No tourists, yet corona on Terschelling

The born islander Oene Spanjer has never seen it so quiet on Terschelling. He himself is Saturday, normally the busiest day of the week, but starts welding and sanding on his seal boat. Seals enough, but there are no tourists to see them. According to Spanjer, the rest should not last too long, because then the whole island will go bankrupt.

This weekend, the island was expecting thousands of hikers, hundreds of families at Easter and 50,000 visitors in June during the ten-day cultural festival Oerol. This Saturday, Terschelling would kick off the tourist season. But the hike has been canceled, the families skip Easter for a year and Oerol also has a line. Is the season for Terschelling over before it has started? Or do the tourists still find the island despite the call to stay at home?

Nowhere on the promenade in Harlingen, from where the boat leaves for Terschelling, does the familiar sound of screaming children and rolling suitcases sound. A screaming gull is the only eye-catcher in the otherwise deserted harbor town. She only sells about ten percent of the normal number of tickets, says a counter employee of Rederij Doeksen.

One of the crossers is Sjouke Siep who peers through his binoculars from the top deck on the boat, looking for seals and especially the Brandaris. “When I see that Terschelling lighthouse, I am at home,” says the Frisian who regularly visits the island but does not live there. He hesitated to make the crossing, but still did. “My son works on the island and you want to see it,” he says. “And, yes, I will hug them later, it is your family.”

When mailman Emile Planting looks up from his novel by Haruki Murakami, he hardly sees anyone on the ferry. Things have become quieter in recent weeks, Planting says. About forty people sail along on Saturday morning, mainly islanders. Since the coronavirus outbreak, which causes Covid-19 disease, there have been only two sailings daily. Planting has to hurry up with the mail delivery to get the only boat back to the mainland.

Quarantined on the island

It is quiet on the island. The shopping street is empty. Bicycle farmer Sjicco Stienstra, who normally rents hundreds of bicycles in one day, is “busy now if I lose two or three a day”. The hotel rooms of hotelier Kees de Lange in the center of West-Terschelling were all fully booked. How many rooms are now occupied? “Zero.” And coming Easter weekend? “Zero.” After Prime Minister Mark Rutte (VVD) announced the first corona measures in mid-March, his bookings were canceled massively, de Lange says.

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About eighty percent of the island is directly or indirectly dependent on tourism. And that income must be earned from now until the fall.

Seal Boat Spaniard: “I would have preferred that corona in October.” In addition to the seal tours, he also has two boats, a taxi company and a snack truck. “But everything has stopped overnight.” And now he ‘pisses’ everywhere, because his company does not meet the requirements for the national emergency package.

Fever measurements

But Spanjer would not be an entrepreneur if he had no solution: “Take fever measurements on the boat and allow some people on the island.” Because most visitors are still nature lovers, he says. “They will stay apart. There is plenty of room here. ”

Of course, the islanders are not waiting for the corona virus, they say. But they also fear the near future. How long will it take? And what if the coronavirus only breaks out on the island in the summer? Does everything stay closed all this time? Until now it is not forbidden to visit the Wadden Islands, but it is not recommended by the mayors.

What about the tourists, aren’t they there at all? At Paal 8, in a beach tent under construction, where the boards are still loose on the floor, Zwana de Vries and Marcel are secretly hidden in a corner. Rosé, blanket, cooler bag and a sun. “It’s wonderful here, really cozy,” says de Vries. They actually came for the Fjoertoer, but that walking tour has been canceled. After hearing that some islanders wanted tourists to stay away, they called the owner of their house. De Vries: “He said we could just come.”

They understand that according to “the calls” they should have stayed at home. That is why Marcel prefers not to appear in the newspaper with his surname either, “because of the possible reactions.” But they are “quarantined” on the island, go out into nature alone and have no contact with anyone. The island is desolate and deserted, says de Vries. “You don’t see anyone, it’s almost like being alone and there is something sad about it.”

A little further on, in the empty parking lot in front of Paal 8 is the snack car from Oene Spanjer. The shutters closed.

Puzzle boxes

In West-Terschelling, Corrie Plenter sorts puzzle boxes for her house. She sells the puzzles for one euro, “but more is allowed,” the sign says. “It’s for the church,” she says. The monthly flea market is canceled, let alone the church service, which is now broadcast on YouTube channel Terschelling TV.

Pastor Mathilde de Graaff has a chat with neighbor Jan van der Zee. He is concerned about corona. “We are afraid of people like you,” he told the reporter. “Are you far enough away from us?” According to van der Zee, there is a shortage of everything on the island: no transport or resources for patients, let alone a hospital. “And if we have to accommodate sick people in a sports hall, do we have enough beds?”

There is a helicopter for the Wadden Islands to transport corona patients. “But if it is occupied, it can be at the expense of another patient,” says Pastor de Graaff. And bouncing on the lifeboat bouncing over the sea to Harlingen is no fun for corona patients either.

That is why the minister calls on people not to come to the island now. “Everyone come as soon as Rutte says it is possible. Then we are in the harbor with open arms and we welcome everyone. ” But until then she holds her breath.

On Saturday evening Jon Hermans, who had been the acting mayor of the island for four days, came with the dreaded announcement: “The corona virus has been diagnosed in an elderly resident of Terschelling.”

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