This week has been a doozy. Our future feels uncertain. Here’s what’s been going on with the Thisldu crew in Nicaragua.

When Garrett and I set out on this cruising season, we had the goal of transiting the Panama Canal by April 30, 2020. That isn’t going to happen anymore.

We have been sheltering in place at Marina Puesta del Sol in Aserradores, Nicaragua since March 13. We had only planned to be in Nicaragua for a week, maybe ten days tops. But as we sailed here from Mexico, Coronavirus began spreading at a rapid rate and the world started changing around us. Countries started closing their borders and going on lockdown. Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Costa Rica and Panama. They’re all closed to us now.

Amidst all of the changes, Garrett and I had amended our plans to sail to Costa Rica once it opened, leave Thisldu at a marina there, fly back to the United States, and return when we could to continue on to Panama, which seems like it will be closed for the foreseeable future.

Costa Rica was supposed to open up on April 12. And then that became April 30. And now, as of earlier this week, they’re keeping their borders closed until May 12. Even if we could go to Costa Rica on May 12, we would be sailing during the rainy and lightning season. Conditions would not be ideal. On top of that worry, Garrett and I are fearful that May 12 will become May 31, May 31 will become June 15, and so on. There is no telling how long we will be stuck in Nicaragua for without an avenue to continue south, or even back north to the States. The last flight from Nicaragua went out on April 9.

In the past week, our focus has shifted from being able to continue on to Costa Rica to finding a way for us to return to the United States. So, we are now at the crossroads of a difficult decision. We can either sail three days back to Mexico, whose borders are still open and airports are still operating, haul Thisldu out of the water and store her on the hard, and begin a long journey of multiple flights back to the States. Or we could continue to wait things out in Nicaragua, hope that flights start operating again as planned on May 7, and leave Thisldu here until we can return to move her south at a later date.

Neither of us are thrilled at the prospect of returning to Mexico. We don’t want to go backwards. It’s farther from our ultimate destination of the Caribbean. It leaves a lot of long passages through areas with inclement weather in our future. And, if I’m being honest, I really, really didn’t like Chiapas. But it’s a place where we can safely and affordably store our boat and, as of now, get on a flight from nearby Tapachula to Mexico City, and then Mexico City to the States.

However, the three-day sail from Nicaragua to Chiapas would be filled with worry about whether the borders will still be open to us when we arrive and whether flights home will still be available to us when we’re ready to go. We also won’t have the option to tuck in anywhere if we need to while sailing in case of bad weather or any other issues, because the countries between here and Mexico—El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala—are closed. None of this sounds appealing to us.

The easier option, and the one we’re leaning toward, would be to leave Thisldu in Nicaragua and fly directly to the States—flights are supposed to start operating out of Managua on May 7—but there’s no guarantee that those flights will happen as scheduled. Garrett and I have secured seats on a flight that departs from Managua to Miami on May 7 via Avianca Airlines, the only airline that currently appears to be operating out of Nicaragua in May. We’re relieved to have a flight booked and cautiously optimistic that it will happen.

If you’re wondering why it’s taken us this long to arrange travel out of Nicaragua, I want to remind you that our sailboat is our home. It holds everything that we own. When Garrett and I thought we had other options for storing Thisldu for the summer in Costa Rica and perhaps Panama, we much preferred those over leaving her in Nicaragua for a slew of reasons. But now that those options are no longer viable, we are fine with leaving our boat here so long as we can get ourselves back on U.S. soil.

I do want to say that, although it’s been full of unprecedented changes, difficult decisions and emotional conversations, we have enjoyed our time in Nicaragua immensely. We’ve been fortunate to be sheltering in place with a great community made up of ten other cruisers, and being able to have social outlets in this time has given us, especially extroverted Garrett, a lot of comfort. We’re also grateful to be in a pretty isolated area where we can have access to the outdoors without running into outside human contact. I’ve even been donating my time to build a website for a women’s non-profit group that is run out of the local community, and having something meaningful to work on (in addition to my memoir) has brought me a lot of joy. 

That being said, our time here has not been without its challenges. There have been a lot of hard moments, days, and weeks. It’s about ninety-five degrees here every day, there isn’t any air conditioning to escape the heat in, and we’re both battling prickly pear heat rashes because our bodies can’t cool down. We’re about an hour’s drive from the nearest grocery store, which we have to hire a pretty costly driver to get to. There aren’t a lot of creature comforts available to us, and that’s been hard, especially for me, because I seek those things in times of crisis and chaos. It’s also been disconcerting to be in a place that is doing the opposite of the rest of the world when it comes to Coronavirus, encouraging social gatherings and saying they’ll defeat the virus with prayers and love and only reporting seven cases in the entire country. I think this pandemic is only going to get worse in the near future, and I don’t want to be here when it does.

Garrett would maybe stay on Thisldu in Nicaragua and stick out the waiting period a little longer, but I am ready to come home. Safety is my top priority right now. I would like to be in the U.S., in a place that’s familiar to us, even if everything is on total lockdown. We’re giving up our freedom in coming home, but, in my opinion, we’re gaining our safety.

There’s still a lot of unknown ahead of us. Being in this position of uncertainty is hard. This week has been emotionally charged and, as a result, emotionally draining. We are, though, both on the same page and are trying our best to come home. So, please, send all of your hopes and prayers and good vibes our way that we can fly out of here on that May 7 Avianca flight! We’ll take all of the positive energy and well wishes that we can get.