CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - It was going well. The sailors took their 40-foot yawl J. Henry through the Panama Canal, turned south and prepared for a long Pacific crossing to the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia.
Prentice “Tripp” Brower and Zach Bjur were in good spirits. They had finished the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean phase of their two-year circumnavigation, with interesting stops in Bermuda, Dominica, Bonaire and Panama. They enjoyed crystalline waters, endured rough seas, met up with friends, made some repairs and looked forward to exploring conservation “Hope Spots” established by the nonprofit Mission Blue. The purpose of the ambitious sailing excursion was to examine the cultural impacts of climate change, and to learn lessons about how people around the world are devising solutions that protect the environment and their communities. Brower and Bjur want to bring some ideas home to Charleston with the goal of establishing a Hope Spot in the Lowcountry.
But that was then. COVID-19 has changed everything now.
PACIFIC CROSSING
Getting through the Panama Canal and its two sets of locks was easy and fascinating, Bjur said. The crew hired professional line handlers to help ease the J. Henry into and out of the locks. The process started late in the afternoon and ended the next day. They spent the night anchored in Gatun Lake with several other late arrivals, then continued across the narrow country toward Panama City on the Pacific Ocean side.
In Panama City, they gave the boat a once-over, tightened the standing rigging, and attempted to address a worn main halyard and damaged propeller. A local welder took a look at the prop and thought it should be replaced.
Easier said than done.
It would take up to a month before a new prop could be shipped down to them, and they had a schedule to keep. A crewmate who needed to return to Charleston anyway ordered the prop and halyard, picked it up while back home, then returned to Panama City with the goods.
They decided to motor south, dead into the wind, to get around the Galapagos Islands and into the westerly trade winds. With just 10 gallons of diesel left in their 48-gallon tank, they decided to fuel up at a marina in the Galapagos, requiring a minor detour.
“It’s the weirdest pit stop I’ve ever taken,” Bjur said. “There were sea lions everywhere. The bioluminescence in the water was spectacular. … Even without going on land we got a taste of the richness of life there.”
Manta rays glided just beneath the water’s surface. A pod of sperm whales gathered nearby.
Back on course, they encountered some rain and very light air, so they fired up the engine again.
“After that, it was a sweet, easy run to the Marquesas; fair winds and following seas, as they say,” wrote Brower in an email. “At one time, we had the spinnaker flying for nearly eight straight days! Day and night.”
All told, the crossing from Panama to the Marquesas took 30 days.
“We saw a bunch of whales on that leg,” Bjur recalled. Probably humpbacks breaching, and a pod of pilot whales swimming with the J. Henry. “Red-footed boobies were with us the whole time, riding on the bow of the boat.”
As they approached French Polynesia, they put their satellite phone to use and discovered that this COVID-19 virus was becoming a big problem.
“We pulled into the Marquesas and had about a week there when everything was normal,” Bjur said. But there was lots of buzz among sailors and locals, and soon enough, they all realized the pandemic had become a global crisis certain to affect them.
During a hike, they received word of a mandatory meeting that evening. About 50 sailors showed up, along with the mayor of Shiva Oa. The sailors were told they had only a few days before lockdown and they needed to leave the islands.
But half of these visitors were itinerant sailors with no country to return to. They live on their boats. And in any case, it takes more than a couple of days to prepare to sail away from an island in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean.
That same day, the U.S. State Department issued a travel advisory, urging citizens to return home as soon as possible. Brower and Bjur had a decision to make.
ANCHORED
Bjur flew home. Brower arranged to remain with the boat, in quarantine. They figured the disruption would last three weeks or so. It lasted three months.
For the first month, Brower and a companion, a French woman named Antonia, could not step off the boat.
“The length of time on a boat with more or less a stranger was a big social experiment, but we made the most of our time, as did the other boats in the harbor,” Brower wrote. “It was interesting to watch the community of boats in our harbor come together. Every morning we communicated through an organized radio net. We all took turns each morning hosting the net, reviewing news, weather, quarantine updates, special needs and other essential communications. Within our community, everyone did their part to help others.”
The group of stranded international sailors included doctors and dentists, mechanics and engineers. Boat problems often were solved quickly.
“We were receiving news and hearing perspectives from all around the world,” Brower wrote. “As time went on, we became more organized.”
They assigned representatives to interact with government officials; they organized a grocery delivery service. Soon, they gained some freedom of movement.
“The locals were very kind, although our quarantine was very long and very strict,” Brower wrote. “At the end, the mayor came and presented every boat with a box of fruit, a gift from the people, and thanked us for our cooperation. Slowly but steadily, things on the island opened up. Antonia and I began to prepare the boat to sail again. Soon after, we were allowed on land, (and) we were allowed to sail around the island.”
Residents were nervous at first about visiting sailors.
“Keep in mind that it wasn’t long ago that this part of the world was infiltrated by Europeans, and with them came disease that wiped out large portions of the population,” Brower wrote. “So, at the start of any conversation, we would be asked where we came from, primarily to confirm we had been quarantined. After that, the conversation would relax.”
The situation began to normalize. People filled the streets again. Shops and restaurants opened. Brower interviewed islanders about their pandemic experiences and their perspectives on the coronavirus.
“The people on the whole are extremely generous and kind,” he wrote. “On a regular basis, we would return to J. Henry at the end of the day with fresh grapefruit and bananas, given to us by someone from the village.”
MISSION CREEP
It took several days to get to Tahiti. Brower and Antonia stopped briefly at Makemo and Tahanea, two of many atolls that comprise the Tuamotu Archipelago.
“We had nearly perfect conditions,” Brower wrote. “Along the way we were joined by whales, surfing in the swell behind us.”
At Makemo, Brower had to navigate a small pass into the volcanic lagoon.
“This was the most exciting part of the trip: eight knots of current, standing waves and reefs to navigate. Once in the lagoon, the water was flat and crystal clear,” he wrote.
At Tahanea, they met other boaters, lit fires on the beach and cooked fresh fish.
“The sharks in Tahanea were something to get used to. All around our boat and in the water we had black tip and grey sharks,” he wrote. “On our last day, while spearfishing, we saw a tiger shark. The dingy never seemed so welcoming!”
Now Brower is in Tahiti. Bjur is scheduled to fly out July 20 and rejoin his sailing mate in the South Pacific.
“We were supposed to be here three months ago, or more,” Brower wrote. “Now I hope Zach can make it back.”
The mission has changed. Circumnavigation likely is not possible because of the pandemic and the delays it has caused.
“I am hoping we can at least make it to New Zealand before turning around, but we will see what is possible,” Brower wrote in his email. “Nearly every day I am looking at new routes. Even if we turn east, if the world opens up, we could still find ourselves in Africa by March of next year.”
Bjur suggested that Hawaii or Alaska might become destinations worth exploring to find out how communities there are coping with climate change and the global health crisis.
Brower isn’t giving up on the idea of circling the world, though, even if this time is not Neptune’s will.
“With all that has transpired over the last five months, our focus has changed to highlight the effects of COVID-19 on people and their communities around the world,” he wrote. “It’s hard to see the window for a circumnavigation pass, but I’m hoping there may be another opportunity in the future. For now, we’ll make the most of this current venture.”
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