So I am now 9 days into my Covid Quarantine/Prison sentence with only 5 more to go. I would scream at the top of my lungs to express my frustration at the stupidity of this but it would not do any good. I do not have the flu, I showed up proving I don’t have the flu, I have no symptoms and no exposure, but I have to prove again for my 15th week of lockdown this year to help other people who don’t even believe testing results that I don’t have the flu. Sigh…
What is extremely frustrating is watching my crew come and go freely. For whatever random reason, and I have been thinking about it, he does not have to quarantine. So he is free to go wander around Jolly Harbour and make friends, go to the beaches, and have a lovely time while I just sit here and sweat.
As I mentioned before, we arrived on the same American Airlines shuttle flight (2 days apart) both arrived from Miami Airport, both Canadians, both with negative Covid test results, both healthy and with no symptoms, both said we were going to the same apartment. The law is that everyone arriving must quarantine. Even the Antiguan nationals I was sitting beside on my flight had to quarantine for two weeks. So why does Alex not have to quarantine. The obvious answer is the airport health worker did not do her job properly.
I should note… they use the terms quarantine and self isolation interchangeably here.
But…. let’s look at some details. How did Alex pull off this miracle of freedom? He told me that when he arrived another flight from the UK arrived just behind his flight, so the airport got suddenly very busy. They typically only receive a single plane a day here. Also with the UK currently being in Lockdown maybe the people disembarking behind him were considered a higher priority, maybe the health screeners wanted to push Alex’s flight group thru quickly to separate them from the Brit’s behind them. Maybe.
The main difference between Alex and I though, and I cannot help but focus more on this, is that I own a boat here and he said he was just coming to be crew. As soon as they found out I was a returning Captain who owned a boat here in storage they focused on it. Immediately, they wanted all the details about my boat, what is it’s name? Where is it being kept? What marina? Paid storage until when? These seemed odd questions for a health screeners to be so concerned with. They never asked me any health questions or symptom questions.
I cannot help but feel that the government here, knowing they have many many boats here with many many boat owners who must return for their boats, they must have had government discussions about what they plan to do with this large group. It seems they collectively decided that because they can hold the boats as collateral, and they can influence the marinas, (or working closely with them) they have more control over boat owners. They will hold this group of Captains to a tighter stricter standard. Think of it like getting to force the 500 Captains who must return to get their boats into resorts is a good chunk of money for their economy.
500 Captains
x $4000 dollars each for two week resort stays
____________________________________
that is $2,000,000 (yes million) dollars they can squeeze out of us.
You cannot help but wonder about where the money leads.
Also Alex said he was coming to be crew. Maybe they assumed he was going straight out to a yacht at anchor, but he told them he was going to an apartment. Also even if they thought he was going out to a yacht at anchor as crew they still should have given him the same quarantine paper they gave everyone else not going to an approved resort.
But another little thing Alex said, when he said he was going to an “apartment in villa Azure” the health screener did not try to look it up in the official approved list. Maybe, bc she was in a rush, she thought it was an approved resort, and she next thing she said was have a nice day.
So for any other returning Captains with yachts here, I would helpfully suggest a few things to try and get around the financial raping organized by the government here. First do not tell them you are a Captain or have a boat here. Just say you are visiting or crewing. Second just go find the approved list of resorts and just tell them you are staying in one of those. They do not have computers so they cannot access any databases proving or disproving your claim.
At the very least this could get you out of the official quarantine paper letting you at least enjoy your two weeks waiting for access to your boat. (as Alex is doing)
The next problem I do not know anyway around is that the marinas themselves are working closely with the government and will refuse you access to your boat until you have been here two weeks. But I hear that English Harbour is not doing this (not sure and not recent information). Again I do not think the marina has access to any flight or arrival information so I think you could try just lying to them as well and say you arrived two weeks ago. I am not sure yet if they will make you try to prove it or not.
Again though, Alex was given access to the boat yard where WildChild is just yesterday without having to fill out any papers or forms, the guard just said come on in. Somehow the rules don’t seem to apply to Alex. I am sure that if I, as a boat owner showed up, the beauracracy and paperwork would pile up in an official hurry. I will let you know Nov14th how it goes when I try to get access to my boat.
It does seem silly to me that we need to play these silly games. In Canada the rules would be fairly and consistently applied to everyone, and they would not be designed to rob people. But here the rules are different, unfair, and unfairly applied.
If there any Captains with boats here who need to return, feel free to send me an email, I would be happy to set you up with my cheap little apartment when I am done with it.
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Sooo…. my life and prison stay have been about as boring and painful as you can imagine. I had forgotten how hot it always is down here. This little apartment does not have air conditioning of course and only one small sun exposed window in the bathroom. Typically the stuffy room gets about 3-5 degrees hotter than outside. I do have a ceiling fan and an oscillating fan on 24/7 that helps a little bit.
