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I saw it was here yesterday and today and open till 6.
I almost didn't go today because it's 20 miles for me to Perdido Key and it was cold and raining. I thought to myself "if I go down there on a day like this I'll just be embarrased for the people involved because I'll be the only one there and it will make it uncomfortable to be there".
But I went anyway. It was still raining and even colder when I got there. And like I knew would happen, when you get out on the waterfront the wind can get very uncomfortable.
So I was very surprised at what I saw. Tons of people there to see it. Every age. And everybody was blown away by what they were experiencing. I witnessed a kid who couldn't have been more than eight years old asking a crew member questions about it all that I wouldn't even think to ask. And don't get me wrong, as soon as I spotted the ship, and even moreso when I got aboard it, the questions started popping into my mind.
Did they have anyway to produce flame or fire during the voyage was the first question.
So I meandered over to one of the crew members and asked him.
The answer is, whenever the sea was calm, they would build a fire on the deck.
What did they have to fuel the fire?
The guide didn't know the answer to that question. But I did learn that they carried oil on board. And of course it was animal oil. So I presume they used oil to occasionally fuel a fire. Probably to have cooked meat occasionally. They did carry goats and chickens and such with them on the voyage.
Which immediately makes you think about something. The way they preserved that food was to keep it alive until they needed to cook it.
But then I realized they needed to carry food for the animals too.
All on that little wooden tub that set out across what at the time was an unknown as mysterious as the galaxy. Columbus believed he would find land in three weeks. That was the best thinking at the time.
Which brings me around to the point.
At first I thought to myself "standing on this boat is the same feeling I had when I was inside a mockup of the lunar lander".
But it really is a lot more than that. Armstrong and Aldrin's voyage was all layed out for them to start. They knew where they were going and they knew what the voyage would be like. They trained for every contingency and they had a support group of the finest minds and technology in the world who engineered that trip from beginning to end.
But Columbus and his crew had only a run of the mill vehicle that was like every other in operation at the time. A Caravel (which is all the Nina and Pinta were) was nothing but a routine cargo ship of the time.
They had nothing except their courage to face that unknown. And you have to stand on the deck of that little tub to even begin to appreciate what they had the guts to do.
I almost didn't go today because it's 20 miles for me to Perdido Key and it was cold and raining. I thought to myself "if I go down there on a day like this I'll just be embarrased for the people involved because I'll be the only one there and it will make it uncomfortable to be there".
But I went anyway. It was still raining and even colder when I got there. And like I knew would happen, when you get out on the waterfront the wind can get very uncomfortable.
So I was very surprised at what I saw. Tons of people there to see it. Every age. And everybody was blown away by what they were experiencing. I witnessed a kid who couldn't have been more than eight years old asking a crew member questions about it all that I wouldn't even think to ask. And don't get me wrong, as soon as I spotted the ship, and even moreso when I got aboard it, the questions started popping into my mind.
Did they have anyway to produce flame or fire during the voyage was the first question.
So I meandered over to one of the crew members and asked him.
The answer is, whenever the sea was calm, they would build a fire on the deck.
What did they have to fuel the fire?
The guide didn't know the answer to that question. But I did learn that they carried oil on board. And of course it was animal oil. So I presume they used oil to occasionally fuel a fire. Probably to have cooked meat occasionally. They did carry goats and chickens and such with them on the voyage.
Which immediately makes you think about something. The way they preserved that food was to keep it alive until they needed to cook it.
But then I realized they needed to carry food for the animals too.
All on that little wooden tub that set out across what at the time was an unknown as mysterious as the galaxy. Columbus believed he would find land in three weeks. That was the best thinking at the time.
Which brings me around to the point.
At first I thought to myself "standing on this boat is the same feeling I had when I was inside a mockup of the lunar lander".
But it really is a lot more than that. Armstrong and Aldrin's voyage was all layed out for them to start. They knew where they were going and they knew what the voyage would be like. They trained for every contingency and they had a support group of the finest minds and technology in the world who engineered that trip from beginning to end.
But Columbus and his crew had only a run of the mill vehicle that was like every other in operation at the time. A Caravel (which is all the Nina and Pinta were) was nothing but a routine cargo ship of the time.
They had nothing except their courage to face that unknown. And you have to stand on the deck of that little tub to even begin to appreciate what they had the guts to do.