In this video, COVID-19 UPDATE in Peurto Rico Bad to Worse, We bring you all up to date on our current situation trying to find a place to ride out the COVID...

Closed Captions (CC):
because of the coronavirus we had to

wait out a quarantine period in the

dominican republic in order to get our

dispatchio. it was a form

that the navy and the dominican republic

has to issue anyone who is leaving a

dominican port going to another

dominican port and you also needed this

dispatchio if you're leaving the dominican

public for another country and so as we

are going to Puerto Rico which is

technically the United States so we needed

to get a dispatchio while we were in

Samana. The Navy did get in touch with

us and let us know that we could get a

dispatchio so we put on our gloves and

our masks and we took all precautions. We went ashore and we went to the Navy and

we got our dispatchio but it was really

nerve-racking as all of the town of Samana

was on lockdown due to the corona

virus

there are curfews and restrictions. most of the shops and everything

was closed just kind of like the rest of

the world is already at this moment so

we loaded up the dinghy with what we

could we could get and we bugged

out of Dominican Republic.

In Porto Rico we will be quarantined again

chances are we won't be able to leave

the boat

last time on Sailing Balachandra we

visited the island of Conception then

we did passage food prep for the long trip

to the Dominican Republic. If you're new

to the channel, Hi guys and this little

guy licking off all my sunscreen is Zeus! We're

Sailing Balachandra. We're sailing around the Caribbean. If you haven't already

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Alright coronavirus update number 2 - it just seems to be getting worse and worse

honestly. Puerto Rico is giving us mixed

signals

we arrived in Puerto Real where we did our CBP

Roam up got checked into the country ok.

After a live chat with a CBP officer, They

checked out our passports and gave us

the AOK, and asked us for our cruising

license but unfortunately Dan had forgotten

to get one so they asked us to go to

shore (to pick it up).

once we arrived on shore amongst other

cruisers that were waiting to see the

customs agents we waited for about two

hours for the customs agents to arrive.

Once they arrived they started

to see us one by one but asked us make sure that we stay six feet apart from each other

and just wait patiently as they sat on the phone for

an additional twenty minutes then they

came back and said to us "sorry guys there has

been an immediate change" and that now the country

is no longer offering cruising licenses

and they were not a granting anyone

permission to stay within Puerto Rico.

at the time we were allowed to go to

shore but only to the marina and only to

get fuel water essentials and that was

it so it was pretty restricted. We had to stay out on anchor, and of course we

couldn't see anything or do anything

which is kind of tough. That was

on the first day but yesterday that all

changed and now no cruisers are allowed on

store and you're not even allowed to anchor out however on the first day we were allowed to

anchor and now we're not that's been

very tough on us because we are on one

side of Puerto Rico and to go from

Puerto Rico to the US Virgin Islands (to find shelter) we

need to get to the other side of Puerto

Rico which can't be done in one day with

the wind conditions that we

have here. The other cruisers that we

have been sailing alongside with since

the Dominican Republic were starting to

get antsy. We were not able to fly our

Puerto Rican flag saying that we are

checked into the country and we just

need to get going. We needed to get out of

here as quickly as possible

yeah things went bad to worse for us. A lot of

cruisers banded together and said "we're going to leave, We are going to

travel along the south coast of Puerto

Rico (to leave the country) and then when we can we're going to

jump to the US Virgin Islands. We jumped

on board with those guys said "let's

get out of here" yesterday we set sail we

ended up anchoring outside of Gilligan's

Island (to escape dangerous winds) and we anchored amongst about I

would say six other boats we knew

some of them we didn't know. A

police officer approached us (by boat) as we were

about to drop the anchor he gave us the same

spiel as the CBP officer that we're not

allowed ashore. We are not allowed to socialize amongst each other and so on.

he said "if you have any medical

emergencies if you need anything of

major importance please give us a call"

they gave us a number and they were very

cool and collected about the whole

situation. They asked us what our plans

were we said that we were going rest for

about six hours (on anchor) and head out about 4:00

a.m. the next day. Yeah we told them that

we were heading to the US Virgin

Islands (without stopping)

and most of the boats in that Anchorage

we're also doing the same thing and when

that police boat

drove away we had permission to stay in

that Anchorage (to rest) then I would say two or

three hours later - I believe it was

around 10:30 pm, maybe 11 another

officer (police boat) had approached the Anchorage and

started going from boat to boat (again) our message group on Instagram started going

off saying "turn off all your lights

the police are back and they're trying

to kick us out of the Anchorage" which is

really sad because one of the boats they

had approached have two small children

on board it was very ugly looking. They wanted us

to go. A boater had called the Coast

Guard and told them that we were being

harassed and the Coast Guard said that

they'll see what they can do but it

seems as though the police here have a

bit more authority at the moment than

the Federal Coast Guard. It's really

unfortunate that they are shooing us out and

not allowing us to rest. (at night) All of this 'good cop/bad cop' the scenario going on is

really playing on our minds.

Yeah Porto Rico is a total mess (for us). Donald

Trump apparently gave the governor

Puerto Rico special powers that allow them

to (in this case) instruct the police to do anything they pretty much want (to boaters) and they decided

here quite suddenly that all

cruising boats were not allowed to be

there and within hours they were out there

telling us to go away (at night in high winds) it's a breach of

maritime law it's a breach of safety

telling people to leave and do an

unplanned passage in the middle of the

night (in poor conditions) was just bad and

so getting in touch with the Coast Guard

was probably the smartest move for us

because they least are sympathetic to

Mariners and understand what is doable (safe)

and what is not (safe).. But leaving is

not a problem for us. We intended to leave but

they just can't come and harass us like

that (at night) especially boats with children on

board. I mean I understand this is a

state of emergency. The

corona virus is a bad thing. But why are

they harassing us (at night).. Yeah I mean we are

following the rules we are not

leaving our boats. The last time I

stepped on land was two weeks ago and

and it's getting out of hand.

I understand if the cruisers were not

following the rules and ignoring how

serious this situation is but no - we are

taking it just as seriously as they are (the authorities)

We are not leaving our boats.

Allright guys - a quick update here I just

overheard a conversation between two two boats over the VHF radio and they

were talking about this exact situation

with boats being kicked out of Puerto

Rico and it turns out that it has been the local mayors who have been given the power to

kick boats out of Anchorages and the

police are exercising that power on

their behalf. Other boats have

been calling the Federal Coast Guard

and the Coast Guard then will intervene

as what they (the police) are doing is considered

illegal (by maritime law) and they can't do that so the Coast Guard is standing up for us

boaters (in distress) as they should and it's it's working out now in that respect but the

harassment is continuing so we are

expecting another police

officer to likely visit soon, but yeah it's

a bit like the Wild West here in Puerto Rico right now.

We gotta go...

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