Hello, SE Readers. Today is Columbus Day in the United States. Christopher Columbus first set foot in the new world on October 12, 1492, but the holiday was changed to the second Monday in October so that people could enjoy a three-day weekend.

I’ve always been interested in history.  As a child, the story of Columbus’s first voyage in the Santa Maria, along with the Nina and Pinta, fascinated me. I envisioned large schooners sailing the high seas.

In the summer of 2017, my husband and I were able to see a replica of the Nina in Corpus Christi, Texas. Far from being a large ship, the Nina was tiny—only about fifty feet long on the deck. History tells us the Pinta was about the same size, with the Santa Maria being slightly larger.

Suddenly, the idea of a voyage into the uncharted waters of a vast ocean during a…