コロナで帰国便なし…自力で大西洋横断、両親と再会　アルゼンチン

【マルデルプラタＡＦＰ＝時事】「任務完了！」──小さな帆船でアルゼンチンに到着した船乗りのフアン・マヌエル・バレステロさん（47）は思わず叫んだ。（写真は父カルロスさん〈左〉と再会したバレステロさん）
　「やった、やった、やったぞ！」。先週、故郷のマルデルプラタに到着した瞬間、バレステロさんは波止場で大声を上げた。
　普段はスペインで働くバレステロさんだが、新型コロナウイルスのパンデミック（世界的な大流行）の最中、年老いた両親に会いたいと帰国を思い立った。しかし、ウイルス流行の影響で空の便は無く、ポルトガルから単独、大西洋を渡ることを決意した。
　バレステロさんは全長約９メートルの小型船「スクア」号に乗り、総距離１万２０００キロ、８５日間の旅を完遂した。ブラジルのビトリアまではどこにも寄らず、最後の寄港地はウルグアイのラパロマだった。
　到着後の新型ウイルス検査で陰性が確認され、上陸を許可されたバレステロさんは、母ニルダさん（８２）、父カルロスさん（９０）と再会。
　バレステロさんは当初、カルロスさんの９０歳の誕生日だった５月１５日までにアルゼンチンに着きたかったという。予定より遅れてしまったが、６月２１日の父の日は家族と一緒に過ごすことができた。
　大航海を終えたバレステロさんは、ＡＦＰの取材に対し「とにかく家族と会いたかった。だからやって来たんだ」と話した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/06/24-13:11）

Mission accomplished! That joyful declaration came from Juan Manuel Ballestero, an Argentine sailor who, unable to fly home from Portugal due to the pandemic, crossed the ocean alone in his modest sailboat to see his aging parents.
I did it! I did it! I did it! Ballestero exclaimed at dockside last week when he reached his hometown of Mar del Plata.
The 47-year-old had completed an exhausting 85-day odyssey in his small boat, the nine-meter (30-foot) Skua.
After testing negative for COVID-19 on arrival, Ballestero was cleared to set foot on dry land to see his mother 82-year-old Nilda and father Carlos, aged 90.
I've achieved what I've been fighting for these last three months, he told AFP. It came down to this: to be with the family. That's why I came.
He had hoped to arrive in Argentina by May 15, for his father's 90th birthday.
He missed that date, but instead was able to celebrate Father's Day with his family.
Ballestero, who works in Spain, hatched his ambitious plan for a single-handed sea passage after flights back to Argentina were canceled because of the pandemic.
He learned during the long trip home that people were dying every day, by the thousands, a jarring realization at a time when he was in the middle of nature, seeing how the world goes on.
There were dolphins and whales... even as humanity was passing through this difficult moment.
For 54 long days, his family had no word from him.
But we knew he was going to come, said a smiling Carlos. We had no doubt. He was coming to Mar del Plata to be with his parents.
The coronavirus has claimed 1,000 lives in Argentina, many of them elderly people like Carlos and his wife.
The younger Ballestero's first stop on the 12,000-kilometer (7,200-mile) trip was at Vitoria, Brazil; the last one before arrival was in La Paloma, Uruguay.
The Skua now sits docked at the Mar del Plata nautical club, and probably won't be leaving soon. Ballestero has no immediate travel plans.