TORONTO -- Jack Peake’s son, currently on a cruise ship anchored off the coast of Florida, has not stepped foot on land in nearly two months. With Canadian and American ports currently closed to ships, he and many other Canadian crew members scattered on ships around the world are still waiting to come home.

According to Peake, crew members on his son’s ship, the Emerald Princess, have been told they are awaiting clearance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Protection and the American Coast Guard to allow them to land at an American or nearby foreign port and take flights home, but no timeline has been set. 

“For us, it’s concerning now that they can’t seem to figure out how to get him home,” said Peake.

The CDC issued a “No Sail Order” for all cruise ships last month, meaning all cruise ship operations were suspended from U.S. ports of call. Earlier this month, the CDC said there were 100 cruise ships anchored off the East, West and Gulf coasts with nearly 80,000 crew on board, and 20 ships at port or anchorage in the U.S. with known or suspected COVID-19 infections among the crew.

There are currently 11 cruise ships docked or anchored off the coast of Florida carrying Canadian crew. According to Peake, the crew on the ships that his son was aboard have been quarantined and cleared of infection.

The Canadian government has already helped repatriate hundreds of Canadian cruise passengers, including more than 240 who were aboard the Zaandam ship earlier this month and 129 Canadians from the Diamond Princess in February.

Global Affairs Canada told CTVNews.ca the government was currently tracking approximately 84 cruise ships still at sea, carrying an estimated 267 Canadian crew members. It encouraged Canadian crew members having trouble getting home to contact the closest Canadian embassy or Global Affairs to request consular assistance.

“Canadian officials are providing ongoing consular assistance to the Canadians onboard and are working with cruise lines on their plans to get crew members home,” said spokesman Sylvain Leclerc in an email.

“Cruise lines are currently working on finding solutions to dock and allow their crew members to disembark.”

Princess Cruises told CTVNews.ca in a statement that they were committed to getting crew members home.

“For citizens of the United States and Canada, we are continuing to work with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) to resolve the current CDC No Sail Order where we are unable to disembark any crew (including U.S. citizens) into the United States,” the company said.

It added that it has already repatriated thousands of employees from over 100 countries so far and that 33 North America-based crew members had been transferred to the Emerald Princess in the last day, where they will remain until they can disembark.

Until last Thursday, Peake’s son had been waiting on a different ship, where he says water was being rationed, the food was served cold, and the mood was getting progressively “uncomfortable.” He was transferred to the Emerald as the cruise line worked to consolidate employees from the same region onto the same ship to get them to a port closer to their home country.

The meals have improved significantly since changing ships, the water is no longer rationed, and they have access to free internet, all of which has “really made a huge difference” for his son, said Peake. He has been in daily communication with him since his transfer to the Emerald and said he is much more upbeat, but still anxious to come home.

“The only thing good is they finally figured out they deserve to eat well.”