I do not want to sound ungrateful for my little apartment. The best part of it is that it is only $400cdn a month, so GREAT for my bank account. I am just not used to living like this. Not that I am not tough enough to handle it. I am excited that I do have a working fridge and freezer. I have stocked up on food and water to survive the next few weeks.
Living with cockroaches is new for me. I get that in the tropics it is probably nearly impossible to be rid of them. The environment is perfect for them. One of my first purchases was roach poisons. I bought both a can of spray and the powder bait stuff. I am excited to announce that I am winning the war on the bugs so far. I think it is beginning to have an noticeable affect. I have not seen any cockroaches in 4 days now. The very idea of these things crawling on me when I am sleeping just creeps the hell out of me. YUK YUK YUK and super YUK.
There is not much for me to do for the two week prison sentence. I brought my computers and Virtual Reality gear. I have hard drives full of media to watch. I sweat 24/7 and suffer in the heat. When Alex is here he cannot stand how hot it is in here and he mostly stays out on the balcony most of the time. Alex is an outdoorsy type of guy and being cooped up inside seems hard for him. Alex is free to go out everyday for walks and to explore Jolly Harbour. He goes to the beaches and has made friends that invite him out to do stuff. He went sailing with them yesterday.
Antigua is a lovely place. That has not changed. The Antiguan people are lovely. The Covid reaction is not their fault anymore than it is my fault or your fault. This stupidity affects everyone but seems to affect sailors the most. If you were forced to be locked in your room for 15 weeks this year for Quarantine you might be as opinionated and upset about it as I am. To say that I am annoyed that the rules do not apply to my crew but only to me is an understatement. It really sticks in my craw.
The exciting news, if we force ourselves to rise above the reality and find the good in this mess, is that I am within sight of my girl. I am within walking distance. It will be better for us anyway to have a place to come back to for showering and sleeping after working all day on WildChild. It is very hard to live on a boat you are working on, its such a mess and the boatyard, if you remember from when I put her up in there, gets +52 deg C in the hot sun on the concrete. Brutally hot to try and sleep inside the boat anyway.
The boat yard is still refusing to move WildChild out of the storage yard. I have no idea why. They were very specific with me when I put her in there, “no working on boats in the back storage yard” and they were also very clear “you must give us two weeks notice before you arrive so we can move your boat out of the storage yard“. Again I keep living up to my part again they keep not living up to theirs.
It seems like the water pressure goes away here every night and seems to return sometime every afternoon. So we have to keep a red bucket in the shower, fill it with water everyday when there is water pressure, and use it to flush the toilet in the mornings. This is not something I have ever had to do before in Canada, but it seems like normal life here. I did get to speak once with the neighbor guy, he is an electrician too, he said to me, “if you can imagine how expensive it is for us locals to live here… it is so expensive and we get paid wages barely enough to pay our rent and food… this is with a full time job…“. Yeah… globalism huh… let the boomers and evil corporations rob and enslave the rest of us while they live rich. You should see how lovely and splendid the boomers around here live.
I am not allowed to go out to find hot or fresh food to eat. I do not have a stove or microwave in here. I have no way to cook any food. I do not have any pots or pans. I did stock up on canned food when I provisioned. Alex went out to party with his new friends the other night, he said he would bring me back something from the grocery store, hot food from the deli for dinner, but he got busy with his friends and did not come home that night. I got to eat a cold can of carrots for dinner instead.
I get to look forward to the dozen cold cans of Chef-boy-R-dee I have in the cupboard for dinner to get me thru the rest of my prison sentence. I lay around all day in my bed (for which I am very grateful for) and watch television programs on my little tablet. I listen in with my blue tooth headphones and just watch the clock tic by slowly.
My two week prison sentence goes by slowly, as all prison sentences do. I have been trying to take advantage of the time and have begun Captain Lexi’s sailing school for Alex. Everyday we do about 30 minutes of classroom work, sailing theory. Alex is very bright and seems to learn well, he is a good student and I think he is going to make great crew.
I cannot help but think about the work I need to do on WildChild when the starting gates open on the 14th. I imagine the new fresh bottom paint and how shiny we will make the hull again. I will varathane the interior wood and freshen up all my bright work. I will change out my zincs and I am thinking of adding a prop defender cable.
The government of Antigua told me that I would be contacted immediately by a local health nurse who will supervise my quarantine. That still has not happened. They said she would provide me with a thermometer to take my temperature twice a day and report it in to them, that is not happening either. They are not doing anything they said they would. The government of Antigua is completely failing to follow thru with their own plans and rules, but again I live up to my side. I am self isolating and following all their rules. They are not following them though. They know full well how to contact me, they have all the information about me. They just cannot be bothered.
So frustrating, so unfair… so arbitrary…
Do you still think the cruising life is so romantic..?
Cheers Sailors
Captain Lexi
………… the hot sweaty bored frustrated and sad………..