Internet definition of Bureaucrats:  Government officials who are appointed not elected, and are more concerned with procedural correctness than rational application of legal intent or human needs.

I’m not sure how to summarize recent events.  We’ve certainly have had some eventful times lately.

We spent three months living in a rural fishing village in Greece called Sivota and we had a fascinating experience both with the locals and with our boating friends.  But as the new year wore on, there seemed no end in sight for the lockdown.   We began to explore our options and needed to overlay COVID restrictions on normal immigration restrictions.

Trying to Explain the Shengen

A little background is required to understand all that developed.  Most of mainland Europe adopted a single border system called the Schengen.  This is different from the EU itself.  Some countries are EU but not Shengen and vice versa.  For them, it means one border control system as you enter and then free movement within.  But for visitors it’s a real issue.  Instead of 90 days to visit France, 90 more to visit Spain, 90 more to visit Italy… a Canadian gets 90 days to visit them all.  Then Canadians must depart for a full 90 days before returning… thus we are allowed IN for 90 of any 180 day period. 

The options for getting out of the Schengen are the UK and Ireland, or in the Med;  Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Montenegro, Albania, and Croatia are the options.  COVID restrictions make it very difficult to get into the EU once you depart, so Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Montenegro, and Albania were all undesirable.  Thus Croatia was the number one option.  They joined the EU but are still in the process of joining the Schengen.  Thus we could theoretically spend 90 days in Croatia, 90 in the Schengen and so on indefinitely.   Moreover, Croatia had adopted a system based on the EU’s color coded map related to COVID and fortunately for us, the island of Lefkas where we were was some of the only GREEN in Europe.  This allowed us to travel to Croatia without the need for COVID testing or quarantine.  Thus, combining COVID and immigrations rules saw us depart for Croatia February 3^rd and arriving February 5^th.  Some people think it’s winter in Croatia in February, but for those of us who spend time in the high latitudes, it feels much like summer.

The Bureaucratic Experience

My experience with Bureaucrats began before our departure.  I spent several hours in the port police gradually working my way up through the chain of command.  Initial advice was we could not depart.  Only near the end when I explained that we HAD to depart due to Schengen limitations on our right to stay, did I get to speak to the second in command. 

Then it was a simple matter of him telling the others that we could indeed depart and papers were stamped. In a hilarious twist of events, a friend accompanied me, spoke to no one, told no one anything of his story, showed no one his documents, and when it came time for papers to be stamped he simply said:  “me too please”.  And they stamped his papers too.

So we arrived in Croatia armed with lots of information about how we could enter with no testing or quarantine.  Here is the next interaction I had with the bureaucrats upon arrival:

Me:  Hello.
Police: Hello, where did you come from?
Me: Lefkada, Greece.
Police: Co you have PCR covid test?
Me: No.
Police: You must have one, your expense,  and isolate until results back.
Me: But the Croatia government website says no test or isolation coming from green EU zone, and Lefkada Greece is green?
Police: We don’t do red – green here, you must have test.
Me: (showing printout)  But it says here on the internet what I said.
Police: That is not official Croatia site.
Me:  But it says here at the top,  Government of Croatia.
Police: We go by police information, not this.
Me (showing a different printout)  But this is from the official Croatia police website saying the same thing I said.
Police:  That is out of date.
Me: But it says here at the top updated yesterday? 
Police: That doesn’t apply to maritime border.
Me: Really?
Police: Yes. Call this number to arrange covid test now. Here is the other number for covid info.
Me: (My phone is on my boat. Return to boat and call covid info number. Explain my situation. Told to wait.)
(Police come to my boat…)
Me: Hello again.
Police: You are free to enter, no testing, no isolation.
Me: Great.
Police: Yes, we just heard from headquarters it was updated just now, not when you said before, just today.
Me: OK, thank you.  (Fist pump!)

Free to Cruise a Dormant Beauty

We then spent three months cruising Croatia.  In the winter, it’s a dormant beauty.  The usual systems in place to leach money from tourists are all mothballed, the anchorages are empty, the town walls are free of charge, the people are friendly, the ticks are non-existent… it’s a wonder indeed. 

Limestone islands with pine and oak trees dot the coast and hiking trails and sheltered anchorages are everywhere.  Parks are accessible without extreme fees, and the weather was wonderful.  We did have one hail storm but otherwise it resembled a Newfoundland summer.  As spring emerged, flowers appeared everywhere and the natural surroundings were abloom and lush.  Sadly, with each blossom the Croatian system of catching tourists blooms as well.  Anchorages fill up with mooring buoys, anchoring becomes disallowed, anchorage fees are exorbitant, marina fees are absurd and there is a fee for water.  Fortunately for us, as spring emerged Greece decided to open for tourism after a six-month lockdown.  And the timing was almost perfect.  Almost.

