The coronavirus pandemic has inadvertently led to a Naval record.
Thursday marked 161 consecutive days at sea for the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and the USS San Jacinto. Both ships are currently in the North Arabian Sea and are not expected to stop over in any foreign country because of the pandemic. The aircraft carrier and cruiser are set to return to port in Virginia later this year.
Navy Capt. Kyle Higgins told ABC News that the new record “is not one that I think we really wanted but one that the circumstances of the world thrust upon us. And we embraced it with style.”
Vice Adm. Jim Malloy, the Navy’s 5th Fleet commander, ordered an end to port visits back in March as COVID-19 began to take hold and spread across the globe. The lack of port calls was an effort to prevent an outbreak similar to the one that occurred on the USS Theodore Roosevelt, in which more than 1,000 sailors tested positive for the coronavirus.
Some sailors aboard the ship have been left disappointed because of the lack of port calls and have had to find creative ways to entertain themselves while on the enormous vessels.
“This is my first ship as well as my first deployment,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Dionesha Simmons. “It’s a bit of a struggle just because I was looking forward to some of the port calls.”
Simmons said that some aboard the Eisenhower have started a tradition called “Waffle Saturdays” during which members cook brunch and give the ship’s cooks a break from their usual work. There have also been more “steel beach picnics” in which sailors barbecue on the deck of the ship and are permitted to wear civilian clothing.
Instead of making brackets for the March Madness college basketball tournament, sailors on the USS San Jacinto held a tournament, complete with a 64-person bracket, to see who could grow the ugliest mustache.
Both ships have planned celebrations for breaking the at-sea record.
“We’re kind of proud of the fact that we’re taking the record, but we’re going to blow it away,” said the USS San Jacinto commander, Capt. Edward Crossman.
Worldwide, there have been some 2.3 million cases of the virus and at least 122,000 confirmed deaths.
