As our trip draws to a close (maybe) I can't help but look back at what an amazing time we had over the last twenty days. We left the port of Ushuaia at the tip of South America on Feb 28th, then sailed for the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and the remote Tristan da Cunha archipelago before ending in Cape Town. At the moment I can look outside through the fog and see the famous Table Mountain of Cape Town. But at this moment we have been denied entry into the port...so who knows how this Cape to Cape trip will end. Cape to cape to cape anyone?
Luckily we have been in Antarctica, then a quick turnover with new guests in Ushuai back in late Feb, before most of the outbreaks across Europe and the US occurred. So we have been traveling in a safe little bubble while we watch the rest of the world descend into a bit of chaos with the spread of the novel corona virus. Our first brush with it came as we approached Tristan da Cunha, and the islanders sent word that they would be refusing all cruise ships access to land anywhere on the islands. It made sense because the only town, Ediburgh of the Seven Seas has less than 300 citizens and most of them are elderly and far from emergency health care. So we ended up doing some amazing zodiac tours instead which worked out just fine.
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| Northern Rockhoppers |
It is a wild time to be stuck in limbo on a cruise ship. I feel very lucky that we are all healthy onboard, there are a few other ships of ours and like ours that do have infections onboard. They have isolated those showing symptons and are fighting hard to keep everyone else onboard. Even though we are all clear and have passed the accepted 14 day incubation period in isolation onboard, we are still running into the fear and blanket closures that countries are imposing on their ports of entrance.
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| Antarctic Tern |
We have done all of our farewell events and parties for the guests, so its a bit weird with everyone onboard wondering how much longer we will be here. I'm gathering ideas for lectures and events that we can offer for guests if we end up staying onboard for a while. While it is an auspicious end to the season it will definitely make for an interesting travel story for the rest of our lives.
With all this said...I just want to get home to my family. It is a similar story all around the world at the moment.
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