March to April 2020 – Antigua back to Bequia – A veritable “Shit Show”

A “Shit Show” is a most expressive American term we have learned from many of our charter guests, over the last two months we have learned first hand what that expression means.

There we were, back in Antigua once more. We arrived in Falmouth harbour just as Antigua was gearing up for a month of racing sailing. April heralds 2 of the most prestigious annual events on the world’s sailing calendar – the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta which takes place in the first week of April and Antigua Sailing week which takes place in the last week of April. Well over 100 yachts of all different sizes and from all over the world participate and Falmouth was buzzing with yachts and their well oiled, professional teams (on our way in we dodged some who were out practicing), super and mega yachts tied to marina’s providing homes for team owners and celebrity spectators.

English harbour, right next door and where we had to once more complete an electronic form on a computer, no health checks here either, was seething with tourists as the cruise ships were still disgorging their inquisitive passengers, together with the added attraction of competitors, supporters and sponsors of the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, a rowing event of more than 3000 miles starting in San Sebastian, Canary Islands and finishing at Nelsons Dockyard in English Harbour. 

This is the little row boat,
unbelievable, what determination

The 4800km race begins in early December and around 30 entrants of teams consisting individuals up to 4 members, row across the Atlantic, in a 7m long x 2m wide boat with only a little cabin for protection. The winners for 2020 being a British 4 man team who completed the journey in 32 days and on March 7^th, the same day we arrived, the last boat - #14, Making Memories with its 2 woman team, arrived after 86 days at sea. 

Most of the gang back together

The Yacht Club

We caught up once more with regulars to Antigua, Ken and Susan on Whiskeyjack (our honorary South African, Canadian buddies), having just sailed over from St Kitts. They introduced us to happy two hours at the yacht club and the “Tot Club” which meets at 6pm each evening in Falmouth. 

Pouring the "Tot" a very serious duty

This Tot Club has quite a following

This super yacht called Addiction and its tender called
Little Addiction..

The Tot Club took over from the “Royal Naval Tot Club” which was formed in 1990 to uphold the tradition of a daily tot of rum at the end of the working day to toast the Queen. One may only join the Tot Club in Antigua and you must be invited to join by an existing member (enter Ken and Susan). Guests are introduced, announcements, points of interest and a toast made, ending with ….and the Queen, God Bless Her. There are many benefits associated with this prestigious club, they get involved in many Island projects, welcome fellow yachtsmen, entertain members of HRH warships and even hosted HRH Prince William at a lunch once, meeting like minded people and most important, drinking rum.

Not a goat!!

Ang showing the way down

Racing yachts out practicing, seen from
the fort at the end of the Trail

Kevin, Angela and I partook in a bit of walking while here, there are a number of lovely hiking trails and it was good to stretch our legs for a change. The Middle Ground Trail which gave us a wonderful view over English Harbour proved to require the skills of a mountain goat in places, but we did it. 

We also managed to have dinner at Flatties and drinks at a bar called Skullduggery before heading round to Jolly Harbour where the large “Epicurean store” is, we planned to spend some time here before doing a circuit of Antigua, via Barbuda, returning in time to fetch Rod, Kim and Claudia from the airport.

The view of English Harbour from the top of the trail

By this time the words “Covid 19” were being thrown around without much enthusiasm and there were debates on how serious and what measures should be taken, even talk of total lockdowns or quarantines of countries – surely never going to happen.

Jolly Harbour

Jolly Harbour anchorage

The Jolly Harbour anchorage is fairly shallow and thus pretty murky as the sand swirls a lot, add to this a problem with the local sewage works and the huge splashes and eerily glowing yellow eyes of very large fish swimming around our sugar scoops at night and there was no swimming going to happen here. 

There is a beautiful long beach full of shells that we took full advantage of walking.

It was solo sailor and buddy Tom's
birthday so we made him a cake

St John's

Lots of fresh produce sold
on the side of the road

Gary, Ang, Kevin and I caught a bus into St John’s, the main town, for an exploratory trip, we asked at one of the shops about a good lunch venue and were personally guided through a short maze of streets and buildings to a sparse bar and takeaway with plastic chairs and tables, 

Good lunch @ a good price

the queue of local patrons indicated the food must be good and it was good value, huge portions and cold beers all at a very good price, in the words of our buddy JK – always go one road back and eat where the locals do.

Each Island in the Caribbean has its own facebook cruisers page where, generally, helpful, humorous, happy content can be found, items to sell, buy or swap, technical help or advice and crew needed or in need, the perfect reference for cruisers. All of a sudden there began a frenzy on these pages, the unthinkable had happened – the “Shit Show” had begun. A virus that began in China had in fact now become a worldwide epidemic, European countries as a result were scrambling to isolate themselves and this obviously had an effect on their associated Caribbean Islands. The French overseas Territory islands of Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint Martin (French side) and the Dutch Islands of Sint Maarten (Dutch side), and Eustatius, all of whom have free travel back and forth, were suddenly imposing the same travel restrictions and bans as their mainland counterparts. Cruise ships were being turned away from the islands one after the next and so were flights and Charter companies ceased all business for the next 6 – 8 weeks and for Antigua the crunch came when all racing sailing for April was cancelled, the logistics required to get all those yachts and crew home made heads spin.

