Like the legendary Flying Dutchman, cruise liners Koningsdam, Grand Princess and many others have been off the western coast of America for over two months, doomed to sail the oceans forever – or so it seems to their crews, desperate to get home.
Stigmatised as hot breeding grounds for the coronavirus, no one wants to let the cruise ships berth and allow the passengers to disembark.About 160 South Africans are among the crew on board the Koningsdam, which was, finally, to enter the Mexican port of Puerto Vallarta on Wednesday 20 May. Thirty-seven of the South Africans had transhipped from the Grand Princess at the weekend, ready to make a final push to dock and fly home. They have been at sea since February.
The 37 South Africans were not allowed to disembark. Part of the problem seems to be that they would have had to cross the US to Washington to catch the only South African repatriation flights leaving from there.on condition of anonymity, said the South Africans still don’t understand why they have not been allowed to disembark. They said there seemed to be considerable confusion over the US regulations relating to the pandemic.
“At the beginning of these 14 days, we received crew from other ships which were ‘green’ – healthy – who had volunteered to help feed us and help with garbage and other things while we were in quarantine,” added Brett. “We were all asking the question, why can’t we get tested, why can’t everyone get tested? And answers [from the ship’s management] were that there were not enough tests available and that tests were expensive. They gave us vitamins and we continued to do temperature checks when having dinner each night.”
“But upon questioning the human resources officers, we were told that nobody was confirmed to be flying home, but instead would be transshipped to another ship to sail home.”
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