Nurse travels from Virginia to New York by boat to join front lines of coronavirus fight

Why universal testing won't end the coronavirus pandemic

Insight from Laura Ingraham's 'Medicine Cabinet': Dr. Ramin Oskoui, cardiologist and CEO of Foxhall Cardiology, and Dr. Stephen Smith, founder of the Smith Center for Infectious Diseases and Urban Health.

Get all the latest news on coronavirus and more delivered daily to your inbox. Sign up here.

A Virginia nurse is being hailed as a “hero” by her husband after traveling by sailboat to New York City to join the front lines in the fight against the coronavirus.

Rachel Hartley and her husband, Taylor, made the nearly three-day journey from Lynchburg to the Big Apple during the winter, sailing the frigid waters of the Atlantic Ocean. She since has been working in the emergency room at a hospital in Brooklyn and is hoping to stay longer after her contract expires in June.

“Having the very specific training that they need and not using it where I was in Virginia, but knowing they need that training and those skills here, it was getting to me,” Hartley told NBC New York. “It was definitely eating at me and I knew I had to go.”

CLICK HERE FOR FULL CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

Hartley’s sailboat is reportedly docked at a marina in Brooklyn that normally costs up to $12,000 per month, but her fee was waived after she informed the facility’s owners of the reason for her extended visit.

“She’s definitely a hero,” Taylor Hartley told NBC New York. “She’s a hero to me, to our family, to our friends and she’s one of many heroes who are going in these hospitals every day.”

Rachel said the environment she currently is working in is the hardest she’s ever experienced.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“There’s so many factors contributing to that – but the mortality rate, seeing so many people die,” Hartley said.

However, despite offering her help, Hartley will still have to pay New York state income taxes on the money she has earned in New York City.