We would be ok still, right? We are after all on yachts and can’t be much of a threat. Well not exactly, things pretty much proceeded on a downward spiral from here. The halting of tourism heralded the halting of the majority of income for most of the Caribbean Islands and lack of income creates panic, in varying forms. Also the extremely limited medical resources, on most Islands even the total lack of such, presented a scary picture throughout. The self governed Islands held out as long as possible but eventually had to conform and for cruisers, all of a sudden everything changed.

Those same facebook pages were now filled with doom and gloom, information on which Islands, one after the next, were closed to yachts as now cruisers and yachts were seen to be the pariah’s, to represent the enemy. Cruisers turned on cruisers, the majority of these being people permanently living on yachts off islands with vested business interests on the islands, afraid that they would be grouped in the same unwelcome category as the rest of us and possibly forced to leave, so their voices could be heard crying louder and bolder for the heads of cruisers who were seen to be disobeying the rules.

There was no time to move, as the Islands closed their borders, you stayed where you were. With no open harbours to go into, if you left your current anchorage you could end up floating around the Caribbean Sea, with nowhere to anchor and no access to food and water. As these Islands created and wrote their Government ordinance’s, which change each time they are published, Maritime Laws and rights of safe passage became questionable and it came to pass that common sense really is not all that common. A few yachts were refused anchorage and some told to leave Islands and return to their home port – way easier said than done. The simple act of moving from one anchorage to another on the Island that you were legally allowed to be became problematic as you could guarantee that you would be reported to the authorities/Coast Guard by one of your fellow cruisers, as soon as you dropped anchor, no courteous greeting and friendly query as to whether you were a new arrival, guilty until proven innocent.

In our situation Antigua, an Independent Island, was following a fairly responsible approach, calling for social distancing and discretionary use of face masks and hand sanitizer and closure of non essential businesses. I had a bank card delivered to St John, via DHL, truly amazing that, despite all the various lock down procedures adopted by different countries, this little envelope was able to leave South Africa, travel 5 days through many countries and arrive safely in St John, Antigua for collection. Angela, Kevin and I once more bussed into town to go fetch it, a very different town as most shops and restaurants were closed and there were way less people milling around. 

The queue all the way down the road

On arrival back at Jolly Harbour 2 hours later there was suddenly a queue outside the Epicurean grocery store, whilst we were out a state of lockdown had been declared. Suddenly a curfew was in effect, essential shops and services would only be open from 7am to 12 noon and everyone was confined to their homes or in our case, yachts, no swimming, walking on beaches, getting off boats during curfew hours in general (unless for essential reasons) and definitely no moving from one bay to another without prior consent of the Coast Guard.

This little ticket was
worth its weight
in gold

No going ashore without
masks so I quickly made
us two, gloves were optional

The security guards could have done
with some lessons in crowd control

We remained upbeat, self-isolating for the two weeks leading up to the state of lockdown being announced and spending 2 weeks aboard during lockdown where we only went ashore twice for provisions. The first time we arrived outside the Epicurean store at 08:15 and were #182, they were only allowing 10 people at a time in this huge store, (knowing security or staff members was seen to be grounds for entry at any time however) I only managed to scrape into the store at 11:20 just before they stopped shoppers at 11:40 and I had 15 mins to shop with the security guard hurrying me along. 

This simply caused high tensions and tempers and at one store riots. In the days that followed people were arriving to queue before 07:00 and were being chased away by the police as curfew was from 07:00. 

This enterprising young
guy was selling live
lobsters to the people in
the queue's we just weren't
sure where to put it while in
the store?

Got better acquainted with
hammock and books

Thankfully by the next time I had to shop they were allowing more than 10 people at a time, although at 07:10 I received ticket #68……

We played many games of
Mexican Train dominoes

Exercising important

Dusted off the drone

Whilst the entire world was in a state of uncertainty and time periods of 2, 3, 4 months of quarantine/lock down/curfew were being discussed, looming in the Caribbean was the very real added threat of hurricane season which officially begins in July and insurance companies were not willing to make concessions for yachts not able to get to their specified limitations that they cover for named storms between July and November, not to mention the concerns of those without insurance. In our situation we had to make some serious decisions, firstly, Rod, Kim and Claudia would no longer be able to join us, then the charter industry has come to a grinding halt and with no definite resumption date, our main source of additional income has dried up. This means that we will need to take whatever opportunities present themselves in the near future for earning income and being in Antigua is not ideal as our yacht would not be insured for named storms if we had to leave it there to travel for work opportunities. Compounding this is the issue of a visa, on entering Antigua we were given a 3 month visa stamp in our passports and a 1 month cruising permit for our boat. Renewal of the cruising permit can be done monthly or outstanding amounts caught up on clearing out. Visa renewal however was like applying for permanent residence. Forms and photos, medical report, proof of income and/or sustainability, interviews with Immigration, a lengthy, 3 day exercise and a cost of around R5500.00 each, with no guarantee of the length of extension granted.

