Traveling Divers are Quarantined

COVID seems to be hitting scuba divers hard, especially those who take liveaboards. It's not a problem unique to traveling divers. The U.S. State Department has warned travelers to make contingency plans and prepare for testing and possible quarantine requirements of both the U.S. and foreign governments. And to get COVID insurance.

We received reports from several of our readers who have encountered COVID problems on their dive trips that we'd like to share:

Quarantined But No Place to Go

John Morgan (Phoenix, AZ) discovered that it was obligatory to buy COVID insurance as part of the Health Visa on entering the Bahamas. His Christmas trip on the liveaboard AquaCat (we wrote about their problems in the January issue) was spoiled when the COVID infection managed to get through, despite everyone involved being vaccinated.

The problem was exacerbated when it became apparent that the Bahamas authorities had made no provision for the accommodation of quarantined foreigners. And Nassau hotels were reluctant to take anyone who might be infected. In the last issue, we wrote erroneously that the passengers had been put up at Small Hope Bay; John told us that he and the other AquaCat passengers ended up in a house owned by a friend of the AquaCat owner, with only beds for half the number of guests. Some had to make do with sofas and armchairs, which was less than optimal.

Morgan said, "We boarded Saturday, and I started showing symptoms Tuesday night. They say the Omicron [variant] has a fairly short incubation. I probably got it from a fellow diver or crew member shortly after I boarded. After all, none of us were wearing masks, and we were eating pretty close together at the tables every meal. The chef was one of the two people to test positive on Wednesday. I am very glad I had been vaccinated and boosted. I'm convinced it made my symptoms mild and the recovery quick. Being sick and stuck in [another] country is no fun."

Steve Maguire (Dayton, OH) was more philosophical about his enforced extra vacation in January. He and his sister arrived in the Maldives, intending to have a couple of days acclimatizing on land before joining the Maldives Aggressor.

They had a great trip; however, two of the passengers later tested positive for COVID and were isolated in a hotel. The rest were left to "go on their merry way," but his sister had a positive PCR test (despite being fully vaccinated) before they were due to fly out. She was required to quarantine under Maldivian rules and was a "bit bummed out" by the room time, but Steve tested negative and was allowed to wander. While many people required to quarantine end up in unpleasant government facilities, 'hunkered down' in a hotel on Hulhumale, an island in the Maldives, and appeared to be enjoying a good time because it was 84°F, while Ohio was enjoying a less equitable 10°F. Still, it cost him an extra $1,500 for accommodations and $450 each in rebooking fees.

As an aside, he mentioned, "Tests in Hulhumale were less than $50, while the Aggressor was charging $100 each."

McGuire said that if one has a positive text onboard the Aggressor, the staff would probably try get to them to a hotel that would accept them. If a second test showed positive, the hope is that person could quarantine at the hotel, not an undesirable government facility.

At the beginning of January, Chuck Kerl (Tucson, AZ) and his wife traveled to Turneffe Flats Lodge, Belize. "The Lodge follows strict Belize requirements - all guests must be vaccinated, tested, and so on, and staff all vaccinated and masked. The country required proof of vaccination and a negative COVID test within 96 hours of landing in Belize, but on the second day, a dive guest ran a fever and tested positive the next morning.

"They moved the guest to the Lodge's isolation quarters, where he remained alone the rest of the week. They brought meals to his porch. My spouse and I were very impressed with the way the lodge managers handled the infection."

Captain Michael Mashack (Bronx, NY) and his partner got stuck in St. Kitts for extra 12 days after testing positive for COVID when attempting to fly out on December 17. "We were fortunate to be at the Marriott in Frigates Bay and were moved to the farthest corner of the resort, still under construction. The cost of our extended stay was at no charge." He said he thought of Julian Assange and Carlos Gosh while under house arrest. "Twelve days in paradise, stuck in a room."

Tripp Jones (Columbia, SC), a long-time Undercurrent correspondent who always seems to be diving with his dive shop friends at Wateree Dive Center, this time was with 42 divers for a week in Bonaire. By the fourth day, one person tested positive, and all were instructed to return to their rooms and stay there. Ultimately, 11 tested positive, and none had a clue how they were first infected. Those who tested negative had to stay an extra five days in quarantine. He says, "The hoops to jump through before, during, and on the day of departure were a challenge. We lost two days of diving, but all in all, it was a good trip. We want to return, but wow! - it was a hassle. I would recommend everyone have really good travel insurance."

Brad Chatellier (Portland, OR) and his fiancée were "super disappointed" when they went to Cozumel at the end of January expecting to take technical diving courses. They had COVID symptoms at the end of their first day and had to forfeit the rest of the first course. They endured 10 days of quarantine in the Airbnb they had rented, but with plentiful food delivery services. "The symptoms peaked 36-48 hours in and then receded, fortunately."

Aggressor Tales

Liveaboards are the proverbial Petrie dishes for a coronavirus. Because the Aggressor has several boats in operation, they're providing a lot of COVID cases, which they don't seem to handle well. Several divers told Undercurrent they were dissatisfied with their handling of an outbreak on the Maldives Aggressor II (locally known as the MY Mistral) in December. Andrew Jevremovic (Philadelphia, PA) said, "Sadly, this was a costly trip that left me sick, quarantined from my family, and worried I might have infected them."

