ABERDEEN NEWS - A dream trans-Atlantic cruise holiday turned into something of a nightmare for Deon and Petro Hurter from Aberdeen when their ship was caught up in the worldwide coronavirus upheaval.
On 29 February, the Hurters flew to Buenos Aires, and after two days of sightseeing, they boarded the Costa Pacifica for their cruise.
After visiting a few South American ports, the ship set off from Maceió in Brazil on a six-day Atlantic crossing.
The planned stops were the Canary Islands, Malaga and Barcelona, where they would disembark and stay for a week before flying back to South Africa.
Four days into the ocean crossing, the ship received notice that due to fears of the coronavirus they could not dock in the Canaries, and then the same in Spain. Eventually they were allowed to dock in Marseilles, but the passengers could not disembark.
"This is when we started to hear stories that South Africa was going to close its borders and we would not be able to return home, and the airlines were also shutting down," said Deon, reliving their panic.
From Marseilles they sailed to Genoa in Italy, which was the epicentre of the virus at that stage. Deon explained that Argentinians (about 1 000) were allowed to disembark here as they had become violent.
Italy's borders were also closed. "What made matters worse was that we were docked right next to a ship which had been converted into a hospital for virus patients," said Deon. "A day later we again sailed to Civichiveccia, which is the port closest to Rome."
They spent three anxious days on board while the cruise company tried to arrange flights to repatriate all the foreign nationals.
On the third day an announcement was made for all South Africans to immediately get their luggage and report to the theatre, where they received their documents before disembarking and being rushed to Rome.
"We got our tickets inside and had to run like mad for the gate before they closed it - if we had been ten minutes later we would have been stuck," said Deon.
Theirs was the last flight out of Rome airport, and 250 passengers were left behind, of which 20 were South Africans. The last news the Hurters heard of them was that they were still stuck in Italy - a lucky escape for the Hurters indeed!
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