictions be relaxed so that she can fly home and crew come down to make the run north with me?   Who knows, but we are hoping that in a month, now that the administration seems to have finally taken the threat seriously and is encouraging everyone to stay home, that things will settle down and be safer for travel.

So, here we sit, trying to figure out what the best course of action is, hoping that things will improve and that we will be able to bring Pandora home with a minimum of fuss.

One thing I have been focused on, to pass the time, is finishing things that I have needed to get to but somehow have overlooked or put off.    To that point, I ran into this bit of timely advice shared by a fellow cruiser from an authority on such things…

“Heard a Dr. on TV say to get through the boredom of self isolation we should finish things we start and thus have more calm in our lives. So I looked through the boat to find all the things i’ve started but hadn’t finished…so I finished off a bottle of Merlot, a bottle of Chardonnay, a bodle of Baileys, a butle of wum, tha mainder of Valiumun srciptuns, an a box a chocletz. Yu haf no idr how feckin fablus I feel rite now. Sned this to all who need inner piss. An telum u luvum xtherIn”

Well, as goal oriented as I may be, the day is young so perhaps I’ll wait a few more hours before I work in earnest on things aboard Pandora that are not “done”.

As someone once said, “sheltering on a boat is sort of like being in a prison cell, with the possibility of drowning”.  Yeah, that’s what Brenda says and that’s when things are “normal”, and things are definitely not normal now.

All of this speculation about using crew as an alternative to just me and Brenda bringing Pandora home, is probably wishful thinking but I am really hoping that things do change.

Anyway, here we are in Antigua not knowing what the future will bring and doing our best to stay connected.

So far, so good and, to date, no sign of the virus aboard Pandora.

 

Brenda and I arrived in Antigua on Friday after a two day run from St Lucia, the last day that arrivals were allowed before the boarders were closed.

After several weeks in the marina and months buddy boating with friends, our departure was emotional, not knowing when our paths would cross again.  Those who were still there gave us a proper sendoff.We are now sitting aboard Pandora for a two week quarantine hoping that the island will open up soon.  However, given the risk of infection at any point, we are effectively quarantined indefinitely, here or at home when that day finally arrives.

As a matter of history, the term Quarantine originated in Europe during the plague, in the 14th century that killed an estimated 50,000,000 people, as much as 60% of the population of Europe at the time.  Fortunately, the death rate from Covid-19 is child’s play compared with that but it is terrifying, never the less, to be dealing with a worldwide pandemic.

As is the case today, the plague originated in China and found it’s way to northern Europe on the backs, literally, of rats that lived on ships trading between China and Europe.  The term Quarantine comes from the word quaranta, the word for 40 in Italian, rising out of the requirement for arriving ships to stay at anchor for 40 days, to ensure that there was no disease on board, before anyone was allowed ashore.

The use of the word has stuck and to be subject to quarantine now is a grim reminder of how little has actually changed in spite of all of the technological advances that we are so proud of.

So here we are, quarantined aboard Pandora for two weeks which is certainly better than 40 days.  However, even if we were not subject to this forced isolation, there’s not much on shore as nearly all businesses are closed.  Additionally, there is curfew from 20:00 to 06:00 with major fines if you don’t follow the rules.

And, to be sure that nobody sneaks into Antigua without going through proper channels, the Coast Guard is patrolling harbors twice a day. As of yesterday, Saturday, all hotels and most businesses are shuttered and all flights bringing people to Antigua have been stopped.  A few flights are still coming in empty to pick up travelers that wish to return home.   However, that is not an option for me and Brenda as it would not be wise to leave Pandora here during the hurricane season.

Many boats are kept within the hurricane zone each summer with owners hoping that the odds of loosing their boats aren’t all that bad given the likelihood of a really bad storm hitting their particular island in any given year is slight.  However, it was only two years ago that Barbuda, a mere 25 miles from Antigua was leveled.   Conventional wisdom is that there is a one in ten chance of a major storm hitting any particular island in any given year.  Those odds don’t sound all that bad unless you consider how you’d feel if you knew that you had a one in ten chance of being killed when you get in the car and head out for groceries.  I doubt that many would take those odds.

And who can forget the pictures of boats in the BVIs scattered like match sticks with nearly every boat in the entire country destroyed.  One strategy used to save boats in the event of a major storm is to weld all the stands holding up the boat together with iron pipes and to use heavy straps to secure the boat to tie-downs cemented into the ground under the boat.   However, in storms as ferocious as what hit some islands two years ago, many boats that were well secured to the ground still had their rigs ripped off at the deck.  And, no matter how well a boat is tied down flying debris from other boats and buildings nearby can still inflict a lot of damage.