A British passenger on board wrote that his wife tested positive for COVID on board, with two other women, and they were immediately transferred to the Fun Island quarantine resort. It appears that the other passengers were not informed and were told they had left for an early departure. "It became apparent to all that there had been a deliberate deception to isolate the boat from any link to a positive COVID test, placing many people at risk of exposure to COVID. This would have been intensified not only by the other guests leaving the boat and traveling home by airplane - coming into contact with airport employees and fellow travelers - but it also exposed guests and staff at the Eleven Trees hotel and taxi drivers used for transport around Hulhumale." (He has now ceased trying to get a response from Aggressor Adventures.)

Nancy Boore (Frederick, MD) had to quarantine after a seven-day trip with Turks & Caicos Aggressor in mid-January. At the end of the trip, "three of us tested positive for COVID. We all had negative tests before the trip but weren't tested when we got on board or at any time during the trip. Our temperatures were taken once when we first got on board. (On the Roatan Aggressor, it was taken every morning, and the crew would hunt you down to make sure they got it.)

"In retrospect, because three of us came up positive (all asymptomatic), all passengers and crew should have been required to mask up, and social distance to reduce or prevent further transmission and exposure. But instead, those who tested negative were allowed to go into town to shop and later to have dinner. The standard Aggressor Friday night cocktail party still took place.

"I have since found out that after arriving home some of the previously negative passengers got tested after starting to feel ill (cough, aches, fatigue) and were then tested positive. The three of us who tested positive had to leave the boat and secure other accommodations.

"The Turks & Caicos Aggressor land agent told the three of us who tested positive that since we were vaccinated, our quarantine would be five days. . . . However, the quarantine was 10 days, starting the day after the positive test (not the day of), and if you were vaccinated and boosted, you could take an antigen test on day five and every day up until the 10th day."

Their Money or Your Health?

You don't need to be vaccinated or supply a negative test to enter Mexico. So when a group of Europeans booked on Aggressor liveaboard trip to Socorro, Mexico, late last year, some members thought it would be a good idea to take a supply of COVID antigen tests with them. (They are supplied free-of-charge by the NHS and routinely used in the UK.) They were happy to provide the tests free to the other passengers, recognizing it was to everyone's advantage to know if one of them was infected.

Rene Cote (Richmond, VA), a subscriber to Undercurrent who was aboard for that trip, offered some insight into what he considered to be "irresponsibility and outright insanity."

"Despite the operator not insisting the crew was fully vaccinated, the crew were happy to oblige with tests, as were many of the passengers, but the Europeans were astounded to discover some of the American guests were reluctant to take a test before they left port. Some pretended to take a swab in the privacy of their cabins (throwing the test sets in the garbage), while others were more vocal in their protests.

The Europeans suggested the passengers and crew take another test halfway through the trip. Some did. Others cheated by simply tipping the test fluid in the test cartridge without swabbing their noses, seeing it as an infringement of their rights. Some thought that the pandemic was nothing more than an invented conspiracy to which they would not subscribe. None wanted to jeopardize the cost of their trip by providing a positive COVID result. The cost of the trip was more important to them than the health of their fellow passengers.

Rene says, "I don't know why those divers took issue with taking a test. People can be asymptomatic and pass on the virus to others. That's simply a fact. It's not a matter of personal choice whether you expose others to a potentially deadly virus; it's socially irresponsible not to take steps to reduce the risk of that happening."

To add insult to injury, some American passengers later complained to Aggressor Adventures about the European who handed out COVID tests; he then received this admonishment from the Aggressor Fleet.

"One of the guests during the trip contacted Aggressor Adventures with a major concern and complaint. It stated that you insisted that all passengers and crew take a rapid COVID test that you brought on board at your own expense, and you asked all to do it before departure and once again mid-trip. I have been informed by HQ that this is not acceptable, and we have informed every destination that it will not be tolerated in the future.

"Being vaccinated is a highly personal choice that we would never impose on any staff or guest. For those who choose to travel without being vaccinated, it is a matter of personal choice and personal responsibility for their own well-being."

Of course, the personal choice argument ignores the science that an unvaccinated person is three to five times more likely than a vaccinated person to become infected with the Omicron variant. Therefore, they're a much more significant risk to infect others. To argue otherwise ignores and denigrates the well-being of those with whom an unvaccinated infected person comes in contact. Still, these folks are allowed to put themselves into the confines of a liveaboard with a couple of dozen strangers, with no willingness from the Aggressor manager simply to check if they carry a deadly virus. Nope. Let Typhoid Mary do whatever she wants. She has her rights.

As divers, we think it's incumbent upon our liveaboards and resorts to do what they reasonably can to protect their paid passengers and guests from contracting the deadly COVID disease. If they won't as much as insist upon easy test, they're no friends of ours.

If contracting COVID concerns you, Tom Gebhardt's message will assure you that you won't be comfortable, safe, or protected on an Aggressor craft.

- Ben Davison

P.S.: I wonder if the Americans who refused to take the COVID test swab on the Aggressor would find the following unacceptable as well:

"The majority of U.S. states still have laws on the books that criminalize exposing other people to HIV. Whether or not the virus is transmitted does not matter. Neither does a person's intention to cause harm. A person simply must be aware of being HIV-positive to be found guilty."

Robin Lennon-Dearing, US News and World Report, September 22, 2022