In 2017, the couple left their perfectly fine lives in Manchester, their jobs, families and friends, bought a boat and set off to conquer the world.
In March 2020, Italy became the epicentre of the pandemic and the nation with the highest number of deaths, surpassing the figure in China, from where the virus is believed to have originated. The country ran out of hospital rooms, coffins, cemetery spaces and cremation ground. The government was left helpless, with at least a few deaths every minute and no vaccine soon on the way.
Ironically, Elena, an Italian, was out in the Atlantic Ocean, without an inkling of the tragedy that her country is undergoing. Instead, she was looking back to the fun times they had in Canary and further anticipating their stay in the Caribbean, which was where they were heading towards.
It was in mid-March that they decided to dock on a small island, after 25 days at sea. As soon as they got little connectivity, they kept up with the world and learned about the chaotic state due to some kind of virus.
Elena mentioned that they were not fully unaware of the state. They did hear about a virus emanating somewhere in China, just before they left the Canary Islands, but never assumed that the world was in for a pandemic. With little or no communication with their people and the world, they had no idea that the virus was spreading across nations, and went on with their gallivanting, fully assured that everything would be fine by the time they reached the Caribbean.
Fear crept in when they were informed that the borders were sealed and were refused entrance to a French territory because the island was closing down. They diverted towards Grenada, hit an area with agreeable 4G connectivity and learned the shocking news of how the virus, which they had ignored was swallowing up thousands of people throughout the world, with Lombardy, Elena’s town, being one of the worst affected places.
They decided to turn their boat for Saint Vincent and got in touch with a friend, 10 hours before they were supposed to dock, who warned them that they would most probably be refused entrance, as Elena is an Italian. However, they were allowed to land after they showed their travel history, of how she had not been in Italy for months and also how she and her partner had been in complete isolation for 25 days in the sea.
Elena called up her family in Lombardy, who had not said a word all those days about the pandemic, because the couple had warned their people not to intrude and ruin their exploration with any sort of bad news, whatsoever.
Fortunately, her family assured her of their safety but conveyed news of friends who had succumbed to the pandemic.
At the moment, the couple is at Bequia, Saint Vincent, worried sick about how long they have to stay cooped up in the place. For one reason, they do not want to leave the place, as no other will grant them entrance. But, on the other hand, they wish to flee Saint Vincent as soon as possible, before the season of hurricane strike in. They wish to carry on with the journey that they had set out for. After all, they left their livelihood for that very reason. But there is nothing that they can do at the moment, except wait for time to unfurl their destiny.
They are indeed sandwiched between the virus and the hurricane as stated by Elena Manighetti.