SV Ten Gauge ( Canada) made landfall at Fanning a few days ago on 3 August, 2022, having sailed down from Hawaii. This is their report of what reception they received following the announced border opening on 1 August, 2022.

“We came through the pass into the lagoon at 13h30. We heard no responses to multiple hails from us to Fanning Radio on the VHF. We anchored 200 meters from the dock at Paelau village and tidied up, waiting and calling on the VHF every 15-20 minutes.

“At 15h30 the village barge came out with four uniformed officials and an operator, all masked. From a distance the leader said that I didn’t need to bother putting out more fenders, as they would not come alongside. They stood ten meters off and one of them spoke to us, saying “You are not allowed to be here, you must leave”

“I responded that we could leave, but that we had understood from the Kiribati official government website that after 1 August Kiribati was open to international travel. His response was only to repeat that we had to leave immediately. “You must go out through the pass, right away”. There was no response to anything that we said or asked, other than a similar repetition of the instruction to leave. Zero pleasantries, a purely non-ambiguous instruction.

So we left.

Other than the fact that we got a few smiling waves from school kids in the distance, this is all we know about Fanning and we’re en route to US Samoa.”

I should note that the Senior Customs official for the Cook Islands informed us the same day that Penrhyn remains closed to yachts coming from any direction, on account of Covid. Suwarrow also. The only place a yacht can currently enter or visit the Cook Islands is at Rarotonga.

If you’d like to see that email as verification of my anecdotal report, I could forward it to you.

Best regards
And thank you for all that you continue to do in attempting to keep up to date with shifting goalposts and frequently contradictory information from seemingly reliable sources. Challenging times!

Al and Lucinda
SV Ten Gauge