Traveling by ship during Covid; well that just does not sound bright does it? But when your hand is forced that is what you have to do.
Let’s start at the beginning. Having dreams I have come to realize is the easy part, anyone can do that. Putting them into action however takes balls and guts and determination and most of all, a good dose of stupidity. So we are following our dream - what a classic cliche! But no, we are not following our dreams but rather striving to make them real, and that is the hard part.
When we began this journey to our Catamaran GypsyDjango it was with a heavy heart and a healthy amount of fear. Have you ever looked back at that amazing holiday and wished you had allowed yourself to be filled with excitement in the lead up, instead of being overcome with the stress of the last minute planning? Then as you climbed on the plane you breathe a sigh of relief as you feel the tension melt from your shoulders? Yes it was something like that, except that as we boarded the plane leaving South Africa for Spain it was with anxious trepidation of the tasks ahead and sadness at the void we were creating leaving our loved ones behind.
Once we arrived in Barcelona there was a huge cultural learning curve and quite a shock being exposed to big city life as foreigners who could barely converse in the language. We worked hard to take advantage of every opportunity to discover the country, trying to experience as much as we possibly could, knowing that Barcelona was only a brief pause on our way to Croatia.
Of course I could write this part but you already know it - Covid happened.Spain was possibly one of the hardest countries to have chosen to live in during lockdown. Covid brought new challenges and a tremendous loss in financial income of both our home in Cape Town and our yacht in Croatia for the year 2020.
“c'est la vie, it happened, we survived and now we needed to keep moving East to that elusive dream"
Paying for a home loan in Cape Town, rental in the middle of the most popular part of Barcelona and mooring for a Catamaran in Croatia is just not sustainable and was never part of the plan. The situation had to change and so I started researching ways to cross the divide of the Mediterranean Sea to remove the cost of the Spain rental. So close but so very far.
As we were not going to wait for Greece to open and in my search to find a way to enter Croatia, I read an article that finally gave me hope. After making contact with a local Croatian news agency who published an article on boat owners gaining access to Croatia during lock-down, I got my hands on the contact details for the Croatian Directorate of Border Police. It wasn’t easy requesting access for our American registered yacht moored in Croatia owned by South Africans with temporary Spanish residency. Fortunately we received a positive response (yes sometimes positive is positive J) that we could proceed to Croatia. However, unless we could personally pilot a jet there, we still had no means of travel.
Every option to get to Croatia was fraught with difficulty. Drive? No cars available and France was certainly not allowing anyone from Spain to enter or pass through in transit. Fly to Slovenia and then bus it into Croatia? No flights and bus service not operational yet. What about Greece or Albania or Montenegro or Austria or… I spoke to a contact at Lufthansa but alas no flights from Spain to anywhere close enough to Croatia to make this possible. Added to complexity airlines would schedule flights and then two days later they would cancel or postpone for weeks – far too risky and clearly not going to happen. How frustrating this new world of ours is, where we have NO control over our lives and NO means of taking charge of our decisions or movements.
Finally, after scouring the news daily, I was rewarded with what I was looking for.Italy decided to open their borders to other EU countries from the 3rd of June, against the wishes of the rest of the EU who had made a joint decision to wait until the 15th as the earliest date....
“Fortunately Italy, based on a need to restart tourism to help combat the loss of wealth in their country, dug in their heels 😀.”
Finally I discovered a possible option; a 20 hour overnight ferry trip from Barcelona to Civitavecchia on the West coast of Italy, followed by a train across the boot to Ancona on the East Coast. Then a second ferry, this time 11 hours, across the Adriatic to Split departing on the 5th – it was going to be tight. Fortunately a ferry was scheduled to depart Barcelona on the 2nd, arriving in Italy on the 3rd (just in time of the opening of their borders) which would give us a quick day in Rome before hoofing it across to Ancona for the next ferry. For the first time since hatching this idea to live on-board a yacht in the Mediterranean, I started to feel real rumblings of excitement in the pit of my stomach. After all we had been through with leaving our country, living in a foreign land through the Covid epidemic and losing much of our 2020 income, I was tired. Very tired.
With tickets booked we finally had a workable plan and a count down. Then the Italy / Croatia ferry trip of the 5th was rescheduled to the 12th - not to worry, we would make the most of our additional time in Italy seeing the sights. Visiting Rome in summer without the normal hordes of tourists and only paying 30 Euro per night for bed and breakfast didn’t sound too bad. Spectacular, it was finally coming together. NOT.
Anxiousness, nerves, trepidation - would we be allowed to travel? Was this about to happen? What if the ferry was cancelled? What if they wouldn’t allow us to board? All these negative thoughts kept running through my mind as I handed back the keys for our apartment in Gothica to our landlord, Marcello. We dragged our two suitcases – all we currently have for the next 5 months – the three kilometres to the ferry port to arrive four hours early. We were leaving nothing to chance. But alas my worst fears came true and they refused to let us board. First they didn’t like our EU residency cards and then they decided we should try again on the 3rd, once Italy had opened their boarders. The fact that the ferry only left Spain at 23:00 and we would only arrive in Italy on the 3rd, did nothing to sway them – they were simply not interested. With Spanish hotels still not open we were facing a night in the park, but fortunately Marcello came to our rescue. Heads handing in despair we started dragging our suitcase back for the walk of shame up Las Ramblas.
I used those three kilometres back to call our immigration lawyer, Giorgio, who immediately advised that they were wrong and should have allowed us to board. He promised that he would contact the ferry company and the Italian authorities the very next day to ensure we were allowed to board on the 3rd. One day later, many hours of angst and another three kilometres of suitcase dragging, and we were back in the queue – this time five hours early and armed with Giorgio’s assurances. With a sheepish smile they issued our tickets in less than two minutes. We submitted our foreheads for temperature tests and settled in for the five hour wait till departure. We made it on board!
How do you kill 20 hours on a ferry crossing? Easy, write a blog. So as I type away I am currently sitting in the middle of the Mediterranean Ocean on my way to Italy. The Diamond Princess springs to mind rather frequently as I watch the many people that surround me touching chairs and doors and tables and handrails and their faces – it’s starting to freak me out. Regular loudspeaker announcements advise us to maintain adequate social distance, wash our hands and wear our masks, but you just can’t avoid it - you touch.
The amount of times we have questioned ourselves and wondered if perhaps we are asking for too much.Is the universe trying to block us for reasons unknown, send us messages loud and clear to not proceed? But then I reminded myself that Covid was not created just for me and everyone I know is suffering. It’s not all about me and at the end of the day I am a lucky person and have amazing blessings I am exceptionally grateful for. I am on my way East and each passing minute brings me closer to GypsyDjango and our dream. I am so looking forward to the next part of this adventure and sharing it with you!!
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