Just Two More Weeks…

We needed about two weeks more in Croatia than the 90 days we were allowed.  I spent a lot of time figuring out all the requirements for a temporary residence permit and was just about ready to click send on the online application.  I spent two days, with Gabe for a social studies lesson, in police stations in Zadar, a main city in northern Croatia.  I was assured that it would be no problem at all and not to worry.  Given that I did worry, I managed to persist long enough to get an appointment with the head inspector for foreigners in the region of Zadar.

He was all smiles, assured me it would be no problem, put our information in the computer, took a copy of our passports and gave me a paper with his name and two telephone numbers.  And so I felt mildly reassured.  However, as the 90-day Schengen limit approached and we neared southern Croatia, we made the fatal mistake of checking to see if our permission was indeed valid.  The border police assured me that it indeed was.  They checked with their boss who had a similar title as the man who had given me permission and all was OK, I just had to present to the actual police station in the nearby town to be sure the computer didn’t generate an automatic fine.  The conversation below, witnessed by Gabe, was a true social studies lesson for him.  This came after we took our dinghy five miles and then hiked a hill to the police station.

Me:  Hello
Tina:  Hello (smiles).
Me:  (explanation of all the above and that I was here to do as instructed).
Tina:  Your 90 days are up today.  You must leave Croatia immediately.
Me: No, no, I was talking to the police here yesterday.  They spoke to a man named Stipe.  He said it’s all OK, I just have to do some formality here.
Tina:  (calls Stipe, long conversation in Croatian… then…) I just spoke with Stipe. You must leave Croatia immediately.
Me:  But the police last night said they spoke to Stipe and all was OK.  Otherwise I could have left with favourable wind last night.
Tina:  You must leave Croatia immediately.
Me:  Oh great, look, there’s the policeman who told me yesterday it would all be OK.
Tina (to the policeman):  (Croatian conversation where he appears to get scolded.  Then to me…) You must leave Croatia immediately.
Me:  But I spent two days with the chief inspector for Foreigners in Zadar.  He assured me it would be OK to stay two weeks longer.  Here are his contact numbers.
Tina: (calls the inspector, long conversation in Croatian.  Then to me…) Yes, he confirms what you said and that he advised you could stay.  He has your documents on his desk.  But you must still leave Croatia immediately because he has no authority in this region of Croatia.
Me:  But I trusted what he said, and last night I was told the same, is there not someone in this region who could do the same for me?
Tina:  We will ask.  (long conversation in Croatian, then to me…) You still must leave.  Our inspector says the legislation allowing him to do that expired four months ago and the new legislation is not yet known.
Me:  I guess I can go back to Zadar region and then it will be Ok again.
Tina:  No, the rules are the same in all of Croatia.
Me:  OK.  Good-bye

Back at the Border Dock with the same Policeman as the Night Before

Me:  Hello again.
Police: Hello.  So you decided to leave.
Me:  Well, not exactly.  My wife is getting food, the weather is not good, and we are very stressed.
Police:  (after much discussion of the challenges we are now in, he says:)  You know, you could theoretically just go hide on another Croatian island and then pay a fine when you depart.
Me:  (I am too stressed and overwhelmed to know what to do or trust anything anyone in a uniform is telling me.)

Italy then Greece then Malta

And so after some very stressful times, we were at sea with surrounding countries either closed or requiring COVID testing prior to departure – which we obviously did not have.  Twenty four hours later we had steamed to the boot of Italy and anchored overnight.  We had been advised that boats could enter Greece two weeks early “with some restrictions”.  It turns out that boats could arrive to the mainland, COVID test upon arrival, quarantine five days, then test again and be allowed in. 

So we tried this in Corfu, but were advised that the week before the legislation had changed to say that arrivals at an island were not allowed, and so advised to go to the mainland.  We tried two mainland ports and were rejected because only crew were allowed, not tourists or visitors. 

The boats we knew had just arrived were with husband and wife teams, so apparently they can pretend to be paid skipper and crew, thus meeting criteria to enter.  But we were advised that because we had kids aboard, and we could not reasonably argue they were crew, we thus had passengers aboard and so were rejected.  We were contacted by friends and sent photos of multiple boats that just sailed up, ignored the rules and were wandering around Greece towns waiting for a few weeks to pass and Greece to open.  We were really uncomfortable with this sort of rule-breaking.  And so after several family meetings and reevaluation of our wishes, we struck out west towards Malta with a plan to work out of the Mediterranean and try to return to Canada for summer.  Indeed, Malta allowed arrival by sea, COVID testing upon arrival, then entry without quarantine.

