25 Dutch high school students arrived on a sailing ship yesterday, after a deadly adventure across the Atlantic. The halting of flights due to the Corona virus left the students no choice but to take a sea to return to their country from the Caribbean.
The group, whose members ranged between 14 and 17 years old, was in the middle of a study program in the region aboard the "Wild Swan" ship that was built in 1920, but by mid-March, it became clear to them that they would not be able to return to their country by air from Cuba as scheduled. .
The organizers decided that the students sail back home aboard the ship, accompanied by 12 experienced sailors and three teachers, across the Atlantic Ocean, on a journey of 7,000 kilometers, which took five weeks.
"You had to learn to cope with the situation because you really don't have any other choice," student Anna Marja said in a video interview published in the media.
Under the rules of social separation, and restrictions on gatherings, in force in the Netherlands, students left the ship, one after the other, at the port of Harlingen, where their parents were waiting in cars to pick them up.
And provide the ship's passengers with their needs before crossing the Atlantic. During their next stop in the Azores, off the coast of Portugal, local authorities refused to allow them to disembark.