This photo from the British Virgin Islands at one of the better yards is a grim reminder of what can happen.Frankly, it would be so appealing to just put Pandora on the hard and jump on a plane to the US.  However, with the constant stream of bad news coming out of the US we are probably a lot safer here than at home.  Additionally, with deductibles for losses in hurricane zones so high, I doubt that we’d be in a position to replace Pandora if the need were to arise, something that I’d prefer not to think about.  However, given our predicament, I am afraid to have Brenda weigh in on all that.

So, with all this in mind, here we sit, hoping that somehow things will get better at home so we can feel better about heading home.  As June first, the beginning of hurricane season, is still a long way off, we don’t have to make any big decisions quite yet.

However, given the whipsaw of news coming from the administration in Washington and the seeming disconnect between what’s being recommended  on a national level, verses what individual states are doing to keep people safe, we are very nervous about the risk of being so close to New York, the hottest of hot spots and fear that things are about to get a lot worse.

So, here we sit, aboard Pandora in quarantine in Five Islands Harbor, not far from St John, where we cleared in on Friday.   The only sign of civilization is a lovely resort tucked into the hillside. It’s lovely and in different times we’d be heading ashore for a drink or dinner.  However, now there is nobody there except one or two security guards keeping an eye on things.

Things are anything but normal and I’ll admit that Brenda and I feel pretty isolated and unsure about what happens next.

We are hopeful that things will settle down in a few weeks and that we will be able to make our way to the American Virgin Islands where she will be able to fly home and I’ll be able to get crew to Pandora so we can head home to CT.  Mercifully, my crew, Steve and Jim, are standing by and will come if they can.  Brenda, on the other hand is “preparing for the worse, and hoping for the best”.

I expect that getting crew to come down may very well prove to be just so much wishful thinking given how chaotic things are in the US right now and how restrictive flights to the islands are.  The news gets worse each day and there seems to be more, not less, uncertainty in Washington about how to manage what may very well turn out to be the worse outbreak of any country in this worldwide pandemic.  I expect that is going to get a lot worse in the US before things begin to get back to anything resembling normal.

Our plans about when to leave St Lucia were so much up on the air that we had changed our mind on a near daily basis on whether we should continue to hang out in St Lucia or head north to Antigua or the USVIs.  It wasn’t until we learned that Antigua would be closing it’s boarders this weekend, that we decided to leave and head here.

So, with only a few hours notice we arranged for a diver to clean Pandora’s bottom, foul from more than two weeks in the dirty inner harbor, contact the marina and advise them that we were leaving.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t clear out through Customs as the office was closed, along with everything else near the marina.  It was getting pretty depressing to be there, I’ll admit.

Our first run was 100 miles from St Lucia to Dominca where we wanted to pick up the wood I had cut for me back in January.  I wrote about that adventure in an earlier post.    We sailed to Dominica through the night and arrived just after daybreak on Thursday, not knowing what to expect when we arrived.

We were shocked to see how many boats, dozens, were still anchored in the harbor.  As the island was officially closed to new arrivals, we didn’t check in and never went ashore.  This was technically illegal but we counted on modest enforcement and we were right.

We were able to get the PAYS (Portsmouth Association of Yacht Security) guys to bring the wood out to Pandora.   I couldn’t believe how fast they found the wood and brought it to us.  Yikes, the boards turned out to be a lot bigger than I had remembered. I had left the boards in Dominica when we left as I was at a loss on how I was going to secure them down below so that they would not shift underway. With lots of sensitive electronics and equipment under the cockpit, where I wanted to store them, I needed to be absolutely certain that they would not come loose in rough conditions.  After a few hours I had secured the wood in the locker under the cockpit.  It was a hot sweaty job.  Yes, it was that tight back there. Getting three 5.5′ long boards through that tiny opening was no simple feat. I attached nearly a dozen metal straps to the surrounding bulkheads to tie the boards down securely.  Lacing the pile every which way with super-strong Dynema line took some doing.  Now the wood is properly secured, I think.  I expect that getting them out again when we get home, if we get home, will be quite a project.  It’s tight, tight, in there with less than one inch to the bulkhead, port and starboard. After resting in Dominica, such as it was, with a constant stream of visitors pulling up in their dinks to say HI, we headed out in the late afternoon for the 100 mile run to Antigua.

As we passed Guadalupe, yet another island that has put in tight restrictions, we were shadowed by a French warship.  I expected them to order me to head further offshore as I had heard that transiting vessels were required to honor their territorial waters, 12 miles out.  They didn’t say a word.  Hearing nothing, I decided to reach out to them and explained that we had no plans to stop and were in transit for Antigua.  Their answer, “please pass to our stern”.  We did.

