Aleria's Adventures

Predict Wind fleet map for all the boats in the OCC Atlantic crossing group I was invited to speak at the IS Cruising Conference. The topic was to tell the tale of OCC's pandemic response effort. Gail had read about what we had done and thought it would be a good topic to cover as many of our IS members who come to this conference are offshore sailors. I had 20 minutes for the talk and 10 minutes for questions, so I didn't have a lot of space for something that consumed our lives for the best part of a year. I wish I could include the slides here, as it's a documentation of how we helped hundreds of people trying to survive a pandemic under very trying circumstances. When I finished, I asked Alex to add his thoughts about communications, which was valuable. Then I asked Vera to come up and talk about her perspective of having been in the Caribbean and being one of the families we assisted with their thinking. Walking them through options and giving them advance notice of br...

This article was originally written and published by me on the Ocean Cruising Club website. I am posting here as well just to keep from losing it.  Main Photo (c) Caroline Dobbs. The vessels departing from Antigua (left to right)   Nebula, Fathom   and   Balou , all UK registered and heading home. Pandemic in Paradise  Daria Blackwell  |    27/05/2020 As reports of Covid-19 outbreaks began to circulate, the OCC was monitoring the situation in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and IndoPacific regions. What could we do to assist stranded cruisers? Reports from China of a highly contagious novel coronavirus began circulating in January. But China was far away from most places in paradise. At first, tourism remained active and cruisers went about their business blissfully unaware of the mounting threat of a pandemic. As tourists flying in from severely affected European nations began to show signs of infection and coronavirus began to spread...

Editor's Note: I wrote this for the OCC AWE Facebook Group. I am posting it here in case it helps others in need.  Welcome to the AWE Group! If you’ve joined this group, then you share with your fellow members several unfortunate circumstances. Chances are, you are stuck somewhere you didn’t plan to be and are evaluating what to do next to stay a step ahead of the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic. The OCC has been working with Noonsite to gather information from our helpful Port Officers around the world and make the information available to cruisers in one central location. Noonsite’s listing of Port Restrictions is the most complete and up-to-date information available. If you see something that needs updating, please send it to Sue Richards at Noonsite@noonsite.com . The OCC has also petitioned World Sailing to represent cruisers in countries where draconian measures are being put into place that endanger cruisers’ safety, and we have encouraged other organisa...

I have been working hard for the past few days to week or so to help the people of the Caribbean get the help they need after Hurricane Irma. But putting together those able to assist with those interested in donating and ensuring that the organizations are reputable, I hope to be able to make a small difference. If you are looking for information or ways you can help, please visit the   Ocean Cruising Club   (OCC) website. So many of the lovely places we visited on our Caribbean cruise in 2009-2010 are devastated. Please do what you can to help. Thanks.

The recent increases in terrorism and migration have once again gotten cruisers thinking about whether they should be carrying weapons on board. I will lay out the reasons why I believe weapons are not a good idea for cruisers. Guns aboard are a personal choice. But not for us.