At around 9:15pm last night we crossed the International Date Line which theoretically follows the 180° longitudinal line. Up in Alaska it curves sharply to the West so as to have all of the Aleutian Island chain of islands on the same day as the rest of the USA. It's an artificial marking on the map, and there was no 'bump' or sensation of crossing that line. ;-) We did receive certificates that we did cross it!
It also worth noting that we are traveling north of the Aleutian Island chain as the great circle route we are following took us there. It's the shortest distance from our last stop in Japan until we reach Kodiak. Interestingly, we have to sail at least 16 miles from the nearest land because in a full response emergency requiring us to stop, a response can't be expected for 12-14 hours and it would take us at least that amount of time to drift into shore. Additionally the seas are much calmer up here north of the Aleutian Islands in the Bering Sea than it would have been sailing in the Pacific Ocean south of the island chain. We did see a couple cargo ships plying their way towards Japan.
Coming back to the day's activities, it was a really low key sort of day onboard the Volendam. Following the morning interdenominational service which I led with 20 in attendance, our first lecture was by Terry Greenburg on differences between East and West. It was really good! I attended the Navigational lecture which today was focused on the technical description of the ship. It was really well attended (standing room only). We were told that we'll be passing back through the Aleutian chain tomorrow with two more sea days before Kodiak. Harry Strong's lecture was on coral with lots of pictures and movies.
Before our Lido dinner, we spent several hours in the Crow's Nest reading and watching for wildlife. I finished another mystery novel, 'Signature Wounds' by Scott Morrison. It's time to start my fifth book which will be another mystery novel. After dinner I returned to the Crow's Nest to watch for wildlife and update my daily blog. The evening's entertainment was the BBC Earth production of 'Frozen Planet which we have seen multiple times including once on this voyage. So we elected to not go again.
After dinner and a dry but cold day today, a light drizzle formed on the front facing windows in the Crow's Nest as darkness continued its slow creep upon us. We ended our evening in the Mix watching and listening Don play Broadway show tunes. He's pretty good and we've seen him on other cruises.
And so ended our second May second. Fortunately the mats in the elevators didn't change so we knew it was still Tuesday. For those who don't know, the carpet floor mats in the elevators have the day of the week on them and are changed out daily to help us keep track of what day it is. It's a clever and simple way to keep us passengers aware of what day of the week it is. Otherwise, there's very little sense of what day of the week it is.
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