60 days .. but who's counting?

We're on our way to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and will get there tomorrow. When we left Guatemala the winds had kicked up so Captain Stig chose to change course to give us a smoother ride. We "hugged" the shoreline, traveling an additional 50 nautical miles .. as you can see on the map, rather than follow the original plan which is shown as a dotted line.

The winds were strong gale force (or about 60 mph) and waves at approximately 11 foot swells but with the Serenade of the Seas' stabilizers it was not as bad as it may seem. We were only in this situation from 2 AM until 9AM. And besides, Captain Stig now refers to us as fellow "sailors."

And what a change a day makes, we are presently along the coast of Mexico, with seas that have barely a ripple, and a light breeze.

As of today we've been on this Voyage for a total of 60 days! We've traveled 16,800 nautical miles since leaving Miami and have used 6,400 tons of fuel or 105 per day. Captain Stig tells us that we move about 7 feet for each liter of fuel! I noticed this morning that the sun didn't rise until 6:21AM which is later than we've been used to while traveling in the Southern Hemisphere. Time is flying by and it's been a very interesting two months. Speaking of time, by the time we reach Los Angeles on Sunday, we will have traveled across all the time zones in the continental United States. So that got me thinking, about the history of the zones, and here's what I found out:

The history of standard time in the United States began on November 18, 1883, when United States and Canadian railroads instituted standard time in time zones. Before then, time of day was a local matter, and most cities and towns used some form of local solar time, maintained by some well-known clock. (Imagine that!) The new standard time system was not immediately embraced by all, but then again most change isn't readily accepted. The four time zones, Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific, were made mandatory in 1918 by the Standard Time Act. You might find an article entitled America's first time zone to be of interest on why time zones were created. Here's the link: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/11/americas-first-time-zone/
See you next time .... and thanks again for following my travels around the world!