LOCKED OUT AND LOCKED IN
When the world abruptly locked down in March, many cruisers were caught out, and soon to be trapped. Hundreds, at least, were on passage at the time, and were forced to run between islands, or countries as the door was shut. Some, such as those taking part in the World ARC and on a 3,000-mile passage (the longest on the tradewinds circumnavigation route) between the Galapagos and Marquesas Islands, found themselves temporarily refugees, with nowhere to go. Many had to add more miles to what had already been a long voyage and were low on water, fuel, supplies then moved on again from the next country. Others were summarily ejected, and to this date find themselves liable to be moved on at short notice, or now perilously out of step with seasonal winds.
In some countries, for example St Lucia, those arriving were put in quarantine and unable to clear in. A month later, they were still not being permitted out of quarantine.
APPROACHING STORMS
Others were on passage back across the Atlantic to Europe and, according to Sue Richards, who runs the cruising website noonsite.com (a hugely valuable resource for world cruisers, and a mine of exchanged information in the crisis), some are having to give up the dream altogether. Those who have sold everything to move on board, or are funding themselves through rental property, now found themselves with no income and rising costs, and perhaps stuck in a marina.
“There is also a lot of fear, of being stuck in a place where the hurricane season or cyclone season is looming, and where they can’t get to a safe port or to haul out the boat, or even to fly home while there were flights out,” says Richards. “The hurricane season starts on 1 June and people need to get out of there. Working with the Ocean Cruising Club, we pulled together a list of refuge ports in the Atlantic, Med and northern Europe for boats needing to get across the Atlantic to repatriate to Europe. Grenada, Trinidad and the BVIS are working towards finding solutions for owners that want to haul their boats for the hurricane season.”
Cruising clubs and organisations such the Ocean Cruising Cub, Seven Seas Cruising Association, Cruising Association, the Cruising Club of America and the Royal Cruising Club all pulled together, with Salty Dawg rallies and World Cruising Club looking after those crews in their events.
What will this mean for cruising in the next few years? With a heightened sense of instability, some will certainly choose to stick closer to home. It may change the view of living on board as offering a greater freedom than on land. There could be a boost for organised events, where a team ashore is responsible for fixing and negotiating solutions to any unforeseeable problems.
But hopefully many will take their chances and go. There is always something to worry about. World economies are changing, there may be a different geopolitical order, we may look back at how COVID-19 was a watershed – who knows? But, as the saying goes, time is the only thing we really own, and it is finite.