{"id":10921,"date":"2020-04-02T15:04:53","date_gmt":"2020-04-02T20:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=10921"},"modified":"2020-04-05T10:17:59","modified_gmt":"2020-04-05T15:17:59","slug":"somebody-turned-off-the-caribbean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=10921","title":{"rendered":"Somebody turned off the Caribbean"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last night Brenda and I headed ashore to pick up the last takeout pizza available in Antigua.\u00a0 Perhaps it wasn’t the last but it sure felt like that.\u00a0 \u00a0I 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.<\/p>\n

Along with every other island in the Caribbean, Antigua has effectively been turned off.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 I expect that it is going to be a while until we are able to enjoy such social activities again.\u00a0 Open air or not, Brenda and I were careful to place our dink upwind from the group.<\/p>\n

And, speaking of social distancing,\u00a0 I wonder what a proper caption for this photo might be.\u00a0 “Tony, for God’s sake, I REALLY need some space.\u00a0 \u00a0Go 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.\u00a0 \u00a0The 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.\u00a0 Let’s hope that they have been contained.<\/span><\/p>\n

I only wish that the US was so diligent about locking things down.\u00a0 \u00a0The patchwork approach, state by state, does not give me a lot of hope that things will be anything but catastrophic.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 Even cruising around the harbor in a dink is prohibited.\u00a0 And, if you wish to move to a different harbor permission you must be specifically granted approval to move by the Antigua Coastguard.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

By the next\u00a0m<\/span>orning 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.\u00a0 Scary stuff.<\/p>\n

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

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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 \u00a0In particular, one complaint was that some cruisers were touring the harbor, stopping to talk to friends while standing alongside.\u00a0 Ok I get it but it’s hard to imagine infecting someone from 6 feet away with a 10kt breeze blowing between you.<\/p>\n

So we headed off to Falmouth, a really nice harbor.\u00a0 S<\/span>o nice in fact, that the British used it as their primary commercial port for over 10<\/span>0 years when the Navy was in control of nearby English Harbor.\u00a0 \u00a0 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.\u00a0 Our plan, subject to change, is to remain here until we have a clear plan for making our way north to the US.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 And while a lot of them have already left to head back to Europe, the harbor is still packed with all manner enormous yachts.<\/p>\n

So, in a time with so much bad news, I enjoyed touring and photographing a few of these beauties.\u00a0 Here goes…<\/p>\n

A yacht that I\u00a0 have admired for a number of years now is Meteor, docked for much of the season here in Falmouth.\u00a0 Launched in in the Netherlands in 2007, she is a thoroughly modern classic.\u00a0 \u00a0This photo of her doesn’t begin to do her justice.\u00a0 \"\"This short video shows how amazing she is.\u00a0 And you would expect amazing for $30,000,000.