The book touched briefly on the voyage of Columbus to the Bahamas, but space did not allow me to give that topic as much attention as I would have liked. First of all, I’d like to disqualify myself as a “Columbus Expert”, for I am far from that.  I am a reader, a sailor, some would say a writer, and a fair judge of whether the stuff I’m reading is pure “B.S.” or “somewhat reasonable”.  I’m not a “fine liner”; so don’t dig too deep as to whether something is “reasonable”,  “somewhat reasonable”, or “very reasonable” like they do on those surveys!  I’m talking about sorting the wheat from the chaff--which I can do.

My commitment here is to supplement the book, first where updates are necessary, and second in those areas where additional information may be of interest to the reader.  We’re still not requiring any real updates to the printed version of the book, thus I have the luxury of using my space as supplemental information.  My first involvement with the Columbus debate began, when Arne Molander, a true “Columbus Scholar”, contacted my publisher in the early 80’s.  Arne Molander is a well respected navigational engineer, who had postulated the theory that Columbus actually landed in the Northern Bahamas in 1492, rather than the more popular theory that the “Admiral of the Ocean Sea” was much further south. 

As I was preparing the new third edition, my priorities were on those issues critical to a cruising guide, like how to round Whale Cay safely, how to get into Hope Town with a 5 ft. draft, etc.--not on where Columbus landed!  Even though our book only covers the “Northern Bahamas”, my cruising has taken me throughout the Bahamas, so I have been to San Salvador, The Plana Cays, Samana Cay, and the Turks and Caicos (the other commonly offered landfall candidates).  During this cruising in both the Northern and Southern Bahamas, I’ve kept the Columbus log close at hand and in mind.

Mr. Molander has agreed to provide an article for our October edition about Columbus’s first anchorage in the new world.  Here, I would like to invite opposing opinions, and will be giving similar space in October. Since this is not a “burning issue” for most people, I would also like to give a brief overview, so that those unfamiliar with the debate, can do a “quick study”, and either pick up the debate or participate in it.

There are many controversies which surround Columbus.  Among them, I recognize that he didn’t “Discover” the “New World”, for an intelligent group of native Americans were already here.  Moreover, he may not even have been the first European to visit the new world.  Nevertheless, he was the first to document his cruise through the Bahamas.  In 1492, Columbus only spent 12 days in the Bahamas.  He never returned to the Bahamas.  His subsequent voyages were further south, never returning to the Bahamas.

The question is somewhat obscured by the fact that there is no original copy of Columbus’s log. Our best record of the twelve days Columbus spent in the Bahamas is in a document commonly known as The Diario, an abstract of Columbus’ log by Las Casas.  Not only do we have to deal with the possibility of errors in copying the original, there is the additional question of translating the work from 15th century Spanish to 20th (or 21st) century English.

Here, I would like to bring my readers up to speed on the debate, as I understand it. I will invite bona fide experts to submit current opinions on the various theories.  The internet provides an excellent media for such an exchange of data and ideas.  In relative terms, this has not happened on the topic of Columbus’ first landfall in the Bahamas.  I have attempted several searches with popular search engines and meta-search programs, finding only a paucity of information on “Columbus +landfall +Bahamas”.  Keith Pickering is the only Columbus scholar whose theories have a significant presence on the internet.  His web sites are well laid out, easy to navigate, and well indexed, but they tend to favor his own personal beliefs. 

Here I’d like to provide a more level playing field. Or in the words of Joseph Judge, Senior Editor, National Geographic a place where a “younger generation of scholars without axes to grind will have no difficulty fixing the landfall...”

And to that end let us begin..