Crossing the International Dateline…Today is June 3rd…Tomorrow is June 5th…

A cloud-topped mountain in Bora Bora.

It’s an odd thing for us. Crossing the International Dateline tonight, we’ll awaken tomorrow morning and we’ll have lost an entire day. How does one lose an entire day? Wasn’t this an 18-night cruise?

More of Bora Bora.

Apparently not. Vacationstogo.com listed this cruise as 18 nights. Once on board and checking the itinerary further, we discovered it is only a 17-night cruise. How weird is that?

As we approached Bora Bora there we numerous smaller islands.

Of course, the number of days is predicated by the number of times we go to bed and wake up the next day.  The International Dateline is explained in detail here:

“The International Date Line (IDL) explained:

The International Date Line (IDL) is an imaginary line of longitude on the Earth’s surface located at about 180 degrees east (or west) of the Greenwich Meridian.

 

The dateline is shown as an uneven black vertical line in the Time Zone Map above and marks the divide where the date changes by one day. It makes some deviations from the 180-degree meridian to avoid dividing countries in two, especially in the Polynesia region.

The time difference between either side of the International Date Line is not always exactly 24 hours because of local time zone variations.

Interactive Time Zone Map
If you travel around the world, changing standard time by one hour each time you enter a new time zone, then a complete circuit would mean that you adjusted your clock or watch time by 24 hours. This would lead to a difference of one day between the date on your clock and the real calendar date. To avoid this, countries are on either side of the International Date Line which runs down the middle of the Pacific Ocean. If you cross the dateline moving east, you subtract a day, whereas if you are moving west you add a day.

GMT vs. UTCThe Greenwich Meridian is a north-south line selected as the zero-reference line for astronomical observations. The line in Greenwich in London, UK represents the world’s prime meridian – longitude zero degrees. Every place on Earth is measured in terms of its distance east or west from this line.

The United Kingdom observes GMT only in the winter.
The line divides the Earth’s eastern and western hemispheres just as the equator divides the northern and southern hemispheres.

The Earth’s crust moves very slightly on an ongoing basis so the prime meridian’s exact position is also moving very slightly. However, the prime meridian’s original reference remains to be the Airy Transit Circle in the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, even if the exact location of the line may move to either side of the transit circle’s meridian.

The Royal Observatory in Greenwich is the home to the time zone named Greenwich Mean Time – GMT. This time zone was first adopted as the world’s time standard at the Washington Meridian Conference in 1884. However, GMT is now loosely interchanged with UTC to refer to time kept on the Greenwich meridian (longitude zero).”

Another smaller island near Bora Bora.

Well, this is all interesting. Losing a day in the realm of the number of days in the average lifespan should not seem like much of a difference, especially when someday when we travel in the opposite direction, we’ll recover the day. As for our day today, the day we do have, we’re still at sea. We just finished breakfast in the main dining room and are comfortably situated in the Schooner Bar posting for today, content as we could be.

View from our balcony as we approached Bora Bora.

Yesterday, Tom attended another men’s group, “The Shed” for lively guy chatter with such topics as politics, sports, household projects, observations about the cruise, and more. Once he returns to our cabin shortly after 5:00 pm, he shares some of the topics with me and the good time he had with the other, mostly Australian men.

A lovely house along the shore on a small island in Bora Bora, in the Society Islands chain.

Being on this ship has given us an intro to the Australian way of life and its people. Undoubtedly, this 17-day cruise has given us a better perspective of life in Australia, of which we knew little.

At a distance, a small beach area.  Excuse the blur.

While he was gone from 3:00 to 5:00 pm, I lounged at the pool reading a book on food science (my favorite topic) which is very technical but somehow has grabbed my interest, and it’s hard to put down. I never knew at this point in life, I’d be learning so much from reading and from the world and people around us. Tom feels the same way.

Had we stayed put in a condo in a warm climate somewhere in the US we may not have had the opportunity for such varied experiences from our surroundings and people we encounter along the way. Through this learning process, our minds are alert and hungry for more.

A beach house on a small island near Bora Bora.

Providing that we continue to take good care of our physical health, we hope for long and productive years in our old age.  Sure, we may miss out on a few experiences based on our conservative nature in regard to physical challenges and adventures. But, the experiences we choose in its place are rich in content and meaning.

Not as lush and green as some of the other islands we’ve visited, this is a portion of Bora Bora, known for its huts/bungalows over the water.

Wrapping up today, tomorrow’s post will be there. I’ll have to figure out how to change the date of the post when this app automatically reverts to the next date overnight. Thus, you’ll see a new post during the day tomorrow. Oh, by the way, we’ll also be experiencing some hourly time changes in addition to the entire day. Oh, this could be confusing. 

At a distance, we could see the coral reef in its lighter-colored waters.

But, as always, we’ll figure it out and be on our way relishing in the day at hand, whatever day it may be!Tom had a great verbal slip last night. When ordering off the menu, he requested the “Chicken Placenta” as opposed to “Chicken Piccata.” I couldn’t stop laughing. This morning he said, “That’s not so bad of a verbal slip. A chicken placenta is an egg.” More chuckles. Life is good.

Photo from one year ago today, June 3, 2014:

I took this shot while on a walk on the steep road in Madeira, Portugal, one year ago today. For more photos and stories, please click here.