We spent many hours agonising over what to do next the only Islands open to sailing yachts were the US Virgin Islands (USVI’s) and St Vincent Grenadines (SVG). Sailing to North Carolina, the northern limits of our insurance requirements, could be done via the USVI, only I have a visa issue, the electronically issued visa cannot be used for entry into US territories via private vessel, has to be a commercial carrier, the appropriate visa could only be obtained in Barbados or Trinidad and neither were open for yachts nor were there flights out of Antigua. This left SVG, whose Prime Minister had taken a more relaxed approach to this Covid 19 virus. He had closed all entry to Islands under the SVG umbrella, restricting access to St Vincent where there was medical facilities and staff able to deal with any infections. It was rumoured there was a required 14 day quarantine period if you were from a French, Dutch, British or American country and such quarantine was to be done ashore at your own expense.

Farewell Antigua, we're SVG bound

Mystic Blue overtakes
us early on

We contacted the SVG authorities by phone and confirmed that they were accepting yachts and that quarantine would be decided on a case by case basis, depending on the outcome of an interview with a nurse on arrival. We, together with Ang and Gary, decided to take the chance, we needed to get south and the threat that SVG might also close their borders to yachts was ever present and would leave us totally snookered. 

In the absence of Easter eggs
I made cinabons

Easter breakfast as we were departing Antigua

So at sunrise on Easter Sunday we departed St Johns and, giving a wide berth to all Islands along the way, two days later dropped anchor in Wallilabou bay in St Vincent. 

Sunsets on passage always stunning

Disney left all construction behind
and its now a tourist attraction/
museum

Maxscene at anchor in Wallilabou

Wallilabou was the film set for all 3 Pirates of the Caribbean movies and as such quite a tourist attraction, completely deserted at the moment of course. After filling in questionnaires and being interviewed by the nurse, our temperatures were good, Customs and Immigration were happy and we had officially entered St Vincent with no need for quarantine.

We hauled anchor and sped the next 8 miles to Bequia, it felt like coming home.We had a number of friends anchored in the bay, ironically enough we dropped anchor behind a Maxim 38 Catamaran called Kiraku, a boat I had intimate knowledge of as Graeme and Michelle had at a stage considered purchasing her. She is now owned by a lovely family from Simonstown who just managed to make it to Bequia as everything shut down around them. Frustratingly our arrival caught the interest of some of the previously mentioned cruisers, who, instead of contacting any of us directly to check whether we had come in legally, took it upon themselves to report our mistakenly assumed illegal arrival and lack of quarantine to the authorities. At the same time, during our journey down the Prime Minister of SVG got into a spat with the Prime Minister of Grenada and was accused of too much leniency on his borders.

Suddenly Gary and Ang were getting daily visits from the Port Authority and eventually a week after our arrival, despite assurances of no wrong doing and apologies all round from the officials, the decision was made by the powers that be that they should do 14 days quarantine, thankfully on their boat and not ashore. We had been keeping a very low profile, blending in and so far fallen through the gaps but the same cruiser saw us ashore on the Sunday and suddenly we were in the same boat, so to speak, not allowed to leave our boat for any reason for the next 14 days – we’re running low on provisions, too bad!!!

Fortunately fellow cruisers rallied and have done shopping and rubbish removal trips for us, checking in and keeping our morale’s up. Barry the Port Authority is quite an amiable chap who I think was put in a crappy position by the annoying actions of a cruiser and the saving face of Government officials – our quarantines were not at all virus related – we had been in lockdown in Antigua for 2 weeks prior to our arrival, 2 days at sea without stops to get here and 7 days here before being confined to our yachts. Well, we couldn’t be in a more beautiful place, the people are all friendly, Romeo (yes his real name) comes round every morning selling freshly baked pastries from the Plantation Hotel and we were allowed to swim/snorkel in our second week of quarantine. Did we take it personally – hard not to, but time heals and the wheel turns….

Fixed table mounts

Cover for the generator

Replaced traveller car

Reseated hatch &
replaced bolts, no more
sore heads while helming

So as I write this, we are completing the last 2 days of confinement, our boat jobs list is down to a couple of lines, we’ve had fun with cooking and baking, music trivia played via whatsapp and generated by our buddy Les who is on anchor in Martinique, and books and games have filled in time. We will shortly be able to go shop for ourselves, its amazing how important that becomes and next week we, together with 4 other boats, will sail to Tobago Cays for a couple of days of fun in the sun with turtles. 

Installed lights in storage cupboards

Installed lights in
passage cubbies

So many octapus' on this reef

Found & fixed leak

Found some lobsters missed by
local fishermen while snorkelling

Kevin's becoming quite the chef

Kevin's forte - pancakes

We couldn’t wish to be in a more beautiful part of the Caribbean to wait out the rest of the uncertainties of the world, we are at the bottom of the hurricane belt and are ready to head for either Grenada or Trinidad as soon as one of them opens their borders and starts making sense as far as restrictions are concerned.

Fittingly, our first day out of quarantine and we have the honour of watching a huge turtle as she covered her eggs that she had laid on the beach, before heading back into the water – here’s a couple of shots :