Dutch students sail home across the Atlantic due to coronavirus

Record ID: 1538689

  • Title: Dutch students sail home across the Atlantic due to coronavirus
  • Date: 26th April 2020
  • Summary: HARLINGEN, NETHERLANDS (APRIL 26, 2020) (REUTERS) STUDENTS HUGGING ON BOARD SHIP STUDENTS STANDING IN A LINE ON BOW OF SHIP AS IT LIES DOCKED STUDENTS POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPH BANNER ON SHIP CREW MEMBERS MOORING SHIP FAMILIES WAITING (SOUNDBITE) (English) BIOLOGY TEACHER WHO RETURNED ON THE WYLDE SWAN, SARA VERHEIJEN, SAYING: "I was planning to marry next month (LAUGHING) but I think that's not gonna happen. Yeah, yeah, I don't know, I will see. I think that's what most children learned here onboard, that the plans change all the time. They got a hat with 'subject to change' (written) on it. And they also say, 'when I'm home, I will see what's coming.'"
  • Embargoed: 10th May 2020 15:50
  • Keywords: Atlantic journey COVID-19 Dutch students returning home on ship Wylde Swan coronavirus flights cancelled sailing vessel schooner
  • Location: HARLINGEN, NETHERLANDS / AT SEA
  • City: HARLINGEN, NETHERLANDS / AT SEA
  • Country: Netherlands
  • Topics: Health/Medicine
  • Reuters ID: LVA006CB4O18N
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: SHOT 6 CONTAINS PROFANE WRITING ON BANNER
    A group of 25 Dutch high school students arrived back in the Netherlands in a two-mast schooner on Sunday (April 26), after airline restrictions left them with little choice but to help sail it home from the Caribbean.
    The group, aged 14-17, had been halfway through a six week sail-study program in the region on board the "Wylde Swan", which was built in 1920. But by mid-March, it appeared they could no longer fly home from Cuba as planned.
    Organizers decided the ship, including 12 experienced sailors and three teachers, would have to sail back across the Atlantic, a 7,000 kilometre trip that took them five weeks.
    With social distancing rules and bans on public gatherings in place in the Netherlands, the students departed the ship one by one in the port of Harlingen, where parents waited in cars to pick them up.
    (Production: Esther Verkaik, Peter Brownlie, Kristian Brunse)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2020. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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