Exiled at sea for 70 days

A dream trip to the eastern Caribbean turned into a nightmare after coronavirus quarantine rules led to a 70 day odyssey for Peter and Margarida Lukursky

- Peter and Margarida Lukursk

As an Australian-Portuguese couple sailing around the world on a very simple cutter rigged 42ft monohull, we had heard about the coronavirus as we checked out of Cien Fuegos, Cuba on 10 March but we never would have imagined the world shutting down in the way that it was about to. Our plan was to take a couple of weeks sailing down the Jardines and then head over to Jamaica. We had difficulty filling up completely with water, food and diesel but we weren’t worried - we had plenty for the trip to Jamaica, where we could provision easily.

As we arrived at the Jardines we met up with some cruisers who told us that the world was in a panic and that Jamaica had closed its borders for 14 days. Still, we weren’t too concerned; we would simply wait it out until the Jamaican border was opened. We sailed around this beautiful part of the world and were completely alone - save for an occasional fisherman - for the next 12 days, until a Cuban military team came and told us we had to leave immediately. There was no concern from them at all about whether we had adequate food, fuel or water, we were just told “go now!”

We were escorted out to sea and, in light conditions, duly started sailing to Jamaica at 1.5 knots. It was now day 24. The wind came in but as we got close to Jamaica, we got notice on our InReach that Jamaica had closed its borders for another 14 days. This was getting tricky...

Where to run to?