These days, I think everyone has a story about the coronavirus lockdown. Mine involves three whales, two countries, and one stranger.

Alexi had already left for a book-signing tour in France when the coronavirus restrictions began. At first, she decided she would stay. France had forbidden large gatherings but her publisher had arranged small sessions where her fans could meet her. As the size of the restricted groups dropped, even the small sessions were not possible. At that point, Alexi decided to return to the US. But it was too late. All the flights from Paris were cancelled.

Meanwhile, I had decided to hire crew to help me bring our boat back from the Bahamas. I figured that a stranger and I could explore a few new islands and enjoy some sailing while making our way to the US. It seemed like two weeks would leave us plenty of time. This turned out to be more complicated than I anticipated. There were plenty of people willing to help me sail around the Bahamas, but I needed someone who could enter the Bahamas and then enter the US. Most of the people who were available had either visited Europe (and therefore would be quarantined upon entry into the US), couldn’t get a US visa that quickly, didn’t have the sailing experience I wanted, or were too expensive to hire. Fortunately, I found someone (Jen) who had two weeks to spare, wasn’t too expensive, and had Global Entry for rapid US immigration clearance. But, nearly as soon as we bought her tickets to come to the Bahamas, things changed dramatically.

The first problem was that Alexi was no longer coming back in two weeks. She was coming back in four days. And, she was going to be quarantined for 14 days when she returned. She could return to New York City and stay with her parents, but her parents are elderly and she didn’t want to put them at risk. She could return to Miami, near where I would be returning with the boat, but she would have to stay in a hotel for two weeks waiting for me. The only solution was that Jen and I would need to sail the boat back in four days—not fourteen days.

All this assumed Jen could make it into the Bahamas. The Bahamas had first started restricting Chinese visitors, then any visitors from the EU, China or showing symptoms, and eventually – two days after Jen arrived – closed the borders to everyone. At that point, inter-island travel was still allowed and you could use the marinas and buy fuel, as long as you had not visited the EU or China in the last fourteen days and you did not have a fever. I don’t think I’ve ever had my temperature taken in order to fill up the tanks before!

Jen and I left less than twelve hours after she landed. From then on, everything went our way.

On the very first passage, from the northern end of Great Exuma Island to Highborne Cay, I saw three pilot whales lounging at the surface. The first whales that I had ever seen. We did arrive five minutes after the fuel dock closed but we had a beautiful night at anchor. The next day was a calm passage to Chub Cay, where we were able to fuel up and eat at the restaurant (after completing a travel questionnaire and having our temperatures taken).

Meanwhile, Alexi had to go to a second country (The Netherlands) because there were simply no flights available to the US from France. At 4 AM, she departed. Now the clock was ticking If we didn’t make it back to the US before her, she would need to quarantine in a hotel for two weeks.

We left Chub Cay at 6 AM knowing we would need to sail through the night to make it on time. This passage is made in two parts. The first part is over the Bahamas bank where the depth averages about 10 feet. It is a bit scary as there are shallow coral heads that can sink a boat if the waves are large, the tide is low, or your boat drafts too much. But we had no problem and arrived at Gun Cay near sunset.

We could have continued as we were, but then we would have arrived at the inlet in the US before dawn. Inlets – where the ocean meets the inland waterways and ports - can be treacherous because water can be rushing out against the wind causing very steep, large waves. Boats have crossed oceans only to crash and sink at the inlet. I didn’t want to try running an inlet in the dark. So, as we left the Gun Cay Light behind (a two-striped tower like a lighthouse) we shut off the engines and sailed through the night. It was a beautiful, quiet evening with lots of stars. There was also lots of boat traffic, but with electronic chart-plotting, radar, and AIS, sailing on instruments alone (without being able to see anything) was not that stressful.

At this point, we were far from land and so I could not get texts from Alexi to know that she had made her flights. Up until this point, Alexi had been tracking us on our satellite beacon. But now, she didn’t have internet on the airplane, so she didn’t know if we were going to make it to the US before her or if she might have to stay in hotel for two weeks.

At 5:30AM the next day, we arrived at the Palm Beach Inlet and sailed around a bit, waiting for the sun to rise and for two 1000-foot ships to go through. Once the inlet was clear and visible, we sailed into the US, cleared customs with a nifty app on my phone, and headed north to the marina I had called the day before. It turns out that we were the last boat the marina accepted. Palm Beach County shut down all recreational boating the next day! We tied up at the marina, walked the dog, and plugged in to shore power at about noon.

Two hours later, Alexi landed in Miami.

We had made it just in time!