In spite of the uncertainty of what would happen when we arrived in Antigua and the inability to stop along the way, we had a pleasant enough passage on a beam reach in about 15kts of wind and pretty calm, buy ocean standards, seas.  Unfortunately, Brenda didn’t feel particularly well.  It was tough for me to stay awake as Brenda slept a good amount of the time.

We spotted a lot of seabirds.  I particularly enjoyed watching the frigate birds that circled constantly, scooping up the flying fish that the passage of Pandora scared into the air. Both nights we had beautiful sunsets.
When the sun goes down I enjoy being on the water even more as it’s cool and there isn’t much to worry about with most boats in port.   We saw a lot of squalls in the distance but none passed us to wash the salt off. After our two day run, with a stop in Dominica to rest, we pulled into St John Harbor, normally used by commercial shipping only.

Brenda piloted Pandora down the channel as I prepared the anchor.  I was a bit nervous about dropping an anchor in a harbor where surely there was lots of refuse on the bottom after so many years of heavy commerce, out of fear that it would get hung on something and not come up. There wasn’t a lot of activity in what is usually a very busy port. Containers were being lifted off of the one ship in port, one of several that arrive here from Miami each week.  Some of the locals have expressed anxiety that shipments of food may be disrupted by the increased quarantine.   So, far, so good. When we are underway for distances that go beyond day sailing between islands, we put our dink on deck.  Securing things properly is quite a process involving full deflation and securing it carefully with straps and ties.  When we arrived in St John we had to re-launch to get ashore for customs and immigration. We had heard from friends, who cleared in a few weeks ago, that it was quite difficult to get ashore as the docks are set up for cruise ships, not small private boats.  They had to scramble up tall ladders onto the dock.  Until recently, cruisers were able to clear into other harbors but in order to have better control over arrivals, the government has designated St John as the only place to clear in.  They set up a convenient containment area and clearly brand new, floating dock to tie up to. We aren’t the only ones “sheltering” here in Antigua.  How about this yacht Joy.  I doubt that they feel all that bad being forced to hang out aboard.
How about a bit of fun on the water slide, day sailor, jet ski, you name it. A round of basketball on the bow?  Brenda often says that her “natural state is asleep”.  How about this as a perfect spot for a nap or…All rested?  I expect that they won’t be eating Ramen noodles for dinner any time soon.  “Jasper, please fetch me a margarita, on the rocks and a glass of champagne for the little lady.”According to the official Joy website, the owner Sameer Gehlaut is a business owner from Mumbai India and when he commissioned the yacht, launched in 2016, his brief was to “create something different than any other yacht”.

Well, Sameer, you got what you paid for and she’s different all right, different from any yacht we spend time on.  Check out her site.  Want to see more, don’t forget to look at the gallery of photos.  Not a shabby place to be quarantined.

However, perhaps to remind us that there is a proverbial “storm on the horizon” we saw a funnel cloud nearby yesterday afternoon. So, back aboard Pandora.  At least the view from aboard Joy isn’t any nicer than this.  It’s a beautiful place.  I just wish it was under different circumstances.

Once our two week quarantine is complete not a lot will change as just about everything ashore is closed anyway.  Besides, we have no idea about what’s in store next.

Quarantine or not, and far from home, I have to admit that a beautiful sunset still goes very well with a glass of white wine.  So, that’s the news from Pandora.  Quarantined in Antigua for now but who knows what the future will bring.

But all of this is “just one Man’s opinion”.  So, if you haven’t already read Brenda’s last post, you should.  It is a very moving review of some of the stories that we have heard from fellow cruisers and friends.

Oh, are we glad that we have great connectivity on our Google Fi phone.  Can you say “unlimited data”?

I sure hope that things settle down soon.  We want to go home.

Never mind checking out of St Lucia yesterday!  We decided to stay a little longer.

This isn’t the view that I expected to wake up to today.  Pleasant enough but it’s still the marina. And we are still here.  That’s what Brenda and I decided yesterday about our plan to head north from Rodney Bay to the USVIs to hook up with the Salty Dawg Homeward Bound flotilla to the US.

All along I have been focused on making the run north as comfortable as possible for Brenda because she just isn’t an “offshore kind of girl” and given her tendency to get seasick, we are careful to choose our weather carefully.

So, we agreed that we would not make a final decision yesterday until we took a look at Chris Parker’s daily weather forecast and to call him directly to get his take on things.

After speaking to him it did look like the weather would be good with moderate close reaching conditions for much of the trip, heading into NE winds.  However, he was forecasting a pretty big north swell of 8′ that we’d be going into for the second half of the trip, something that would make for a pretty salty ending to the run.

After digesting that bit of news, and knowing that we really aren’t in a rush, I asked about perhaps waiting for the next window.  Chris’s answer, “sure, but who knows.  However, if you have time, there will be another window”.

