They would end with a passage through the Panama Canal, island hop in the Caribbean and then disembark at Fort Lauderdale.ĭown in the holds, the quartermasters went over the stores for the long trip. T he cruise was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to visit the strait of Magellan, navigate the Beagle Channel, follow Darwin’s route, and then cruise up the west coast of South America for an excursion to relive the excitement of Hiram Bingham’s 1911 “ discovery” of Machu Picchu, high in the Peruvian Andes. Few passengers were monitoring the news channels that would have alerted them that on 8 March 2020, just 48 minutes before the Zaandam’s departure, the US state department posted a warning that was as unambiguous as it was unprecedented: “American citizens, especially with underlying conditions, should not travel by cruise ship.”Īboard the Zaandam, the musicians tuned their instruments. As last-minute preparations to leave were made, dancers limbered up, magicians rehearsed, members of an a cappella choir belted out tunes and a team of massage therapists were busy kneading away knots from the stress of life onshore. Aboard the Zaandam were 305 Americans, 295 Canadians, 105 French, 131 Australians and 229 UK citizens.Īs more than 1,200 guests and almost 600 crew settled in, the Zaandam became a buzzing community that included 10 decks, eight bars, two pools, a casino, a mini tennis court, an art gallery, a library and a performance hall with a capacity for 500. Their hopes of cruising with people from countries spared by this new deadly virus vanished. But they’d made it work, raising three children who’d given them nine grandchildren.Īs the couple boarded, they found that almost none of the passengers came from Argentina or South America. His mother was an immigrant from Bath, England his father was from the Netherlands. Juan, a soft-spoken accountant, was in many ways her opposite. She was an experienced psychologist, and gregarious, open to speaking her mind, making grand gestures. Claudia was a stickler for detail and liked to swim and cycle. She was steeped in the nearly 150-year history of the Holland America Line, for decades the industry leader in service and style, and known in its marketing materials as “the Spotless Fleet”.Ĭlaudia and Juan had been together for 42 years. Christened in May 2000, the Dutch-flagged vessel had the feel of an ocean liner of a bygone age. At the docks they spotted their ship, the MS Zaandam.
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