Darren Maule chats to super yacht stewardess stuck in Doha
Chelsea Williams, a chief stewardess on a yacht in Auckland, New Zealand, had her life turned upside down when she was told she had to take the first flight home due to Covid-19.
In a candid interview, the 27-year-old from Durban North told Darren Maule where it all began.
"We were all pretty secure in our jobs. We heard of people in the industry starting to lose their jobs and owners wanting them to go back home. Thinking that we were going to be okay, we had a great weekend and arrived Monday morning for work, and then we got the news," said Williams.
Williams, along with her crew mates, were told they are being let go temporarily. Once the pandemic is over, they will be able to return to work.
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"We got the news on Monday, 23 March and two days later was the lockdown," she said. Worriedly, Williams and other South Africans scrambled to a travel agent to try and get a flight back to SA.
Spending about 45 minutes with the travel agent, she finally found a flight from Auckland to Durban. She felt an uneasiness about everything, because her domestic flight from Johannesburg to Durban had been cancelled.
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On the day of the flight, she checked in and received her first boarding pass, but there was a lot of back and forth from one agent to the next. She wasn't able to get her second boarding pass. Williams was told she will receive it when she arrives in Doha.
Without much of a choice, Williams boarded the flight to Doha.
To find out what happened next, listen here: