A LOOK BACK AT 2020
What a dreadful season – and what a magnificent summer. For many of us, when we could eventually get afloat, the weather was glorious, anchorages were empty and an afternoon under sail was savoured more than ever before. After the weeks spent under peerless skies in lockdown, the pleasure of being at sea again was great, but going sailing wasn’t straightforward, even after lockdown measures had been eased.
Boaters in Guernsey were the first back afloat, when a Notices to Mariners ruled that from Saturday 2 May, recreational vessels could go to sea for two hours at a time. Of course, that was subject to boat skippers being accompanied “only by persons permanently residing at the same address or, where the vessel is sufficiently large to maintain social distancing, with one other person from a different household”.
Even that exciting prospect was put on hold when boat owners on the island realised Covid-19 restrictions meant they could work on boats afloat, but not those on the hard, so they were unable to recommission their boats anyway.
It was the first of many bureaucratic anomalies – something else we learned to live with over 2020 – but this one was hastily fixed and England followed suit a few days later, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson announcing
