Covid Chaos Africa-style!
by Jenny Crickmore-Thompson 20 Dec 2020 19:05 UTC
Natasha Wolmarans, PO Richards Bay welcoming new arrival with champagne © Jenny Crickmore-Thompson
Every year the OCC hosts wine-tastings and get-togethers for the circumnavigating boats who have made it across the Indian Ocean. 2020, as we all know, has been a very different year.
Every year the OCC hosts wine-tastings and get-togethers for the circumnavigating boats who have made it across the Indian Ocean during the Sept - Jan season to round the Cape of Good Hope into the Atlantic - normally a very simple exercise of party planning and socialising!
As we all know, 2020 has been a very different year. On 28th March, South Africa was peremptorily thrown into hard lockdown: all borders both international and national closed with immediate effect, all shops except some supermarket food stores and pharmacies closed, all restaurants, bars, accommodation venues closed. A curfew from 6 pm to 6 am was imposed, and everyone was told to stay home, no travelling out of home except for medical emergencies and food replenishment. To say it was a hard lockdown is a misnomer!
Of course, the worrying aspect for us in the OCC was the effect this would have on boats crossing the Indian Ocean and hoping to make landfall in South Africa. Things escalated quickly, with many of the islands imposing lockdowns of varying degrees, in most cases trapping cruising boats that had either just reached the island in question or were still at sea when the regulations were imposed. Some island lockdowns were intense: the Maldives had a total lockdown, with some 30-50 boats sitting at anchor for over 100 days, unable to move. Thank goodness for the OCC port officer there who was able to help out with his dinghy to ferry groceries and essentials.
Here in South Africa, realising how slowly government departments work at the best of times, a group of us swung into immediate action. In April, we started work contacting the Department of Home Affairs for immigration, and the Department of Transport for the movement of incoming small craft (as they insisted on calling cruising yachts!). It took some four months of intense negotiation, lots of phone calls, WhatsApp and email messages, and several physical meetings with the various department heads and the National Covid Command Council before we were able to get an assurance that cruisers would be able to come into a South African harbour as a port of refuge, refuel, reprovision and effect basic repairs - but not disembark off the boat or enter the country officially. Some help, but not really what we wanted!
So, more negotiations, more conversations, more meetings.
The breakthrough came when the Dep Director Home Affairs and the Dep Director Dept Transport asked to visit John Franklin and me at our property in the bush! We spent an amazing afternoon with them, some 4 hours of explaining to them exactly what a “yachtie” was, why people sailed around the world like this, how they could live aboard for months if not years at a time, what their needs and requirements were - very interesting few hours, as these were traditional local people who had no feeling for the sea or concept of sailing, but in fact had a fairly strong superstitious dislike and fear of the water!
And so the MN50 arrived, a Directive from Government allowing all foreign small craft to come in as part of a Humanitarian Project, for a limited period from 9th Nov to 15th Dec and to enter the country as tourists. The floodgates opened!
Within days we had our first boats in - we have now brought in some 69 foreign boats to date, circumnavigators who made initial landfall in Richards Bay and are now slowly but surely moving down to Cape Town. We helped a boat from Ushuaia that lost her rudder and had to make an emergency call into Port Elizabeth, her closest port but not a port of entry - lots more negotiations.
Now, it is 17th Dec, and while the Covid numbers are growing and there is a strong message from the President to take extra precautions over the Christmas period, there is an acceptance that the cruisers are not a risk group, and are still being welcomed in by Immigration, passports stamped - and sent off to explore the game parks and beaches of this beautiful country.
A huge thank you to all those involved in this long and exhausting project, too many to name, but you all know who you are! Natasha, PO Richards Bay, met boats at the dock with a bottle of champagne, organised Covid tests and immigration visits, while John and I drove from Johannesburg to Richards Bay to meet up with as many as possible and smooth the still bumpy path.
Zululand Yacht Club, Royal Natal YC, Port Elizabeth Marina, Buffalo River YC, False Bay YC, the Victoria & Albert Marina and the Royal Cape YC have all opened their doors to show visitors a warm South African welcome! This has been repaid by the ongoing exuberant endorsement of South Africa as a destination of choice!
The OCC has enhanced its reputation greatly through this time, both by the tireless efforts of all POs and members involved: the proof of this pudding lies in the fact that from Sept to Nov we have had seven individuals sign up as new members!
This article has been provided by the courtesy of Ocean Cruising Club.