2021 or 2022?

[syvictoria]

I'm not sure that the issues faced by 'some' liveaboards has been any worse than those faced by 'some' land-livers. The difference being that many of the aforementioned liveaboards depend on their youtube channel as their main or even only income stream and they are arguably struggling for content of late if laid up somewhere!

 

[Seven Spades]

NZ has had 26 deaths from Covid in a population of c.5m. I reckon its policy is working pretty damn well. Why the hell should it be expected to be a refugee centre for random cruisers?

Yes the policy has delayed the arrival of Covid into NZ. However why stop people seeking refuge from the cyclone system unnecessarily when it poses no risk to New Zealand? They made provision for it in legislation but have so far declined to recognise any humanitarian need to any cruisers in the cyclone areas.

 

[newtothis]

Yes the policy has delayed the arrival of Covid into NZ. However why stop people seeking refuge from the cyclone system unnecessarily when it poses no risk to New Zealand? They made provision for it in legislation but have so far declined to recognise any humanitarian need to any cruisers in the cyclone areas.

The policy is to delay the arrival of Covid into NZ so that it can get its population vaccinated and not kill off its vulnerable like the UK chose to do.
Where would you have preferred to spend last year?
It seems to come as a surprise to some that NZ is not bending over backwards to help a small group of people on boats while designing a Covid response that has allowed it to largely avoid a pandemic.
I've not seen my elderly parents in NZ for two years. I might not do again. But I support what the government is doing to keep them alive.
Some cruisers having to leave their boat in a hurricane hole and give up their holiday lifestyle for a while? That I don't care about so much.
If you think people with ocean going yachts need humanitarian aid, you might need to rethink your perspectives.

 

[alexsailor]

This covid "epidemic" is just stupid when it comes to crusier and restricions. Everything should be open for cruiser. Get that covid fear out of your head!

 

[MystyBlue2]

Oh, the humanity!
My heart goes out to the sun-bleached world wafters forced by their privileged position to learn how the other half spend their entire lives.
If only they had access to a seventh-floor studio flat in a tower block with a dodgy lift on a sink estate in Peckham.
The cruelty of it all.

Well said!

 

[BobnLesley]

Sandy said:...We all have challenges in life, If they had not planned an escape route then they need to sit down and think about what they want from life.

Rubbish. Did you know in advance about the impending Covid pandemic... It is totally beyond the control of cruisers who have been caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I didn't read it that Sandy was suggesting Cruisers should/could have foreseen the Covid pandemic, therefore they are now obliged to sit down and consider what to do/where to go from here, both figuratively and literally; as the man said: "Shit happens, now deal with it".
Livaboards/Cruisers are not a special case in this regard, the pandemic has brought significant changes/problems to billions of people world wide, in all walks of life, some of the problems which some of the Cruisers are having to deal with might be somewhat specific to them as a group, but they're no more serious and overwhelmingly less serious than the problems that millions of others are dealing with; "I want to sail to wherever and they won't let me" is in most cases a first world problem - tough, deal with it! More positively, I would suggest that 'Cruisers' as a breed are probably better able than most sectors to sort out their problems - shit happening is part of the lifestyle; yes I have sympathy for a few Cruisers who've been particularly effected by the pandemic, but I'd still swap places with the majority of them.

For context, this missive was brought to you by a livaboard/cruiser who was 'caught in the wrong place at the wrong time' and dealt with it.

 

[chrisrjcox]

Sailing Yacht Florence is the best channel of them all as far as I am concerned. They are a wonderful couple and they had been stuck in one anchorage for a year, unable to move because every country was closed. Unable to go ashore expect on the tiny offshore island that they and other boats we in the lea of. They too have had all sorts of problems getting visa extensions and face a huge dilemma about what to do now. They are now being permitted to move around Indonesia, but they don't know where to go to next as their exit plans all seem to be blocked.

There are some people in really difficult situations the most unforgivable thing is the attitude of New Zealand who could easily have set aside a bay to allow boat seeking refuge to anchor in and quarantine in. They would pose no danger to their citizens, even if they has set quarantine at 3 months most cruisers would have accepted that. NZ will only let you in if you spend 50,000 NZD, unbelievable.

Yeah I think I heard about that from Gone with the Wynns, it’s nuts!

 

[newtothis]

[Content removed]

Please do not use my circumstance to support your alternative view of reality.
Pack up yer Covid denialism and pop off to the Lounge, will you. You might want to learn yourself some science en route, although I understand it's not hugely necessary there so you might fit in fine.

 

[GHA]

If no one responds he'll go away quickly.

 

[newtothis]

If no one responds he'll go away quickly.

Agreed. Also, there's no arguing with stupid.

 

[Shaddickp]

That lift in Nelson Mandela house has always been a problem Roddy .

Dashed bad luck old chap, the lift in Aubrey Beardsley house, Westminster always works.

