What time is it?

As I’ve mentioned before, it’s easy to be confused about the time on this ship, as it seems we are often moving our clocks forward (or backward), depending on where we are. But today is June 28 at sea, and tomorrow will be June 28 all over again. We’re going to get to live June 28 two days in a row! It reminds me of the movie “Groundhog Day!”

As I write this, it’s almost 6 pm on the ship and we’ll be leaving our room for dinner in about 30 minutes. We’re currently 19 hours ahead of our Texas family and friends. But….tonight as we are sleeping we will cross the International Date Line and when we wake up, we’ll be 5 hours behind you!! Does that make sense? Perhaps you can see why I get confused!

The International Date Line runs from the North Pole to the South Pole and marks the Western and Eastern Hemisphere divide. It's not a straight line but curves around landmasses and national borders. For example, it leans towards the east at the Bering Strait between Asia and North America, leaving Cape Dezhnev in Russia a day ahead of Cape Prince of Wales in Alaska, even though they are only 50 miles apart.

The International Date Line is the boundary where each calendar day starts and it’s also known as the Line of Demarcation because it separates 2 calendar dates. When you cross the date line traveling east, you subtract a day. And when you cross the line traveling west, you add a day. I didn't figure this out. I’m just telling you what our Currents tells me. I can give you more information if you really want it, but I just thought it was a fun fact that we get to re-live this day again.

This is our third sea day of 5 in a row! I haven’t blogged the last couple of days because there’s not much to share. My friend Louise noticed it so I decided to talk about sea days. You might wonder “what do people do on a ship for 5 straight days?” Good question. For me, I’ve been reading, napping, watching movies, eating, drinking tea and catching up on my email. Today Ronnie exercised, participated in his online men’s Bible study and attended a lecture for writers this afternoon.

Anyway, I decided to walk around the ship and snap a few photos to give you an idea of what sea days are like for other passengers. Because I don’t always read the daily Currents, I didn’t realize that there was a brunch this morning. Ronnie informed me but by the time I went to the Dining Room, it was over. They were already starting to clean up, but I snapped a few pictures anyway and you can see that most of the damage had already been done.

                                                                     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

watermelon art

 

After that, I walked around the ship and took pictures of what others were doing on this sea day. Photos are not real exciting, but they’ll give you an idea of what a sea day is like. At this point in our long voyage, there’s a lot more visiting going on because people are much better acquainted than in the early days.

 

So I'm having a frappuccino instead

visiting in front of gift shop (purses 10% off today)

 

smoking a cigar in designated area

working on 4,000 piece puzzle in library

only 2 lone walkers on fitness track (it's cold outside!)

empty fitness center (busiest in mornings)

ladies doing needlework in Horizons lounge

some kind of art project

card game in progress

dominoes

Trivia - Battles of the Sexes (women)

Battle of the Sexes (men)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each afternoon, sea day or not, tea is served in the Horizons lounge while a string quartet entertains. Here's a 30 second blip of their sound.

thankfully the casino is small and not loud or smoky

movie selections on in-room TV

no idea

left on our bed during evening room service

It's been a nice, lazy day at sea. Hopefully I'll be a little more productive on my second June 28!

A walk around Kushiro

Today is Sunday where we are (we’re still 14 hours ahead of home) but with an early arrival in Kushiro, we didn’t have “church” on the ship until 6 pm this evening. We seem to always wake early now because it gets daylight long before time to get up – this morning it was light by 3:30 am! We are now going to start changing our clocks forward until we reach the International Date Line. In all honesty, it’s hard to keep up with the correct time as our watches, computers, phones and room clock often say something different! Our room stewards leave notes on our bed each evening when there is a time change and do their best to keep our room clocks set to the current time, depending on where we are.

“Where we are” is Kushiro (Hokkaido), Japan, our last stop before heading back out into the Pacific and sailing toward the Aleutian Islands. We’ve enjoyed beautiful Japan, as well as the rest of our travels, but it will feel good to be back in the good ole USA! So for the next 4 days, we will be cruising the Pacific Ocean into the Bering Sea before reaching the Aleutian Islands and Dutch Harbor, Alaska on June 30.

This afternoon we set sail from Kushiro. We had sailed for several hours when it became necessary to turn the ship around and go back to Kushiro due to a medical emergency with one of the passengers. The onboard clinic can handle routine illnesses, but when it’s something really serious, they must figure out a way to evacuate a passenger to the closest medical facility. Since we will be at sea for several days, the best solution was to turn around, which is what we did. So just minutes ago we watched as a fellow Texan was evacuated into a helicopter hovering above the ship. There is no landing pad on the top of this ship, so the helicopter had to hover close enough for the medical team to somehow load him into the side. Once in, he was whisked away to the nearest hospital. Perhaps 15-20 minutes later the helicopter returned, this time to get his wife who they chair lifted up into the hovering helicopter. What a scary thing to have to do! We are saying prayers that he will be o.k.

I can't remember if I’ve mentioned in my blog, but there have been several deaths on the ship since we set sail last January 15. I guess that’s to be expected with so many older folks on board. There have been a few accidents over these past few months as well, including broken bones and lacerations. Some have been hospitalized for a few days, then returned to the ship. People have accidents, get sick and die on ships, just as they do on land. As the saying goes, life happens.

I’m posting some photos I snapped as we walked around in the port area today. The weather was absolutely gorgeous - a nice change from the heat we’ve been experiencing until very recently! We wandered through the fish market, the train station and Fisherman’s Wharf near where our ship was docked. There was an event of some type going on next to the port and couples were bringing their children over to see the ship. The Insignia is small by cruise ship standards, but still somewhat of a behemoth! 

We have really enjoyed Japan. The Japanese cities are clean and orderly and the Japanese people are welcoming and friendly. We can definitely recommend Japan as a nice country to visit.

 

outside a business

hollyhock (?) among some weeds

checking map for our location

nice to see a church instead of another temple!

Ronnie & Godzilla

pink columbine

random poppy growing from sidewalk crack up through bench

a perfect poppy - flower of remembrance

tables for eating in

salmon roe, whale, fin of flatfish

hanging up the dried stuff

all in a row

 

Sorry for all the fish pictures, but this is what you get at a fish market!

 

business says "Welcome to Kushiro"

Kushiro Art Museum (Hokkaido)

various booths set up

cute little unicycle performers

UPDATE to this post: The fellow Texan who was air lifted off the ship last night remains hospitalized in Kushiro, Japan. It was not a heart event, rather doctors found that he mysteriously developed a hole in one of his lungs. They are saying that it will be 26 days before he can fly. Contrary to what we surmised, his wife was not air lifted (we've no idea why the helicopter returned) but will get off the ship at our next port in 3 more days and fly back to be with him. I'm sure the logistics of luggage, etc will be complicated (180 day passengers do not travel "light") but hopefully he will have a much better outcome than what was previously feared! Everyone is saying prayers for Rich and Sharon.