COVID Tests in Malta

A week after we suddenly departed Croatia, we arrived in Malta.  The passage involved several nights at sea and wonderfully we rescued several exhausted sparrows.  We followed protocol in Malta and all got tested for COVID.

And I tested POSITIVE.  The rest of the crew NEGATIVE. 

The local health authority descended upon me and we were given all sorts of instructions.  We were quite familiar with quarantine at this point.  We had not formally entered Malta and were all perfectly healthy.  The hope was to take on provisions and continue sailing west towards Portugal and serving our mandatory isolation from all humans by remaining on our boat at sea.

A Turn for the Worse

But then things took another turn for the worse.  There are two doctors who govern ships in Maltese waters.  One advised me I could take on provisions and fuel and depart, given we were healthy and could isolate at sea.  The other was a classic doctor turned bureauocrat who decided to get his jollies out by exerting authority over us.  Below is a narrative of what ensued:

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To Public Health Superintendant Malta:

I am writing in the interests of expressing what I feel now is my emerging truth. I have no idea if it will alter the way anything will develop from here, but I feel compelled to communicate. I will admit to going through a victim response to being fined 20 000 Euros (35 000 Canadian Dollars), and then an angry response to being fined. But today I feel I can communicate what is as close to truth as I am able, along with relevant background information. 

We had been in Croatia for 90 days leading up to coming to Malta. Canadians are allowed to visit for 90 days and then must leave. I spent two days in police stations in Zadar and was granted permission to remain in Croatia a few weeks extra, waiting for Greece to open as predicted on May 14. But when I subsequently met border police in the south of Croatia they revoked the permission and, with 4 hours’ notice, forced us to leave Croatia May 4th. Thus, we found ourselves at sea as a family with surrounding countries requiring quarantine, PCR testing, or closed. We did not have time to arrange pre-departure Covid tests. The truth is that this departure generated stress that lingered. We were denied entry into Greece and thus spent a week sailing to Malta. It is with this recent background that we arrived in Malta.

On arrival we followed protocol as per routine in Malta and then arrived at the surprising result of a positive test for myself and negative tests for the rest of the family. We were in Rinella Bay then and the usual process of notification of positive result and quarantine was issued. I will state that when the administrative assistant took down our “residence” location I tried explaining that we are in the uncommon situation of living on a boat in a foreign country and so our residence was a mobile boat. Though it may mean little, I was advised by her that the purpose of listing Rinella Bay was to allocate local health resources based on geographic location.

We have been living on our sailboat in the Med since the onset of Covid-19 pandemic and this quarantine in Malta is our fourth two-week quarantine. Additionally, both my wife and I are medical doctors from Canada who both retired from careers as General Surgeons. And so we are very familiar with the rules and the way to prevent transmission of Covid-19.

The trouble started when the wind forecast was for strong North West winds and the water in Grand Harbour was too polluted to run our watermaker which we use to get drinking water. I did try calling the two numbers I was given by the team who initially contacted me from Public Health. The first time I got an administrative assistant of some sort who said it was not her job to advise about permission to move a boat. The second time I got a medical doctor who told me it was not really her place to offer anything other than medical information. I did not have a contact for public health official with authority to approve my request to move our boat. I now realize, in retrospect, that I might have been supposed to call the port medic. But at the time, the truth is that I thought the port medic had no further role to play after arrival procedures were done or until departure procedures began given public health authority involvement. And so we moved our boat up near Gozo for wind protection, clean water for my watermaker, and access to the highly recommended online grocery store T’aDiranju. We remained at anchor and at no point did anything to risk transmission of Covid. We were anchored outside the breakwater and near rocks, not near any human traffic of any kind.

I did get in contact with the port medic on call when near Mgarr harbour when I wanted to get fuel and the marina manager told me to check with the medic on call. On this particular day it was not Dr. Williams, but a different doctor who’s name I admit I do not know how to spell… Dr. Mitsi? He advised me I could not go into a harbour, I could only get fuel delivered and then asked me: “How long do you plan to stay?”. I was a little surprised by the question as I wasn’t sure if we would be allowed to leave, but not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth I said that I would like to take on supplies and depart as I was perfectly asymptomatic and we were on our way back to Canada. And Dr. Mitsi simply replied, “OK.” It was a brief conversation and formal approval to depart was not granted, but I was left with the impression that I could take on supplies and depart Malta. It was in this location that my kids did jump into the sea behind our boat for exercise given their 10 day confinement. They were around the back of our anchored boat 200m from shore and did not venture ashore or near any other humans.

