HOMEWARD BOUND

The Caribbean and Bahamas became a sea of frustration as the Covid-19 pandemic spread. One by one, islands shut down to protect their limited health-care systems. Trinidad, where many boaters haul out for hurricane season, closed its borders March 16. The British Virgin Islands shut its airports and seaports March 23. The Bahamas cut itself off from the world March 27. Hank George, president of the Salty Dawg Sailing Association, heard about the first closures from some of the 800 members of the nonprofit, which was founded 11 years ago by cruisers who wanted to sail their own boats to the Caribbean. The members who contacted him had originally planned to sail back to America with the group’s annual rally in May, when crew were scheduled to fly in and help.

“We knew we weren’t going to be able to do that rally,” George says. “But as it was unfolding, we realized there were going to be a lot of stranded sailors, including inexperienced crew with underequipped boats that had never done an ocean passage. We needed to do something to help them.”

When the group announced that it was creating mini-rallies out of St. Thomas, bound for the U.S. mainland and Canada—the Homeward Bound Flotilla—250 boats initially signed up. The Salty Dawg team of 23 volunteers readied themselves to provide shoreside assistance, with boats leaving every Sunday from April 12 through May 20. In the end, Salty Dawg’s team helped all 184 boats that participated to get back. “Some of these people were used to only sailing for a day at a time between islands,” George says. “Now they were looking at an ocean passage with one, maybe two people on board.” It was arguably the largest evacuation of boaters in modern history. These are some of their stories.

Attorney Will Viss had promised his boss