September 28th ~ 30th, 2026
Our weather has improved dramatically since yesterday and we have returned to our normal speed instead of the throttled back, slower pace when the worst of the swells were battering us. The captain indicated that we had 5 meter (16 feet) swells during one of his announcements, but I’m not sure if that was the peak or not.
At one point when at dinner, a wave splashed against the side of the ship, completely covering the dining room window, which caused a few gasps from fellow diners.
As of Monday, after 6 days of Progressive Trivia, Jan & I (plus our guys) have accumulated 99 points and are holding on in third place.
Jan & Mark got invited to have a tour of the bridge this morning. I’m so happy that they got to experience that and learned more about how the bridge is run. We had a lovely clear morning and the view from up front was impressive. I asked Jan what stood out for her about the bridge and she shared:
“One of the interesting features of a modern bridge is the integration of all of the instrumentation: GPS, charts, echosounders, radar, speed log, heading indicator, etc.”
Tonight we will pass over the International Date Line. What that means from a practical standpoint is that we loose a day. We will go to sleep tonight on September 28th, but will wake up in the morning and it will be September 30th.
September 29th will never exist for us this year! That’s both cool and a bit spooky at the same time. I’d be bummed if I was a kid and that was my birthday. However at this age, missing one of them might not be so bad. 🤣
GRATITUDE MOMENT: Today I’m grateful that the seas have calmed and that we are still on track to arrive in Tokyo as scheduled. I appreciate that Jan and Mark got the VIP treatment with the bridge tour. Makes my heart happy.
That is so cool that you will cross the International Date Line. I assume you will get that day back when you come back home. Glad the weather has improved.
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Yes, when we fly back home mid October we will indeed get a day back. It’s only “on hold” at the moment.
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Going to sleep on the 28th and waking up on the 30th is such a mind-bending experience! I loved your joke about skipping a birthday at this age not being the worst thing in the world! As Darlene asked in the comments, it’ll be fun to see if you get that missing 24 hours back on the return voyage. So glad the 16-foot swells have calmed down and that you’re smoothly on track for Tokyo!
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Yes, it did give me pause when I realized that a day has simply disappeared! Strangely, I have two friends back home with birthdays on the 29th and I was still able to wish them Happy Birthday on time with Facebook. That confused me a bit further, but only for a moment.
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