{"id":11699,"date":"2021-04-19T10:53:26","date_gmt":"2021-04-19T15:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=11699"},"modified":"2021-04-19T10:54:14","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T15:54:14","slug":"permission-to-board-have-you-been-vaccinated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=11699","title":{"rendered":"Permission to board? Have you been vaccinated?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brenda and I are now fully vaccinated and our boys, will soon be as well.\u00a0 With the summer cruising season up0n us, thoughts turn to staying safe on the water and how one’s “status” will play out when it comes to socializing.<\/p>\n

A big part of the cruising lifestyle is spending time together aboard and the ubiquitous “sundowners” at the end of the day with friends.\u00a0 Sure, most of the time these encounters are outdoors in the cockpit but behind the dodger on Pandora, you might as well be indoors.\u00a0 \u00a0With the pandemic still in full swing, especially for those who have not been vaccinated, we will have to decide how we will handle the inevitable question of “have you been vaccinated?” when it comes to having someone come aboard.<\/p>\n

Over the years we have hosted countless gatherings without thinking about anyone’s health but now?<\/p>\n

For seven years I co-organized an event for cruisers at our local club.\u00a0 Imagine that now?\"\"Jammed under Pandora’s hard dodger these days?\u00a0 Not so sure about that.\"\"The arrival events in Antigua, sans mask?\"\"Or, a tot with my favorite club in Antigua, the Antigua and Barbuda Royal Tot Club.\u00a0 Mask less?\u00a0 Perhaps after a few stiff tots.\u00a0 Life used to be so simple.\"\"A full house down below?\u00a0 Perish the thought of sharing both food and viral particles…\"\"Even worse, how about Carnival?\u00a0 Nope, can’t even imagine. \"\"I read in the NY Times today that there is a tendency for those who have been vaccinated to have an irrational fear of infection.<\/a>\u00a0 Presumably safe or not, they don’t want to even want to be around those who haven’t been vaccinated.\u00a0 I can relate to that, especially because of the variants that have cropped up and threaten to bypass the work of the current vaccines.<\/p>\n

In the EU there is talk about a “vaccine passport” in order to be admitted into the country or to events that will be crowded.\u00a0 Imagine that in the “US of A, the land where “I can do what I want, when I want.”\u00a0 Not likely…<\/p>\n

To make matters worse, worldwide, the vaccination process is probably years from completion and recently there have been a record number of infections identified every day.\u00a0 \u00a0And with more infections there is a\u00a0 greater likelihood that the virus will mutate in a way that will make it more infectious and more deadly.\u00a0 Actually, that’s already happened and the “variants” are now the standard here in the US.\u00a0 \u00a0Normally, over time, viruses are expected to become less dangerous but COVID-19 seems to be bucking that trend which does not bode well for getting things under control anytime soon.<\/p>\n

So, back to my question of the vaccinated spending time with the not-vaccinated.\u00a0 \u00a0I am a port officer for Essex for a number of sailing groups, including the Ocean Cruising Club and in an email exchange between other port officers over the weekend, the topic came up of what to do about this issue.<\/p>\n

The universal reaction from those that commented was that they would ask about vaccination status and not invite anyone aboard who wasn’t up to date on their shots.\u00a0 Awkward?\u00a0 YOU BET!<\/p>\n

“Permission to come aboard?”\u00a0 “Have you been vaccinated?\u00a0 Nope?\u00a0 Permission denied.\u00a0 Next…”<\/p>\n

I’ll admit that I am firmly in the “permission denied” camp, partly out of fear but also because I have a problem with those who do not have what I expect of everyone and that is a “strong sense of community responsibility”<\/p>\n

The politization of pandemic safety and COVID denial here in the US still annoys me and the idea that “refusenik” minority will somehow set policy for the majority, just pisses me off.<\/p>\n

Don’t get me wrong, the idea of being in a situation where I have to ask the question of anyone that wants to visit about their vaccination status is not appealing, but I suppose that is what will have to be the norm for now.<\/p>\n

One possible solution suggested by a fellow port officer was to fly a “V” or victor signal flag.<\/p>\n

That’s a pretty appealing option but the actual meaning of the Victor flag is “I require assistance”, which is quite ironic, under the circumstances.<\/p>\n

Another suggested a club flag “I’ve been vaccinated” as an option and a way for the club’s ships’ store to make some money.<\/p>\n

So, want to board Pandora for a sundowner this summer?\u00a0 That would be great.\u00a0 No wait, have you been vaccinated?<\/p>\n

Yes you say!\u00a0 Permission to board.<\/p>\n

How about a rum punch while we enjoy the sunset together?\"\"And in case you are wondering “what do you think about all this Bob?”.\u00a0 \u00a0Well, that’s what I really think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brenda and I are now fully vaccinated and our boys, will soon be as well.\u00a0 With the summer cruising season up0n us, thoughts turn to staying safe on the water and how one’s “status” will play out when it comes to socializing. A big part of the cruising lifestyle is spending time together aboard and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11699"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11707,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11699\/revisions\/11707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}