BURA TORA

COVID-19 Abroad

Grand Bahama Yacht Club

It's not easy being American these days. We spent a couple months in the Bahamas, sipping drinks with little umbrellas in them, and swimming around West End and Lucaya.

It was great at first, spending our time in the sun, swimming and fishing, but it quickly turned into a huge pain in the ass as soon as the Americans back home stopped wearing masks and started spreading the virus like crazy.

We spent most of the time quarantined in the marina, since the Bahamas shutdown protocol only allowed people to leave private property for the purpose of getting groceries, gas, or medical help.

We would sport a mask, and head to the local market up the road to get enough food to wait out the week long shutdowns. There were certainly worse places to be stuck, but it wasn't the sailing season we had envisioned.

We were stuck in visa limbo because my girlfriend Ayano is Japanese, and i'm an American. After the coronavirus hit, we couldn't go back to the states because the American customs and border patrol stopped issuing visas, and we couldn't go to any new country, because most other countries were doing the same thing. We couldn't stay, and we couldn't leave, which left us in quite a pickle.

In the end, we hopped on another sailboat, and made the long pilgrimage all the way south to Grenada, since it was the only country in the Caribbean that was allowing foreigners to enter, all be it, requiring a two week quarantine and a corona virus blood test as conditions for entry.

Everything is good now, and we're settling in to Grenada, hoping that commercial flights start again so we can get back to the boat which we left in the Bahamas, before the hurricanes start hitting.

You never really know what life is going to bring, but in the end, it always seems to work out.

Just remember that you should always have a plan, even for the most unexpected problems!