Swimming the Oceans

It was 50 years ago this week I took a swim in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans on the same day. First a quick morning dip in the bay at Colon in the Caribbean Sea with a couple of shipmates, followed by a very cool train ride along the Panama Canal and then a nice afternoon in the Pacific Ocean at the city beach in Panama City before sampling the nightlife. This was also still during the time of the US Panama Canal Zone.

Swimming the oceans that day was a kind of a gimmick. We did it because we could and it seemed like a fun thing to do at the time and surely here I am talking about it 50 years later. There were many other new and exciting things I did during those early months of 1971 and into the spring during my first overseas cruise on the USS Portland. We were back and forth between our home port in at the Naval Amphibious Base in Little Creek Virginia and the Caribbean islands a couple of times on training exercises. We spent time at Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Port au Prince, Haiti, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Aruba, Colon, Panama and the Virgin Islands.

There would be many more trips to the area as part of the Caribbean Ready Group during 1971 to 1973 and many more places to see. One of the biggest changes in my life because of that first trip was my expanding taste for the foods of the world. I never had so many different kinds of meals in so many different situations. I also experienced a lot of different music.

There would be many more places including Colombia, Venezuela, Jamaica, Martinique, Trinidad, Costa Rica, and others. I would also make a few more cruises down there on the USS Plymouth Rock too.