In all honesty, says Metchosin鈥檚 David Kirkham, there are worse places to be trapped than a cruise ship off the coast of South America.
There has been no sign of COVID-19 aboard Holland America鈥檚 MS Zaandam. While the ship wasn鈥檛 allowed to dock at Valparaiso, Chile, on Friday, it did take on fuel and provisions. As it sails north for who-knows-where, David and wife Norma feel pretty fortunate.
鈥淥ur philosophy is 鈥榖etter to be on a ship that has no disease than to go on land and risk being exposed鈥�,鈥� David said.
Other 91原创s on other vessels aren鈥檛 so lucky. The Kirkhams are among what Ottawa says are up to 4,000 citizens on 70 cruise ships around the world. Their future is uncertain as port after port refuses access, borders are closed and flights are grounded.
Cruise-ship passengers aren鈥檛 the only ones wondering how they鈥檒l get back to Canada, of course. There are those like Victoria鈥檚 Chris and Jenny Foord, on Roatan Island off the coast of Honduras.
They spend a couple of months there every year. It鈥檚 a lovely place to be self-isolated, Chris said, but it鈥檚 hard not knowing when they鈥檒l be able to return to 91原创 Island.
鈥淲e are safe, well stocked with food but completely in limbo about when we can get home,鈥� he wrote Friday. 鈥淲e have a WestJet ticket for March 29, but WestJet has cancelled all flights for a month.
鈥淲e have a ticket on United for March 27 to go to Houston and 91原创, but don鈥檛 know if United will be flying into Roatan next week. We could also get stranded in Houston for awhile with airlines cancelling flights and borders closing down. ... If we do not get out next week then we will probably be here for the next month or more.鈥�
Chris praised the Honduran government鈥檚 aggressive approach to the virus. Everything has shut down other than food stores, pharmacies and clinics.
An 8 p.m. curfew is in effect. Communications from the government are excellent. But no, this is not the trip they had planned.
Nor is it what the Kirkhams, who are retired, had in mind when they left Buenos Aires on March 7 on what was to be a month-long cruise. The Zaandam, carrying 1,256 passengers and 585 crew, was to round the tip of South America before working its way up the west coast, sailing through the Panama Canal and arriving in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on April 7.
All was fine until they left Punta Arenas, Chile, on March 14. Their next destination, in Argentina, didn鈥檛 want them to land. Nor did anywhere else. After Friday鈥檚 reprovisioning, their captain鈥檚 plan was to keep heading north.
鈥淚 guess we鈥檙e a ship at sea without a friendly port,鈥� David said.
It鈥檚 a weird sort of limbo. They have plenty of food. Holland America has provided free phone service. The first happy-hour drink is full price but the second is $2. The Kirkhams have supper with a couple from Sooke each evening.
Several people from Nanaimo are on board, too. David tries to walk several mile-long laps around Deck Three each day. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no serious angst that I can see,鈥� he says.
It鈥檚 just that they have no idea where they鈥檙e going. The odds might be on Fort Lauderdale, from where they are supposed to fly home April 7.
That would leave them in better shape than others. On Friday, 91原创 Press reported that 70 91原创s were trying to figure out how to get home from Atlanta, Georgia, where they had been flown on a U.S. repatriation flight after being taken off a cruise ship in France.
And they were better off than the 340 91原创s aboard the Norwegian Jewel, which has been turned away by Fiji, French Polynesia, New Zealand and Hawaii.
Then there are those who are back in Canada, but still waiting to get home.
On March 10, the federal government chartered a plane and flew 228 91原创s, passengers on Princess Cruises鈥� COVID-struck Grand Princess, from California to Trenton, Ont., where they were put in a two-week quarantine at a military base.
Among those passengers was Brian Losie, who wrote the Times 91原创 with concerns about what will happen when those passengers are freed from their quarantine. They have been well-treated at Trenton, he wrote, but no one seems able to offer assurances that, once sprung, they will be protected from the virus while journeying to where they actually live. For example, will there be medical screening, or seat assignments made in accordance with social distancing?
All of which might lead the rest of us, cooped up in our homes, to ask: Where would we rather be?
