Whitefish couples on ship denied entry due to virus

Two couples with Whitefish connections are stranded at sea outside the Panama Canal after their cruise ship, MS Marina, was denied entry at two South American ports due to mounting concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.

Jim and Connie Alderson, formerly of Whitefish, and Leif “Bart” and Carole Erickson, of Whitefish, boarded the ship Feb. 24 to celebrate the Aldersons’ 50th wedding anniversary.

Bart Erickson is a retired U.S. Magistrate who served as Flathead County District Judge for a decade before taking the Magistrate Judge position in Missoula in 1992. Jim Alderson is a former chief financial officer for North Valley Hospital and the whistleblower who successfully sued two of the nation’s largest hospital companies over widespread Medicare fraud.

The couples departed from Buenos Aires, Argentina, rounded the southern tip of the continent and continued northward, with plans to make a final dock in Lima, Peru. Back then, the spread of COVID-19 was in its early stages, with the vast majority of cases concentrated in China and only a handful of confirmed cases emerging in the United States.

“We felt safe going on the cruise,” Carole Erickson said in an interview with the Daily Inter Lake as she used the ship’s phone. “I didn’t feel that South America was impacted at all.”

But as the MS Marina began its journey around South America, they received news the spread of COVID-19 was getting worse back home and around the world, eventually reaching pandemic status in early March. By the time they rounded the bottom of the continent, rumors were flying about ports being closed in Argentina. It was then they began to worry.

“The biggest thing is the uncertainty,” Jim Alderson said. “Once we heard Argentina was closed, we were hoping to make it to Lima, Peru. We missed that by a matter of hours.”

Passengers watched the vessel turn around on screens showing the boat’s position as it was denied entry first in Argentina and again in Chile.

“When this first started happening, we felt totally lost out here — it was like nobody knew we were out here cruising around and had no port to go to — and that was a terrible feeling,” Carole recalled.

Some ships with confirmed cases have been denied entry or required to quarantine, but there have been no reported cases of the coronavirus board the MS Marina, she noted.

The MS Marina has approximately 1,200 passengers on board, plus another 800 crew members and staff. The ship was supposed to dock in Lima, Peru, on March 15, but rerouted to Panama after being turned away elsewhere. They wanted to get off the ship in Panama and fly home from Panama City, but were informed that wasn’t an option, either. Some of the elderly passengers were beginning to worry about running out of their medications, Carole said.

“I think people were trying everything they could to pull strings to allow us to get off,” Jim added.

After days of uncertainty, the passengers have finally received good news: a port in Miami will accept them.

Passengers will be able to disembark there and fly home.

“There was no mention that we would have to go into quarantine,” Carole said. “We’re hoping that it will go smoothly.”

They’re also hoping to be moved up in the line of ships waiting to travel through the Panama Canal. Vessels have to reserve their pass times far in advance, but given its human cargo, the MS Marina may be able to jump the line.

“They have indicated that they are hoping to move us up in the line because all of the other ships out here are tankers carrying supplies,” Erickson said, “We’re the only passenger ship sitting here trying to get through the canal.”

After they cross, it’s another two- to three-day journey to Miami.

While their adventure isn’t over yet, Carole said the sense of anxiousness on board has decreased significantly now that a plan and a port is in place.

In the meantime, passengers are allowed to take advantage of the ship’s offerings — many guests pass the hours poolside or walking on the deck, and happy hour still kicks off at 5 p.m.

“We’re getting pretty good at pinochle,” Jim added with a laugh.

Cruise-ship staff have ramped up cleaning efforts and have been instrumental is keeping morale high.

“They’ve been a major part of keeping everybody calm,” Erickson said. “There’s been no panic, you don’t see any unhappiness or anybody lashing out at anybody.”

Once the couples finally return home, they plan on self-quarantining just to be sure they don’t have the virus. And while they’ll eventually be back on familiar ground with people they love, the America they’re going back to is far different from the one the left in late February.

“When we get home, we’re coming back to a situation that has totally changed since we left, where the shelves are empty, where the streets are empty, where stores have shut down,” Carole said. ”Everybody has gone through this in stages … it’s going to hit us in the face. We’re going to probably be shocked by what we see.”

Reporter Mackenzie Reiss can be reached at mreiss@dailyinterlake.com or (406) 758-4433.