South America is finally behind us! But what was it like with the risk of COVID19 ever present?
Many of us onboard were pretty nervous about what we’d find, but happily we were met by stringent preventive measures being (mostly) adhered to by shore staff.
(sorry, another thread)

Usually, we have significant interactions in port with a wealth of local workers – pilots, agents, cargo planners, chandlers, bunker surveyors, customs officials – and of course a group of stevedores / cargo workers on deck.
But this time visits were kept to the essential minimum

Pilots are clearly indispensable, but all had masks (1 or 2 with ‘unorthodox’ wearing techniques), many had gloves and mostly were very respectful of (not) touching our bridge equipment.
All crew on the bridge for pilotage also wore masks (company policy) & kept everything clean

One pilot did give us a frightening insight into the prevalence of COVID19 in Brazil.
Asked if he knew anyone who had the virus:

“Yes Captain, my wife and daughter… 7 of the pilots here have had it…”

The list seemed never-ending & included a friend of his who'd passed in Rio.

He assured us that all pilots are regularly tested – himself 4 times (negative) to date, the most recent 6 days before. The measures he described seemed thorough, but hadn’t stopped one pilot being recently hospitalised. And we’d been in the same port just 2 weeks prior. Eek!

Otherwise visits by shore staff were scarce, with most business done by email/phone. Any officials/visitors/delivery workers who did come onboard were also well PPE-ed up & were mostly happy to keep paperwork/business to the main deck instead of coming into the office as usual.

With handshakes out of the question, most greetings with officials were reduced to awkward, distanced hellos – but not all! There was something strangely pleasing about being greeted by an elbow-nudge and a fist-bump by the foreman & agent (each masked & gloved) in Buenos Aires!

Stevedores all wore masks on deck and mostly kept their distance from our crew.
We did notice that in many ports they were only following these measures onboard & not on the quayside with their colleagues, but from our point of view we felt as protected as practicable.

For us onboard, it’s remarkable how quickly we changed what felt normal: Dealing with shore staff on the main deck; emailing (or Whatsapping!) the planners/agents instead of being given a local phone to use; cleaning hands (very) frequently - especially when coming in from deck.

Almost instantly, wearing a mask on deck in port became just as normal as wearing a helmet. It’s such a simple method of reducing the risk of infecting a ship/port, & with COVID19 loitering globally I wouldn’t be surprised if masks on deck in port stayed standard for some years.

Since we had no idea what to expect before arrival, it was a real relief to see these measures in place from visitors onboard without prompting. Whether they were just scared of getting infected from us or not we didn’t care – our safety was being respected either way!

In Itapoá (Brazil), the terminal even (VERY kindly) gave us a goodybag of chocolate bars for EACH crew member, as a thank you for our sacrifices to keep trade moving & keeping their port open & jobs going. A hugely appreciated gesture to a crew (mostly) overdue to go home.

But here we are, back at sea, and heading to Asia. #CrewChanges were not possible in S America (although we did manage to send the electrical cadet home) but most of our Asian ports have been open for a while: A light at the end of the tunnel for our long-suffering crew.

18/22 are overdue, with 4 passing 12 months onboard in Brazil, and 3 more due to this month. All but me & C/E have been onboard since at least January, and even we will be due to sign off in Asia. Optimism, then, started to spread
But then - ONE day out of Santos – it all changed

Singapore has just re-closed crew change for 4 weeks. Hong Kong is going back into lockdown. Malaysia opened for crew changes last week, but now backtracked into strict rules (including 2 week quarantine) like Korea, making the logistics of crew change nearly impossible. Curses.

There is still time to find a solution, but the outlook looks much bleaker than it did a few days ago. The Captain is very much ready to fight for the crew (& himself) & clearly COVID measures still change very quickly to & fro. But what power do we have if govts close borders?

For now we continue on our 9,000 Nautical Mile route to Asia. There’s nothing much more to do than get on with the job, and hope for the best.

And hey, at least we seem to have escaped South America unscathed!