We just had a three day weekend, two Saturdays and today, Easter Sunday. On the westbound voyage in February, we crossed the International Dateline and lost a day. On our first Saturday, March 22, we crossed the Dateline eastbound and gained a day which meant that we had Saturday, March 22 again. All of the onboard paperwork, like the Daily Programme and invitations to cocktail parties, had a notation beside the date whether it was for the first or second March 22.
For our young readers: the International Dateline is the point opposite the Prime Meridian at Greenwich, England (0 degrees longitude) at which adding 12 hours and subtracting 12 hours meet, thus creating a 24 hour change with the date east of the line being a day earlier than the date west of the line. The time is moved forward one hour for every 15 degrees of longitude, so traveling eastward roundtrip to Greenwich, you would finish a full day ahead on the calendar. So the International Dateline was created to correct the situation.
The dateline problem was first identified on Magellan’s expedition during the first circumnavigation of the globe (1519-1522). During the voyage the crew had kept meticulous records to track the hours and days that had passed and arrived on land in Europe certain of the date. To their surprise, their date was different from the date on land. Now we know to change the days as we pass by.
Some people on board had a problem with this since the Sunday happened to be Easter Sunday. It troubled them that there were more than 3 days between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The rest of us just had a good time having 2 Saturdays this week and one more day at sea.
It being Easter Sunday, we received a visit from the Easter bunny.
We have been taking bridge lessons each sea day from an excellent teacher who just happens to live in Fort Lauderdale. After her lesson, we play bridge for about an hour with two of our friends. Our game is really improving. In addition, several afternoons we have played games of bridge with one of the couples at our dinner table. The teacher assured us at the beginning that if we attended all of her lectures, we would be good bridge players by the end of the voyage. We will see.
We had hoped to spend time out on the open decks during the afternoon, but the clouds came in and it has been raining. Another sea day tomorrow and then Honolulu on Tuesday. The dinner on shore for the passengers on the full world cruise will be held at the Honolulu Convention Center. There will be over 800 people at the dinner, which is supposed to be quite elegant. I saved the black and white formal dress I bought at Barbara Katz for this special event. My formal wear has been getting a real workout and some of it will be quite worn out by the end of this trip.
We arrive in Maui on Wednesday and then head back out to sea on the way to Los Angeles.
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