Tomorrow is a "no class" day, and at this moment, the kids are partying on the ship with a dance billed as a "wear your best mis-matched outfit". I'm not sure where they are getting some of these clothes, but they are having a great time and will enjoy sleeping in tomorrow. I'm in the library, and it's a rocking place just outside the union.
I think this was a good time to let off steam after classes and the pain of filling out port forms all day.
Nancy and I went on a tour of the "bridge" this afternoon. It's the place where the ship is run, and it's not so much a bridge as under the 7th deck in the bow of the ship. You can see right out, and in fact, two people are on duty at all times. The ship mostly runs on auto-pilot. Richard, the navigator, gave the tour and explained all the equipment. They've got all kinds of radar and GPS stuff to guide the ship. The ship still has a small steering wheel, but it sees mostly for show. We all got to sit in the captain's chair.
The other news is that we crossed the international dateline today. We watched for the line for hours, and I'm pretty sure you can see it in this picture. Everyone is trying to figure out just exactly what that means. I know that it means that we have lost a day of our life. At one point this afternoon, Monday became Tuesday but for ship purposes, we kept Monday, and we are not going to lose our day until Wednesday. I guess you can do anything you want to out in the Pacific Ocean.
Warner; I'm loving your posts. They bring back great memories. Glad your photography class helped you capture the photo of the international date line.
ReplyDeleteWarner - Actually, the date line's an illusion in the photo, based on the ship's position report,
ReplyDelete(+24° 56.0 -174° 25.01 } You were still a couple of hundred miles away from the IDL. Check out google maps, and zoom OUT to have it show you the IDL.
Great job blogging, feel like I'm right there with you (almost).