Sask. farm couple 'really missing home' after days being cooped up on coronavirus cruise ship
Kara and Mark Schiestel of Alameda, Sask., have been quarantined in their room for 4 days now
As the owners of a large organic grain and cattle farm near the town of Alameda, Sask., Kara and Mark Schiestel are used to roaming vast and wide open spaces.
But for the last four days, the couple has been cooped up inside their cramped, three-by-six-metre room aboard The Grand Princess.
That's the cruise ship on which 19 crew members and two passengers have become infected with COVID-19, the illness caused by novel coronavirus.
"We are doing good," Kara Schiestel said over Facebook Messenger when asked about their health Sunday afternoon.
Since Thursday, passengers have been confined to their rooms under a mandatory self-quarantine order while the ship idled off the coast of San Francisco.
"The time has given us time to reflect," Kara said. "We have a busy year of farming ahead of us and calving is just starting. Thankfully we have a great bunch of kids back home. The time alone with each other has proven that [Mark] is much better at cards than me."
While Kara has an underlying health condition that she believes makes her high-risk, she is staying positive.
"I'm a little worried cause you deal with a lot of staff regularly on a cruise," she said. "But I have faith everything will be OK."
The Schiestels, as well as another couple from Alameda who are also onboard, get updates from the Princess cruise line through a company Facebook page.
According to the latest Facebook post, the ship and its 3,500 passengers (including crew) will finally berth in Oakland, Calif., on Monday, though Kara said she remained unsure where she, Mark and the 235 other Canadian passengers will go after docking.
According to the ship's captain, guests who require acute medical treatment will be transported to health care facilities in California.
Healthy Californians will go into quarantine in-state, other U.S. residents will go to quarantines elsewhere and the crew will be quarantined and treated aboard the ship.
Late Sunday afternoon, Ottawa announced it had secured a plane to repatriate the Canadians aboard The Grand Princess.
"The plane will bring passengers from San Francisco to Canadian Forces Base Trenton [in Quinte West, Ont.], after which they will be assessed and undergo a 14-day quarantine," a statement from Global Affairs Canada read.
"At least we will be back in our homeland," Kara said of the plan.
Late afternoon Sunday, the captain of The Grand Princess allowed passengers to take a fresh air break on the deck.
"Masks have to be worn," Kara said.
A room with a (limited) view
Schiestel has been posting on Facebook about her quarantine experience — sharing, for example, a photo of the limited view outside her room.
"How life can change in a flash," she wrote on March 6, one day into the quarantine order.
"We are really missing home," she wrote earlier on Sunday.
'Really hope it doesn't get to them'
To pass the time, Kara and Mark are playing cards, taking turns on the room's one chair to alleviate stiffness and soreness, and messaging online with family.
Their eldest son, Taylor, has been chatting with them on Messenger.
"[Dad] struggles even staying in the house for more than a couple hours. So to be stuck on a ship for day after day in a room, I can only imagine," Taylor said.
Taylor, alongside his brother Brendon and some close family friends, is holding down the farm for a long stretch for the first time.
"There's definitely a lot of worry," Taylor said. "There's all the other cases [on the ship]. I just really hope it doesn't get to them and they don't catch it."
'Now I'm on the receiving end'
Arlene Schiestel, Mark's mother, has kept in touch with the couple too, via FaceTime.
"Mark was actually hesitant about going because by the 21st, things with this virus were starting to increase," Arlene said. "On the way to the plane, I said, 'As long as you have a good, strong immune system, you'll be fine.' So off they went."
Since then, on March 6, the Public Health Agency of Canada has advised Canadians to "think twice" about going on a cruise, given the ease with which viruses can spread onboard ships.
The Grand Princess left San Francisco for a 15-day cruise on Feb. 21, visited the Hawaiian Islands but then skipped a stop to Mexico once coronavirus cases were confirmed onboard.
Kara is a Red Cross volunteer. She turned down a request to be deployed to Cornwall, Ont. — where passengers from another Princess cruise ship were quarantined for two weeks over similar coronavirus concerns — in order to go on the cruise.
"I spend every day helping others, whether family or strangers, and now I'm on the receiving end," she said.
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with files from The Associated Press