OH WOW....
I happened to be right off the coast of an island (Isla Cangrejos). Makes me wonder if it is wise to disable a flag ship so close to a coast.
Thank you for your help. I will try the live talk asap.
Just did the live chat. They told me it IS a known bug, and they are working on it. I had to send in the bug report, so they can keep track of how many players have the problem.