Today is Columbus Day in the United States, or at least in most of the United States. The holiday is not celebrated by Alaska, Hawaii or South Dakota. It is the day we celebrate the landing of Christopher Columbus in the Americas. For anyone that has ever been on a cruise and looks forward to their next port of call you can imagine how happy the sailors on the Nina, Pina and Santa Maria were to finally reach land.

 Most cruisers only spend one or two days at sea unless they are on a Trans-Atlantic or Trans-Pacific cruise. With today's technology the Trans-Oceanic cruises still only have passengers at sea for several days. Those days at sea are filled with an abundance of food, drinks and endless entertainment. Each passenger has an itinerary and plenty of advanced notice to prepare for an arrival in a distant port.

Columbus and his crew were at sea for months, much longer than any of them had anticipated. Their days were not filled with food and fun but instead with work and apprehension. And when they did step foot on the new land they had no idea what to prepare for or expect. It was a whole “New World” and they had a lot to learn about the new land and its culture.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did.
             So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.
            Explore. Dream.Discover.”                                                                     ~ Mark Twain

To honor those great explorers maybe we should all go out and book a cruise? Or at least take the time to learn something about a culture new to you.