At sea for nearly a month, a young couple finally realizes that world is combating COVID-19
Manchester/IBNS: Travelling far away in their boat, Elena Manighetti and Ryan Osborne from Manchester, UK, could only know about the severity of the COVID-19 outbreak recently.
Elena Manighetti and Ryan Osborne preferred to take the unique path in 2017 as they quit their jobs and bought a boat to travel around the world.
According to media reports, they even asked their family members to keep in touch with them but with one rule: no bad news.
Perhaps, this was one of the reasons why they could not realise the magnanimity of the highly infectious disease that has now left the world severely in trouble.
The couple, who lived in Manchester, were travelling across the Atlantic ocean from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean last month when, unbeknownst to them, a new and deadly coronavirus was spreading across the world, reported BBC.
With no communication with the outside world, staying on the sea for 25 days, the couple decided to dock on a small island in mid-March.
But upon getting phone signal while still off-shore, they discovered the island's borders were closed and found out the world had been suffering from a global pandemic they'd heard nothing about, reported BBC.
"In February we'd heard there was a virus in China, but with the limited information we had we figured by the time we got to the Caribbean in 25 days it would all be over," Elena told BBC.
"When we arrived we realised it wasn't over and the whole world had been infected," Ryan told the British media.
"We told our shore contacts we didn't want to hear any bad news, which was a difficult job as it was pretty bad news," says Elena, whose family is from Lombardy - the worst-hit region in Italy.
"We first attempted to land in one of the French territories in the Caribbean but when we arrived we found all the borders were closed and the islands were closing down," Ryan says.
"Even at that point we assumed it was a preventative measure due to the high season. We thought the islands didn't want to run the risk of a few tourists infecting the locals."
The couple diverted their boat to Grenada where their 4G was good enough to find out what was happening around the world.
"A friend of ours was already in Saint Vincent, which is where we were aiming to head. We managed to get in contact with her 10 hours before we were due to dock," Elena told BBC.
"She told us we were going to be refused entry as I'm an Italian citizen, even though I hadn't been to Italy in months," Elena says.
Luckily, the couple had been tracking their boat via a GPS signal. They were able to prove their travel history, which showed that not only had they not been to Italy in months, they had also been in isolation for 25 days at sea. They were finally able to stand on dry land, reports BBC.
The couple is currently staying in Saint Vincent.
"We don't want to leave Saint Vincent for now as nowhere is open," Elena told BBC. "We're sitting tight for the time being with the aim of getting out before hurricane season starts at the beginning of June."
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