 

[GHA]

[Content removed]

Take it to the lounge, doesn't belong here.

Liveaboard.
Especially for those who live on their sail or motor boats, or are planning the great escape from bricks & mortar

 

[GHA]

[Content removed]

You're in the wrong forum.

https://forums.ybw.com/index.php?forums/covid-19-coronavirus.106/

 

[GHA]

[Content removed]

Nothing to do with any argument, you're posting about a topic which just doesn't belong here. Go away.

 

[LittleSister]

'Until something goes wrong or you are faced with a situation you aren't prepared for, it really isn't an adventure.'

(Great Red Shark on Sailing Anarchy)

 

[webcraft]

Well...

We left on August 1st last year in a boat that had taken two years longer than planned to prepare.

Brexit meant our plans to use the boat as a base in the Canaries for 7-8 months a year were already buggered.

Covid meant weirdness and worry. Masks everywhere, a fiesta-free Spain. Come Portugal the engine started playing up, and we arrived in Cascais 1st October with it dead, an ex-engine.

We were 6 months in Cascais getting endlessly buggered about by the engineer 'helping' us. Money drained away, by the time the boat was back in the water we were pretty much out of the stuff. At this point we were in lockdown, with 300 deaths a day in Portugal. Flights home were stopped, quarantine hotels brought in in Scotland, so no possibility of getting home. Schengen time expiring.

Engine trials showed we needed a new prop, but heyho. Not going to happen right now.

5th May we escaped Cascais. First day, new gearbox spewing out oil. Overfilled by 200%. Marine engineers, doncha luvvem.

Eventually got as far as Alcoutim, to discover (after 45 hours) that one of the engine mounting plates was broken. Temporary repair, gently back downriver to Bruces Yard to lift out. Our engineer may come to make new mounting plates and re-align the engine, or I may be left to organise it myself at more expense, I don't know. We fly back to Scotland on Wednesday leaving a broken boat in Portugal for now.

Tale of woe? Stupid to leave during a pandemic?

Maybe and maybe, but we have seen wonderful new places and made fantastic new friends. While stuck in Cascais we got Portuguese residency, so we have a welcoming home in Europe now despite Brexit.

Not a moment's regret, very glad we weren't at 'home' for the Winter lockdown misery. Tanned, healthy and with a comfy wee boat snuggled up in Bruce's to come back to when we have sorted our stuff out at home, the brief Scottish summer is over and the parboiled mobs of holidaying Brits have gone home.

Seems to me, the only thing worse than cruising through the pandemic is not cruising through the pandemic.

- W

 

[nortada]

Well...

We left on August 1st last year in a boat that had taken two years longer than planned to prepare.

Brexit meant our plans to use the boat as a base in the Canaries for 7-8 months a year were already buggered.

Covid meant weirdness and worry. Masks everywhere, a fiesta-free Spain. Come Portugal the engine started playing up, and we arrived in Cascais 1st October with it dead, an ex-engine.

We were 6 months in Cascais getting endlessly buggered about by the engineer 'helping' us. Money drained away, by the time the boat was back in the water we were pretty much out of the stuff. At this point we were in lockdown, with 300 deaths a day in Portugal. Flights home were stopped, quarantine hotels brought in in Scotland, so no possibility of getting home. Schengen time expiring.

Engine trials showed we needed a new prop, but heyho. Not going to happen right now.

5th May we escaped Cascais. First day, new gearbox spewing out oil. Overfilled by 200%. Marine engineers, doncha luvvem.

Eventually got as far as Alcoutim, to discover (after 45 hours) that one of the engine mounting plates was broken. Temporary repair, gently back downriver to Bruces Yard to lift out. Our engineer may come to make new mounting plates and re-align the engine, or I may be left to organise it myself at more expense, I don't know. We fly back to Scotland on Wednesday leaving a broken boat in Portugal for now.

Tale of woe? Stupid to leave during a pandemic?

Maybe and maybe, but we have seen wonderful new places and made fantastic new friends. While stuck in Cascais we got Portuguese residency, so we have a welcoming home in Europe now despite Brexit.

Not a moment's regret, very glad we weren't at 'home' for the Winter lockdown misery. Tanned, healthy and with a comfy wee boat snuggled up in Bruce's to come back to when we have sorted our stuff out at home, the brief Scottish summer is over and the parboiled mobs of holidaying Brits have gone home.

Seems to me, the only thing worse than cruising through the pandemic is not cruising through the pandemic.

- W

Quite an adventure, have you thought of publishing as a book to recoup some of your expenses.

 

[dansaskip]

I was just talking about this yesterday with a friend and I was wishing that I was still stuck in Whangarei rather than having come back to UK at the start of it all.

 

[syvictoria]

Apart from proximity to family here, I would much rather have stayed on my boat...

 

[webcraft]

Quite an adventure, have you thought of publishing as a book to recoup some of your expenses.

Possibly a novelisation...

- W