Sunday, January 21, 2018: IDL / Where did the day go??
Today we crossed the International Date Line. The International Date Line (IDL) is an imaginary line on Earth's surface defining the boundary between one day and the next. ... The International Date Line is located halfway around the world from the prime meridian (0° longitude) or about 180° east (or west) of Greenwich, London, UK, the reference point of time zones.
A person who goes around the world from east to west (the same direction as Magellan's voyage) would gain or set their clock back one hour for every 15° of longitude crossed, and would gain 24 hours for one circuit of the globe from east to west if they did not compensate by setting their clock forward one day when they crossed the IDL. In contrast, a west-to-east circumnavigation of the globe loses an hour for every 15° of longitude crossed but gains back a day when crossing the IDL. The IDL must therefore be observed in conjunction with the Earth's time zones: on crossing it in either direction, the calendar date is adjusted by one day.
Sunday was missed and it is suddenly Monday, January 22, 2018. We had a short ceremony at the 7th deck pool area; I took about a 4-minute video, but so far our Internet has not been strong enough to input it to YouTube software so it could be put onto our blog. Hopefully we will get to a port with Wifi strong enough to upload it.
We will arrive Tonga at 8 AM tomorrow, tour about eight hours, and head for Fiji. The trip will require an over night plus a day at sea.
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