A group of 25 Dutch high school students arrived back in the Netherlands in a two-mast schooner on Sunday, after airline restrictions left them with little choice but to help sail it home from the Caribbean.
Dutch students arrive on a tallship after sailing back from Cuba instead of flying due to the coronavirus disease outbreak, in Harlingen, Netherlands, April 26, 2020. REUTERS/Eva Plevier
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. “My first thought was: how am I going to do this with the clothes I have, and is there enough food on board?” They had stocked up on supplies, including clothes, on the island of Saint Lucia before the Atlantic crossing. Students had packed for tropical weather, not a deep-sea voyage.
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