Staying put turned out to be a good idea as of today the USVIs are now closed to all entries, US citizens or not.  We’d be able to anchor in the harbor but there would be no way to get ashore, even to register for quarantine.

At the same time I have been checking with my contacts in Antigua and learned that as of this morning that they actually extending clearance hours, now 7 days a week, 08:00 to 20:00.  Of course, you have to be checked for symptoms and may be subject to quarantine.  However, it looks like they will remain open, at least for now.  Additionally, while those who have expressed interest in the Salty Dawg flotilla to the US are scattered just about everywhere from Grenada to the DR, a good number of them are congregating in Antigua so we are now recommending that Antigua is the better option.

It’s pretty lucky that we decided to stand down for a day or we’d be in the same predicament that a fellow cruiser Merlin is, who will be arriving in the USVIs in a day or so and will learn the bad news.  They won’t be happy at all and probably won’t learn about the restrictions until they get there as they have only limited shore side communications on board.

So, yet another plan, for the moment.

Most of the businesses in the marina here are now closed so the place is mostly vacant.  I ran into a uniformed customs agent again today who told me that there was no way to clear out and that we should “just go”.   I couldn’t believe it. “Can’t you just give us some paperwork to prove where we came from?”  His answer, “no, just leave”.

The problem with “just leaving” is that there is tremendous sensitivity in most Caribbean islands regarding where you have been and when and there are a number of islands, particularly Martinique and Guadalupe that have more infections than others.   So, for us to leave and just show up somewhere, unable to prove where and when we left another island, could lead to being expelled and not allowed to check in at all.

To that point, I learned that the skipper on one of the boats that did the Salty Dawg Rally to Antigua last fall fell ill with the virus in St Martin and wasn’t able to get himself ashore without help.   He ended up being airlifted to Guadalupe where he is undergoing treatment.   Very scary.

So now, it looks like the best place for me and Brenda to head to is Antigua.  And I have to wonder how we will be received without clearance papers.  At least I hope to have the invoice from the marina stating when we checked out.   Antigua is particularly strict about clearance papers, even during normal times and these times are anything but normal.

The US, unlike all of the Caribbean islands, does not issue check-out papers which are required when you check into Antigua.  So, an exception is made by US customs  for those in the Salty Dawg Rally that are heading to Antigua .  They make a special point of issuing clearance papers through their office in Norfolk VA, which makes it a lot simpler to check into Antigua when we arrive.

I had also arranged for a diver to clean Pandora’s bottom yesterday, something that I normally do myself, because I thought that it was prudent to avoid an hour or more in the water, out in the bay, before beginning a long run.  However, with the change of plans, I canceled that, for now.

So now, with the USVIs closed completely I guess that Antigua’s the best option and I am making calls to some folks in the government that I know there to learn more.

Another unsettling development is that the Bahamas have issued new even more stringent guidelines.  All residents are now subject to a 24 hour curfew and boats already in Bahamas waters had to stay where they are, no movement at all.  Worse of all, no new boats are allowed to arrive and any boats caught transiting their waters would be heavily fined.

Hearing this was quite a blow to our plans as crossing the Bahamas was the preferred option for us as it cuts out a lot of miles to the US.

There seems to be a great deal of interest in the Salty Dawg Homeward Bound flotilla and in the very few days since we announced the plan, nearly 60 boats have expressed interest, many have begun signing up and more will surely do so each day.

The simple fact is that with such stringent quarantine plans in the islands, I expect that we are a lot safer here than the US but being in what was a bustling harbor a week ago is eerie.

Tables and chairs stacked and all businesses in the marina now closed. You could shoot off the proverbial cannon here and not hit anyone. A week ago, this place was packed. A lone kitty making the rounds. This sign about sums it up.So, here we sit, probably safe from infection given the fact that just about everyone is gone so “social distancing” is not a problem.

Again, as I said yesterday, the difference in how things are unfolding here in the islands, with strict rules about who can come and go, compared to the US where Trump just suggested that he expected that things would be open again within weeks even though new infections are increasing hugely every day.  Unfortunately, most experts feel that is a terrible idea.

And remember that malaria drug that Trump was pushing?  The FDA has determined that there is no evidence that the drug is any better than “established therapy”.   I guess it’s time to call off that run on the drug that his comments unleashed.

As long as the fight against this virus is focused more on “instinct” and less on science and decisions on how to fight the acceleration of new cases is left to a patchwork of states and municipalities, everyone is at a huge risk of things really spinning out of control.

Heck, even Prince Charles has tested positive.  Who’s next?  The Queen?

So, there you have it, we were leaving and now we’re not.

Details to come is all I can say.