2021 Life Logs, Day 56: From the Atlantic to the Pacific
Date: Thursday, February 25, 2021
Weather: Sunny, Still a Little Windy; High 48, Low, 26 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
A French company started building the Panama Canal in 1881 but gave up eight years later. In 1904, the United States got involved and in 1914 the canal was opened. Until then, the only way to get from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific was to go north through the Northwest Passage or south around the tip of South America known as Cape Horn. Both were long and treacherous trips. So, this little man-made cut across Panama made a huge difference in world transportation. Going around Cape Horn was an 8,000 mile trip and took ships two months. With the advent of the Panama Canal, that trip was shortened to eight hours. What a difference. Today in my writing, I got to relive Windbird’s transit through the canal. Our transit was actually easy, but the preparation and uncertainly beforehand was hard. At the end of my writing day, Windbird made it to Balboa, Panama, on the Pacific side of the canal and is preparing for the sail to the Galapagos. I thought I was going to take tomorrow off writing and get some other necessary things done, but I don’t think I can do that. I want to at least get underway to the Galapagos before I take a break.
I did spend my morning dealing with life instead of writing. I made soup that I then delivered to a friend recovering from Covid. Then I went to the Post Office to get my mail for the first time since early last week and I took advantage of the beautiful day to take a long walk with Shadow and later to play fetch with him for the first time in a while. It is hard to play fetch with snow on the ground as the tennis balls get buried easily.
