Jeff calls from the Diamond Princess cruise ship during quarantine to describe life trapped aboard: meals delivered to his cabin, limited balcony time, and growing anxiety about when he can go home. He's grateful for the crew but struggling with feeling confined.
Chapters
You try and stretch.
Stretch?
Trying to do something. For the stretch of the day, we try and stretch. No, well, you know what, they— like this morning, we're sleeping in a little bit and they knock at the door and there was a breakfast. There was juice, coffee, a breakfast sandwich. So, so we had that for breakfast. And you know, today we're moving slow, but I'm about to be able to This is a front balcony, so normally at sea I'm not allowed to use it. There's too much wind. You kind of— you walk around and try and— then you sleep again, and then lunch comes, and then you sleep again. You watch some TV, try to access—
Yeah, I know. Thankfully there's internet service. I really appreciate that.
And then you can stay in contact with some friends and family and And check out the news, stuff like that.
Yeah. And is it affecting your mental health? Do you think it's kind of affecting your mental health in any way so far?
Well, for some people it is. I, you know, I've seen some of the Facebook postings and some people pleading for help. They said, we have to get us off the ship. Please help us get off the ship. But I believe that we're in a good spot, not only for our health but for everybody else concerned, for the crew. And then where are we going to go for now? Yesterday I was feeling a little bit anxiety because you feel— you start to feel trapped after a while.
Yeah, but I had—
but having this and getting this fresh air, that takes it away pretty fast.
Okay, okay. I wish you all the best, Jeff, and just get home fast. As soon as you can. I mean, this is my prayers and you are always in my prayers and get home as fast as you can. I just hope, you know, this passes very soon.
Yes, hopefully in 14 days we are allowed to come home and not sure how we're going to do that yet. And I do want to thank the captain here and the crew for doing everything they can, the best they can do. Under these circumstances, we're we're being treated really well.
Okay, thank you so much, Jeff. I will keep in touch. Thank you. Thank you so much. Bye bye. I'll call you. Ronnie is going to call you. Okay, Ronnie will. Ronnie's come. He's going to call you. Bye bye.