After having fuel and supplies delivered, the wind had moved west and the forecast going west did not look good and so I delayed my planned departure. It was almost dark and my kids were getting sea sick so we moved to a protected spot by Comino. There was one other catamaran anchored there and we anchored behind them. I did not realize we might have been in a swimming area because there were no ropes or buoys and given the water temperature there are no swimmers. We did not get off our boat. My intention was to move to the south west corner of Gozo in preparation for departure with good weather Sunday evening, if permitted.

This is when the trouble started. A coast guard ship came and said we were to be escorted to Mgarr Harbour. I explained that I had, the day before, been advised by Dr. Mitsi that we were to remain at anchor. There was much discussion and I was then advised to return to Rinella Bay. It was dark and windy. I will now say with candor and in retrospect, I was resistant to moving my boat at that time of night, in the dark and significant wind, having just put my kids to bed. I did not simply comply as instructed but rather asked lots of questions and I feel this may have contributed to the escalation of my situation.

After reflection and second-guessing myself in the last day or so, I now understand better another element of that resistance to immediately moving as instructed. It was dark, windy, and my kids were in bed, true and reasonable. But we had a previous experience in Ibiza, Spain that has left a mark on us all. We were anchored in Ibiza during the initial lockdown in March 2020. We were at anchor six weeks when, to keep a long story short, the local beaurocracy decided to change our status from “local anchored boat” to “foreign boat in transit”. We were forced to take supplies and leave the country when all neighboring countries were locking down. Part of the process to legalize kicking us out was to document that our vessel had entered a formal Spanish port and been given supplies. And so I was not allowed to collect my food with our dinghy, and then we were treated very aggressively after entering the port and thus being legally a boat in transit, not at anchor. I realize this has nothing to do with what happened here in Malta, but the truth is my wife and I felt afraid to officially enter Grand Harbour port in this context fearing it was a precursor to getting a different treatment as a boat now deemed INSIDE a harbour. This fear played a role in our reaction to being told to return to Rinella Bay and I wonder if our conduct thus worsened our situation.

I will add that as we returned to Rinella Bay, I called the port medic number on the advice of the VTS and got Dr. Mitsi. He again advised me that it should be no problem to depart Malta and return to Canada as I was requesting and said he would work on it and send me an email. But, like me at the time, he was not aware that there was an impression of quarantine breach and impending fine. Nonetheless, I was twice advised by him that it should be possible to leave and I think this is relevant to consideration of my situation and how I conducted myself.

I will state plainly that I feel confident we did absolutely nothing to risk the transmission of Covid-19. We are both medical doctors with sworn oaths and also careful by nature. I feel we “moved” our residence for safety reasons, but did not ever “leave “our residence. I don’t see that my kids jumping off the back of our boat 200 m from shore could reasonably be seen as leaving our residence and risking Covid transmission. I don’t think that being anchored near Mgarr or Comino is any increased risk compared with Rinella Bay. I did try to call the health numbers provided, and not until we were underway back to Rinella Bay to be fined was I finally able to get an email address for the officials who could give directions regarding moving my boat: quarantine.covid19.gov.mt. Previously, I was not able to contact the local health authority to ask about leaving Rinella Bay and honestly did not realize I could ask the port medic. I now hear on the radio that the VTS seems to control movement of pleasure boats around the Malta waters very closely with permission to anchor being requested often. At the time I thought communication with the VTS was only required on arrival/departure.

I was briefed by the individual issuing our fines and advised that there was photographic and video evidence of us being in a tourist swimming area. I understand that this could be interpreted differently than our intention at the time. And I understand how it created hassle and work for the coast guard and port medic on call, Dr. Williams. I have, and do again, sincerely apologise for this.

But I don’t think that our conduct can truly be considered a risk of Covid-19 transmission or in contravention of the intention of the quarantine law. Being fined will clearly result in us asking permission to do just about anything while we remain in quarantine. But in terms of behaviour that might risk Covid transmission, I feel we could do nothing more than we have already done.

