In the spring of 2021, Picton Castle will set sail on another world circumnavigation voyage. Sailing around the world is a big deal, a challenging feat. But for Picton Castle, one of the benefits of making a voyage like this is that we have so many excellent friends and contacts in the ports we’ll visit and we know how things work there. Or at least we used to – there will be changes everywhere brought about by COVID-19.
As we were working towards making a decision about the route for this voyage, we contacted our associates in the various ports we want to visit to ask them what’s happening in their port now and what they think will happen in the coming months. We just recently had some good news from our ship’s agent in the Galapagos Islands, which we’ll share with you here:
“We have some good news here, finally, sea borders have been reopened in Galapagos, so all yachts are allowed to enter again.
The only mandatory requirement, in addition to the already known, is a negative real-time nasopharyngeal swab PCR tests for detection of COVID-19, done within the last 72 hours before departure to Galapagos.
This document (scanned and pdf file), the zarpe + the crew list, must be sent in advance just before heading to the islands.
Here are another specific requirements:
- All boats must be disinfected and fumigated, both inside and outside areas. Captain must send to the certificate in advance.
- There must be on board, besides the first aid box or medical supplies, the following items: alcohol, hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, face masks, safety glasses, nitrite gloves.
- A simple sanitary protocol (guidelines) in case of any emergency onboard (regarding the Covid-19), which must be sent in advance (signed and stamped if possible), it also has to be presented at the arrival.”
While we’re fairly sure the requirements will change again between now and the time Picton Castle arrives, this sounds like hopeful news to us as we move ahead with planning for the upcoming World Voyage!
