2023 Alaska, Asia, Australia, Arabian Peninsula Trip
Day 13/105 - Bering Sea - Day #1 to Japan
These writings will continue to be coming later as we time-traveled again last night, moving from Alaska time (UTC-8) to Aleutian/Hawaii time (UTC-9). That puts us five hours behind the US East Coast. Tonight, it will get even weirder.
Above, you can see an amazing overhead image of our Viking Orion as we sail west across the Bering Sea. Well, either that or I just pasted a crummy stolen picture of the Orion onto a Google Map clip showing our approximate position. I'll let you be the judge.
Today is the first of seven consecutive days at sea as we make our way west and south from Alaska's Aleutian Islands to Sapporo, Japan. For many, seven days at sea seems like a lot. We've done five once from Vancouver to Honolulu, six from Bermuda to Cork, Ireland, nine from Montevideo, Uruguay to Cabo Verde, and eleven from Cabo Verde to Stanley, Falkland Islands. For us, seven days at sea is no big deal.
There are regular, daily activities to keep us busy. Arlona is attending daily knitting and crocheting lessons given by our world cruise friend, Emily. We've been playing Baggo, but not today. Our illustrious Cruise Director, Graham, was running the show today. I got down there with five minutes to spare and he had already determined teams and was midway through the first round. I'm not sure why they publish start times if they start early. Hmm...
Because we have seven consecutive days at sea, trivia today becomes progressive trivia.
We will play with the same teams all seven days, accumulating our score. Trivia Master, Harry promises outstanding prizes for first, second, and third place and the end of the seven days. Woo! All contests will be general knowledge trivia. Today, our team of five, named, Titanic Swim Team, managed 12/15 - two points out of first place.
 |
| Titanic Swim Team - James, Betsy, Karen, Garry, Arlona |
We thought the first fully computer-generated movie was Avatar - it was Toy Story. We missed the multiple-choice answer for the designer of the Sydney Opera House - it was Jørn Utzon. I should have known this as we passed the Utzon Center in Aalborg, Denmark on a previous cruise. Doh - my bad. We guessed that the national dance of the Dominican Republic was Salsa - it is Merengue. We hope for a better showing tomorrow.
Since the hot tub appears to be helping out my ailing knee, we spent more time in there this afternoon. Tonight, we were asked to join a group of nine fellow travelers for dinner at Manfredi's. We met in the Explorers' Bar and headed to Manfredi's private room. The service is impeccable and the food and company were terrific.
Tonight is a significant time travel night. Not only will we gain an hour by moving to UTC-10, but we will also travel through time moving ahead an entire day. The net result will be moving from UTC-10 to UTC+14 the following day. So for all you folks on the East Coast who are reading this Friday morning after I wrote it on Thursday night, that will all change tomorrow. That's because even though we will go to bed tonight, Thursday night, we will cross the date line and wake up tomorrow on Saturday morning. I won't have a Friday 9/29 blog as we will essentially skip that day. I'll be writing Saturday's blog long before you all get up rather than after you go to bed like I'm doing now. Crossing the international date line is weird.
Now that my head hurts from all the date and time nonsense, I am going to sip my limoncello and get ready to time travel, never exceeding 88 MPH. Until tomorrow (or actually the next day...)...
No comments:
Post a Comment