I also submit that our conduct was also in the context of being diagnosed with Covid-19 and all the resultant stress. I was not symptomatic in any way, but there was still considerable distress in my family and concern for our health while far from home and hoping to return. I would greatly appreciate some leniancy in the context of enduring this stress.  I did pay for a private discussion with Dr. Elfath Elnifro, a virologist with St. James Hospital.  He advised that my repeat test as reviewed by him was just barely considered positive with a near inconclusive result.  We discussed my particular situation at length.  He advised that I was either a false positive or more likely a recovering case nearing the very end of recovery, given test results and my history.  This conversation is relevant to my decision to safely continue towards Canada.  It is my uneqivocal intention to remain fully in isolation and continue the standard quarantine protocols for the full 14 day duration of my post swab time.

I am grateful for the time required to read my communications and I would very much appreciate a response of any kind.

Sincerely Yours,
Gavin Frenchand on behalf of Valerie Jefford, Gabriel French, Lauren French, Amelia French.

End of Narrative

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The response to my narrative was considerably less verbose:

“You are in breach of quarantine.  You can contest the fine through the usual avenues. You must now remain in quarantine in Rinella bay.  The permission you had from the port medics to depart and serve isolation at sea is revoked.”

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Amazingly, we were then given permission to do exactly that which we were fined for.  The same weather ensued and we were given permission to move our boat and to swim adjacent to it.

Finding a Loophole

In an hilarious twist of fate, fellow sailors sent us a link to a media article.  It turns out there is a local lawyer who found a loophole in the wording used by the Maltese government in their COVID legislation.  They used the word “penalty”.  And this word is apparently not the one to use as it’s not recognized by Maltese law.  So the fines turn out to be “not worth the paper they are written on”.  We contacted him, and apparently we meet the exact criteria to also be excused from our fines.  Not because we didn’t actually to anything wrong or to risk covid transmission, but because of a loophole.  Indeed, I could have walked into town and face to face told the beurocrat who was abusing us exactly what I thought of him in a moment of anger, and the ensuing fine would also have been void!

Oh my, Oh my, Oh my

So now we await the completion of our third week isolated on our boat at sea.  And we will try to run the gauntlet west.  Med countries now allow arrival as long as you have a negative covid test 72 hours or less prior to arrival.  They are not cheap, but we can test our way towards Portugal.

Amazingly, the fact that I have just recovered from COVID means little here in the Med.  It does mean something for arrival to Canada though… it does not excuse me from quarantine in Canada, but does excuse me the need to do the mandatory hotel quarantine in Toronto.  We have answered the online questionnaire… and it turns out that when you select “leisure, visit for wedding or tourism…” the Canadian website produces a “you may enter Canada”.

To Be Continued . . .

I feel this is really To Be Continued…. As we are still moving during COVID.  We risk no one, other than ourselves and a hassle.  And we explore the world and continued challenges of COVID.

And so that’s bureaucrats… they seem to be in all countries and are all the same.  I will admit to having some challenging moments in dealing with all of this.  I felt hate.  I slandered whole countries.  And then I recovered.  And found the things I believe that are not actually true:

• Information given by a uniformed national enforcement officer should mean something.
• People in these bureaucratic positions should be able to see past policies to common sense, reason, and compassion.

The truth is that neither of these things is actually true and believing in them finds me looking for justice.  And justice is another made up notion.  But it would be an email in itself to explore how I processed all of this… for now it’s just a tale.  But not the end.

A Sparrow in the Boom

I can say that the only REAL thing that has happened recently is that a Spanish Sparrow male built a nest in the end of our boom.  He awakens every morning chirping to attract a lady.  We feed him seeds and water. Whenever a female appears, he goes crazy and chirps triple time.  We all love him, Val is genuinely obsessed.  We call him Sam and he is real.  His chirps remind me to shift my attention away from the train of thought that ensues when considering the above.  If he succeeds in finding a lady, we won’t be using the main sail for a month or so!

Another time I will perhaps outline the various lies in my head most recently divested.  I must admit to having a rough time lately.  But as I emerge out the other end I feel grateful for all I have learned, but most grateful for all I have UNlearned.

Gavin French
SV Water Dogs

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Related Reports:

• Greece and Croatia:  Formalities Update  – Gavin French (February 2021)
  
• Expelled from Spain – Gavin French (May 2020)
  

Related Links:

• Greece Biosecurity
  
• Croatia Biosecurity
• COVID-19 Coronavirus: Special Procedures Being Introduced in Ports of Entry Worldwide
  
• COVID-19 Resources Page
  

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Please share your current experience with COVID-19 restrictions and how it has affected your cruising plans. Contact Sue at [email protected] with your field report.

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The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of Noonsite.com or World Cruising Club.