About This Dateline Thing...

As you know and we have discussed, the dateline is 180 degrees, or exactly 1/2 way around the world from Greenwich, England. [For the information of people at home, Vancouver is 123 degrees west longitude, so 1/2 way for us is just off the tiny island of Reunion off the west coast of South Africa, well beyond Madagascar into the Indian Ocean, 57 degrees east.]

Anyhow, I digress, sorry. When one crosses the date-line heading west, as we did, we are 'a day ahead of countries east of the dateline', so says my little atlas. My question to you is as follows..... when continuing traveling west, around the world, when do we cease to be a 'day ahead'? Obviously if we keep going we will be exactly the same time, never mind the date?

At this moment we are seven hours behind, but a day ahead. Tonight we go back another hour, that will mean we are eight behind. But that also means that for eight hours of the day, Vancouver will be in the same date as us. And Britain for 16 hours a day. So..... I think that from now on we should only consider the HOURS and not the date.

Did I get all this right or not?

I should have called this blog "much ado about nothing". The same as the Cyclone Nicholas was. We are merely having roly-poly seas today. However at 3 this afternoon, when the captain said we would be close to the centre of the cyclone, [220 nautical miles], Gail and I had an arrangement to meet in the crows-nest for a Tai Chi session. How could we have picked a worse time or spot to meet? No worries, it went well.

At the dinner table tonight I noticed a gray front moving flat across the horizon towards the ship, from the rear. Thoughts of the 'Poseidon Adventure' briefly crossed my mind. It was just an ever-closing mysterious and ominous greyness. After it passed we had a light rain and the weather brightened. Soon after, I for one, thought that the seas settled down and it was smoother sailing.

I have attached picture of our table, without people, for the time being.


Clocks back another hour tonight. Bali in two days.