Sunday, November 10, 2024

We started the second leg of our cruise yesterday, with more passengers boarding in Fort Lauderdale. It was a small group from Quebec City to Fort Lauderdale, but now we are up to about 500 passengers – capacity of Serenity is 740 passengers. We also have a new complement of speakers.

Today is a sea day. We cruised by Cuba this morning, and got a few glimpses of the island through the haze. The last time I was this close to Cuba was flying over on my way to Jamaica 25 years ago. We were cautioned to keep our windows covered and “don’t take any pictures” while flying over. No one said we couldn’t take any today, though.

This morning’s presentation was by Dr. John Freedman, “Christopher Columbus: Man, Myth or Monster?” Dr. Freedman is a Global Studies Scholar, who retired from medical practice to travel the world. His career included extensive worldwide medical volunteer work.

Today’s presentation was Part 1: The Path to a Dream, about Columbus’ background and earlier life. All of the Caribbean nations were visited and named by Columbus, except for the ABC Islands – Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. He was named by Queen Isabella of Spain the “Admiral of the Open Sea.”

While he also spent time in Central and South America, Christopher Columbus never set foot on North American soil. So why do we celebrate Columbus Day? Italian Americans began pushing for recognition of Columbus as early as the 1700s, finally resulting in Franklin Delano Roosevelt declaring the national holiday in 1937. You are probably aware that several states, including Minnesota, have rejected Columbus Day in favor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Next, we heard from James J. Wirtz about “The Cuban Missile Crisis Revisited.” Mr Wirtz is a professor at the Naval Post Graduate School.

I remember that day. I was still in grade school, and we were sent home early. I didn’t quite understand what was happening, but I knew it was serious.

Wirtz told us that, at the time, neither the Kremlin nor the CIA thought Nikita Kruschev would put missiles in Cuba, because it would be too risky for the USSR, that Americans would go crazy. Turns out that was a correct assumption. The presence of missiles in Cuba put Washington DC within striking range for the Soviets. The US established a naval blockade to prevent more military equipment to Cuba. Overflights by Airforce U-2 pilots detected the missile, fortunately while they were still being deployed, and before they were actually completed.

The US established a naval blockade to prevent more military equipment reaching Cuba, and we demanded that the missiles be removed. What wasn’t known until recently was that Kennedy and Khrushchev made a secret deal where the US would remove its nuclear missiles from Turkey in exchange for the Soviets removing their missiles from Cuba.

As a consequence of the Cuban missile crisis, it became clear to our allies that the US was a superpower, a hotline was established between Russia and the US (originally a teletype machine), limited test ban treaties were negotiated, and arms races intensified along with demands for arms control,

Well, that was depressing, so I decided to improve my mood by attending my first Crystal Tea this afternoon. Of course, that may have had something to do with the fact that today’s theme was “Chocolate Tea Time.”

The evening ending with a performance by David Shannon, Irish singer and actor. He has performed in a number of musicals such as The Phantom, Les Miz, Sweeney Todd and more. He has a beautiful, strong voice and an engaging presence on stage. We’ll be watching for him to perform again later in the cruise.