Bahamas defense force to investigate sv delos

[Bahama ras]

Woke up to see this post this morning, any thoughts?
https://ewnews.com/rbdf-probing-reports-of-couple-isolating-on-uninhabited-bahamian-island

[denverd0n]

What's to think? If they are violating Bahamian law, then they will probably end up getting caught, fined, arrested, whatever. Don't do the crime if you can't do the time. If they are not, then it's no big deal.

[Chotu]

Good. They also broadcast themselves poaching lobsters on the BBC.

Portrayed it as they are victims stuck in an uninhabited place and in danger from hurricanes.

Anything to get views/hits and get paid.

[Chotu]

https://m.facebook.com/watch/?v=251640432819111&_rdr

[SVHarmonie]

When you are a special snowflake the rules don't apply to you. Rules are for chumps.

A lot of cruisers followed the rules, and stayed put in the Bahamas as they were requested to do. It only takes a few flouting the rules to give everybody a bad reputation.

[sailormed]

My understanding is that they "stayed put" in that specific island, didn't hide, went to pick up essential items they ordered on the island next and are not cruising from island to island as this was/is not allowed.

[S/V Adeline]

If I read the story correctly, they were there legally and when the lockdown orders were issued they stayed where they were at...I really don't see a problem here.
All over the world there are sailors *stuck* wherever they happened to be when this lockdown occurred. Overwhelming majority screams they should stay put....why would Delos be different?

[jmh2002]

Originally Posted by Chotu

https://m.facebook.com/watch/?v=251640432819111&_rdr

I clicked through and got this link in the end, with a 3 minute video:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08...EXlHyweNm80s8c

[Nahbrown]

We did in fact legally clear into the Bahamas through Customs and Immigration and were provided a cruising permit for our boat and fishing permit, as well as paid all our fees required for checking in,” he said.
“Since the lockdown order came into place we have observed the notices by sheltering in place.
“We are very passionate about conservation and following the laws and guidelines set out by The Bahamas government, and go out of our way to support marine conservation initiatives. “
He further explained that the content for their videos is filmed weeks in advance, so the footage shown during the interview was filmed in February and March prior to the lobster season-ending.

Trautman noted that it is understandable how easy it is to mistake that everything filmed is current, however, he sought to assure that they are not breaking or flaunting The Bahamas’ rules while the rest of the country is on lockdown.






https://ewnews.com/sailing-vloggers-...ahamian-waters

[jimbojonesbos]

If you have ever met Brian from delos you know this is not a person who flouts the law. And certainly not someone who would be poaching.

This nonsense is what happens when people think YouTube videos are in real time.

[Rubicon King]

Agree with the post above. They are not the type to do the illegal stuff, (less a little Mary Jane). Time warps on videos can be confusing as he illustrated. Delos is one channel that we do watch, as so many others are either T&A, political, or just not that interesting. Childress is also another good learning channel FWIW.

My 2 centavos

[joelhemington]

Do the Bahamians really have time for a witch hunt? From the comments I've read there are a few down there that just don't like foreigners - maybe you all should just plan to skip the Bahamas for the next few sailing seasons and see how they like that. :banghead

It appears that Delos has complied with all immigration and fishing permits - the only question is, should they have returned to the US when the pandemic first began? Given the situation, I'd say Brian and Karin handled it well.

[Oohla]

I am basically clueless on social media, but do any of you perceive a little schadenfreude in all of this?


Discussions of YouTube Celebrities on this forum seem too often to be unfavorable, and to me seems just another undeserved attack on that quaint notion some used to call freedom of speech. Of course putting oneself in the public eye invites this. Don't we create heroes in order to cut them down to size?

[a64pilot]

I’m sure someone complained, and the Bahamian Government did the responsible thing, they investigated the complaint. Publishing it may actually deter others from entering illegally.
I was there during a lot of the lockdown, to begin with you couldn’t really leave, as no inter island travel was allowed, so your on the bank headed home, sure looks like inter island travel doesn’t it?
I can also tell you that many boaters were flagrantly ignoring regulations. One person we met was going home, island hopping, you see they were traveling with others and they had a dog, and you know the dog HAS to go to the beach a couple of times a day, so in their mind they were exempt, cause the other boat had a dog. So they were island hopping, but said it was OK cause they were social distancing.
Then when we were leaving we passed a big Cat coming from Nassau, they contacted us on the radio and said they had heard the Exuma’s didn’t have any virus cases, we answered that we didn’t think they did, his response was “good we will go there then”.

So you have a case of many people who I guess feel entitled, who believe rules don’t apply to them, and a Country that really doesn’t have the resources to really police them either.

But other than the mass of disinformation that came form different agencies while we were there, I never heard of a single instance of a cruiser being mistreated or locked up etc, but did hear of a few instances where maybe they should have.
We left the day we got an Email from the US Embassy that explained the rules on leaving, first time we could get anything from anyone in writing.
They day we left we passed a boat that was inbound to where we left, they said they needed supplies to make it home. They didn’t go ashore but paid a local to deliver groceries to the dinghy dock and left.
The Cruisers in the anchorage demanded them to not leave, and even apparently called the Defense Force to have them arrested.

So maybe their Government was disorganized and sent out a lot of confusing information, I never heard of a Cruiser who was mistreated, even when his fellow Cruisers turned him into be arrested.
I am going to assume that maybe coming from British background is why, but the Bahamian people and RBDF, Customs etc seem to be a very polite group, and put up with far more crap from entitled people than they should.
If they even give you an ugly look, you did something to deserve it. I’m sure that’s not always the case of course, but on average they are so unbelievingly polite as compared to a US CBP agent for example.

[burtonridr]

I've thought a few times how cool it would be to have a youtube following like SV Delos, get paid to make great videos and sail around. Whats not to love, sounds great no?


Then I see stuff like this and remember why I would rather not put my life in the spotlight. No thank you, I would much rather keep my fun stories to be shared with people I meet and know