Photo: Rachel Hartley Instagram

NEW YORK (AP) — A nurse from Virginia took a unique path to travel to New York to help out during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rather than risk flying during the crisis, 26-year-old Rachel Hartley and her husband sailed hundreds of miles to Brooklyn last month.

Hartley, of Lynchburg, told the New York Post she left her job at a local hospital and has been working four 12-hour night shifts a week at NYU Langone Brooklyn.

She and husband Taylor have been living on the boat, a four-bedroom, 50-foot vessel named Turning Points, at a marina in Brooklyn Heights. Hartley said the marina owner has even waived thousands of dollars in monthly fees for the couple.

The trip took two days and featured cold temperatures and windy conditions. Hartley said it’s the hardest-working environment she’s experienced, but that it’s been well worth it.

“My ultimate desire is to give people help and love. For me, going to the epicenter of a pandemic was the best way to do that,” she said.