Long journey home: the stranded sailboats in a race to beat the hurricanes

A loosely-organised group of over 150 boats are sharing information and support on the west–east Atlantic crossing. Photograph: Julie Buckley

Covid-19 has marooned people living on small boats worldwide. Now hundreds of anxious sailors are preparing to make dangerous voyages home across the Atlantic

A loosely-organised group of over 150 boats are sharing information and support on the west–east Atlantic crossing. Photograph: Julie Buckley

With a 3,600-mile non-stop solo sail across the Atlantic ahead of him, Garry Crothers is a little anxious. But he has to get moving before the hurricane season. “I’m in a bad place here, I don’t have any choice,” he says.

Like many living aboard their sailing boats, he has been stranded at sea by Covid-19. The 64-year-old Irishman has been on Kind of Blue, his 43ft aluminium boat, for two months, hardly touching land. He’s anchored off Sint Maarten, in the Caribbean – a less pleasing prospect than it sounds. Hurricane season officially starts on 1 June and the island, as Crothers is acutely aware, is “bang in the middle of the hurricane belt” – hit hard by Dorian last year, and Irma in 2017. Neighbouring countries and islands that might afford protection are shut. Crothers’ only safe option is a solo sail home to Ireland.

In one sense he’s not alone. An estimated 500 boats are crossing the Atlantic to Europe in the coming weeks. From the South Pacific to the Indian Ocean, thousands of people are trying to sail home or find shelter.

While stranded cruise and navy ships have made headlines, far less attention has been paid to the plight of hundreds of families and individuals on small boats. As countries closed borders, numerous vessels were refused entry to their port of call. Even boats that had been safely anchored before the pandemic were suddenly considered a foreign yacht in territorial waters. Sailors in Portugal and Spain were ordered to return to home ports in the United States or Canada – a dangerous proposition without planning.

For more, please go to the Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/12/long-journey-home-the-stranded-sailboats-in-a-race-to-beat-the-hurricanes