HALIFAX -- After spending more than two months stranded on a cruise ship, a Nova Scotia couple is finally home.

Sherrie Gold and Dan Goodsell, of Sheet Harbour, N.S., have spent years making a living as entertainers on cruise ships all over the world. However, nothing could have prepared them for the drama they experienced onboard one of the ships during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pair, known professionally as “24 Karat Gold,” were on the Carnival Splendour. The ship was touring the South Pacific Islands, with its home base in Sydney, Aus.

In March, when the Australian government stopped letting cruise ships dock, the couple, along with more than 1,000 other cruise ship staff, was left stranded at sea.

“You felt disconnected from the rest of the world, but then there was the fear of, how long is this going to last and when are we going to get home?” recalls Goodsell.

“There's always the fear of losing someone you love at home and not being able to get home, or get anywhere near where you want to be.”

Gold says one of the hardest parts of the experience was rationing basic personal items.

“We were washing our clothes with shampoo, because we didn't have any detergent and things like toothpaste,” recalls Gold.

“It was trying, definitely trying.”

There was also a limited supply of food onboard the ship.

“They would pick the mouldy stuff out of the food, seriously,” says Goodsell.

“You would still taste it in the rest of the food anyway.”

After 63 long days, the ship was finally allowed to dock in the Philippines, and Gold and Goodsell made the long journey home to Sheet Harbour.

“I might have cried, it was wonderful,” says Gold.

“We had wonderful friends that fixed us up with food and everything else and it was a wonderful, overwhelming feeling.”

The say it was a difficult ordeal they will never forget and, while they plan to return to their life at sea at some point, they will always remember how good it once felt to be back on home soil.