COVID-19 Season Update 2021

The world still feels a bit upside down at the moment. Remember when the only bubbles we had to think about were the ones that came out of the jet? 

Thank you to everyone who’s contacted us about the possibility of trips this season. We do understand that everyone wants to plan their much needed holidays.

While there is much to be encouraged about by way of vaccines etc, we have family members and neighbours who are extremely vulnerable to COVID-19 and we need to avoid any unnecessary risks as far as possible. The current advice to us is that in order to protect those close to us who are immunosuppressed we should continue to avoid contact with groups of people outside our extended household. This rather rules out looking after people on a boat for now.

Shearwater has moved to East Anglia to do seal and bird watching trips along the coast and on the Broads. She’s working to support seal rescue and lifeboat charities and will be helping with wildlife rescue and monitoring work – start as you mean to go on! You can see what she’s getting up to at www.jetadventures.co.uk

We are in the process of sourcing another boat with a view to being at sea for the summer, although the pandemic and Brexit are complicating factors!

We’re all familiar now with the need for social distancing, disinfection of surfaces, mask wearing etc. These things have additional challenges at sea (it’s not a forgiving environment at the best of times!) and in confined boarding areas.

We discussed the COVID-related issues facing boat operators in a previous post. In particular we have to consider COVID safety in relation to first aid or in the unlikely event of an emergency – if someone has a heart attack or simply feels unwell and needs assistance in a boarding area or on a boat.

As the situation evolves over the summer months we may be able to look at a limited number of small group trips where we can put additional COVID measures in place but at the moment it’s too soon to know what we can do.

We’ve always tailored trips to groups and matched passengers to like-minded passengers. Logistics are harder in our COVID world so we’re looking at tailoring even more, focusing on smaller groups and offering trips that we didn’t have time to do before – different locations, even more exploring, more time with the wildlife. But right now we need to continue to limit the risk as best we can, which sadly precludes contact with groups beyond our household. We are sorry to disappoint but like so many people with immunosuppressed loved ones we just have to be very cautious at the moment.

In the meantime we’ll continue to practice to maintain our sea skills 🙂 .

Take care guys and continue to enjoy our wonderful outdoors.