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.
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| 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.
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| So I'm having a frappuccino instead |
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| visiting in front of gift shop (purses 10% off today) |
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| smoking a cigar in designated area |
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| working on 4,000 piece puzzle in library |
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| only 2 lone walkers on fitness track (it's cold outside!) |
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| empty fitness center (busiest in mornings) |
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| ladies doing needlework in Horizons lounge |
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| some kind of art project |
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| card game in progress |
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| dominoes |
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| Trivia - Battles of the Sexes (women) |
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| 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.
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| thankfully the casino is small and not loud or smoky |
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| movie selections on in-room TV |
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| no idea |
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| 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!
I know that your phones are smart enough to change when you change time zones, but how do they know if the areas have daylight savings times? Just wondering . . ...
ReplyDeleteGood question! But our smart phones aren't smart at sea because we don't have internet connection on our phones. We have only 1 connection per room, so one of us is usually using a computer, unless Ronnie occasionally logs in on his phone. So we have to manually set our phones to the correct time. We also have to manually set the room clock. I've left my computer and watch on "home time" so I know what time it is in TX. :)
ReplyDeleteI am so impressed at the artists in the ship's kitchen. Whatever award is available for the garnish knife, I vote for the prize go to your ocean liner. Lj.
ReplyDeleteMe too! Someone is very talented in the kitchen, and not just with making things taste good. I'm dreading stepping on the scales when we return! :(
ReplyDeleteBharberts: it is amazing how cold it is...and you had such nice weather in Japan. The seas look stormier. I always think of the heaving sea in "Deadliest Catch".
ReplyDeleteI am sure that 6 months of cruise luxury would ruin me for housework, cooking and pretty much everything normal. Have you guys yearned for home or felt isolation from family? I know you both are social with people you have met, but how many remain on board that you started with?
Good observations! And we are headed to exactly where "Deadliest Catch" is filmed (Dutch Harbor). You're right - the weather was so perfect in Japan and all of a sudden it's turned nasty and cold. But Alaska - what did we expect? Yes, I'm ruined for cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. Lol! As for how many remain that started out, the ship is completely full now which for the first time feels crowded. That's because all the folks that liked to dine outside on the decks are eating inside now. Only 384 of the original passengers were 180 day people, and I would estimate maybe 360ish are still on. Rumor is that 8 people have died, others had had accidents or left for some other reason. There hasn't been any official count shared with us.
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