Stuck in the US Virgin Islands
It’s been over a month since the COVID19 pandemic began to significantly impact our life here aboard Sargo. When the USVI implemented a Shelter-In-Place order, we were lucky to be hunkered down in Hansen Bay, a remote area of St. John. For four weeks we enjoyed beautiful snorkeling, clear water, and the companionship of two other family boats, safe and very isolated. We communicated diligently with welcoming local homeowners and heeded their requests for using our sewage holding tanks and emptying them 3 miles offshore, driving our dinghies at idle speed in the anchorage, and making sure our anchors were placed in sand as to not harm sea grass and coral. We were welcomed there by many kind-hearted locals who offered us the use of their cars in case of an emergency. We arranged for groceries to be delivered to the beach near our boats in order to minimize any potential for COVID exposure. Unfortunately, this time was also shadowed greatly by ever changing governmental rules, and more significantly by a few mean hearted individuals. I’ll skip to the end of the story and tell you that at 3:30pm we, along with 32 other boats, were kicked out of our safe anchorage by the USVI DPNR authorities. Thirty boats were forced to find shelter late in the day among already over-crowded anchorages. All because a few wealthy local homeowners wanted us out.
This wasn’t even about COVID. They were not scared that the boaters poised a risk to their health. They simply didn’t want boats in “their bay” even temporarily, even during this global crisis. To be fair – the laws were on their side. The USVI government has required all boats anchoring in USVI waters to apply for a long-term anchoring permit and anchor in a designated location, or to pay $26 a day to use a National Park mooring ball. Hansen Bay where we were anchored was not a designated long-term anchorage. Neither are many of the other protected, and populated anchorages where many boats are safely anchored and quarantined far from any towns. DPNR has not kicked boats out of any of those other anchorages. In our case, the few local landowners – who already have a reputation of being anti-boater, Not In My Backyarders, NIMBYs for short, used their influence and presumably money to get 30 quarantining boats kicked out of “their” bay late in the day.
Although this was certainly a stressful, although not unexpected, outcome, we are now safely moored around the corner in Hurricane Hole. We are trying to stay positive and take the next few weeks to do a little exploring around St. John hoping from anchorage to anchorage. It’s really not the best time to be moving around, but we’re going to give it a try. Perhaps we’ll find another ideal bay with free wifi, coral reefs, clear water, free anchoring. Being an outsider is a cost of this sailing lifestyle. In most cases, we feel welcomed and safe. However, it only takes a few bad actors to sour an otherwise sweet visit. As I write this, one of the kind local residents has come over to visit us via boat and make sure we have landed on our feet after the untimely eviction.
I’m sure you’re all curious what is up next in our sailing adventures. Our current thinking is that we’ll be coming back to Maine for the summer. We can only safely stay in the USVIs until about mid-June before Hurricane season begins. The British Virgin Islands recently announced that no new visitors are welcome until September 1, 2020 and we expect the same will happen in many other Caribbean countries. International travel, by boat or otherwise, isn’t going to be the same for an extended period of time. Despite the fact that Maine is nearly 2,000 miles of sailing away, we are currently feeling that it’s the best place for our family this summer. We will have to wait and see like everyone else what Fall brings!
For the next several weeks we’ll be doing our best to safely enjoy the waters of St. John while preparing for a long passage back to the US mainland. Our route will greatly depend on the timing of our departure, weather conditions and border closings. Right now it seems most likely that we’ll be able to wait until May 20th and join the Salty Dawg Flotilla home to Chesapeake Bay. It will be by far our longest passage and will take about 10 days of nonstop sailing. Although offshore sailing is the epitome of self-reliance, it’s nice to have some extra support from the Salty Dawg organization. We also have the support of our two co-quarantined boats, Abeona and Serendipity, who are also looking to make the passage home.
Most days here aboard Sargo are still filled with happy playing kids, sunshine, and snorkeling adventures for which we are exceedingly grateful. Despite our idyllic setting we, like everyone else in the world, are being greatly affected by this pandemic. Whenever possible, let’s all make a choice toward compassion, understanding, and inclusiveness. That way we can come out the other end as better people with newfound friends.