Tough decisions have to be made

Vero Beach, Continues
Sunday 3/15

Over the past few days we have been watching with interest what has been happening due to the Coronavirus pandemic.  With borders closing, and travel restrictions being put in place around the world, what will happen here?  What will happen in the Bahamas?  Will they stop letting foreign flagged vessels in?  And what will happen with entry/exit between the two countries in the future?  

There have been no incidents of Coronavirus reported in the Bahamas to date.  That’s good news.  Being on a sailboat is in someways self isolation.  But… with the fluidity of the situation and quickly changing travel policies, we are beginning to think that the Bahamas and international travel may not be the best plan at this time.  Not out of fear of the virus, but rather out of concern of re-entry and the limitations imposed at that time as well as availability of services along the way.  

So, we will sit here in Vero Beach and decide if we go further south in Florida (with the potential prospect of crossing over later next month), or go back north to home, or go back north and further north and enjoy St. Augustine, or stay put. 

At the start we always said, yes, we may be disappointed if we don’t get to the Bahamas this trip, but we won’t be mad.  We are happy to be back on the water.  

As we ponder, we walked to the beach under the canopy of large Live Oak trees and enjoyed a nice meal looking over the blue water of Vero Beach.  The water really is bluer south of Sebastian Inlet.