The seas were too high to permit using tenders to go ashore, so we missed this one. Instead, steamed slowly by and headed on to New Zealand. The upside is we will get there half a day early (probably.) All of which left the crew scrambling for ways to entertain us that didn’t involve eating.

(This doesn’t show the waves but it is pretty much what the island looked like. Cloud formations were an important clue to ancient mariners trying to find land without charts. High wispy cirrus clouds often mean wind: “Mares tails and mackerel scales, tell great ships to carry small sails.” I tried to put a photo in here, but it refused)

Entertainment turned out not to be as big an issue as they thought. Many of the on-board lecturers and entertainer were quite willing to do extra shows and presentations. Even more effective, but less entertaining, with high seas for the first time since we set out, many passengers were most comfortable lying on the floor of their cabins trying really hard not to think about their stomachs. The crew kept occupied lining the hallways with little white bags that weren’t luminarias.

Neither of us was sick but I (Ron) was certainly queasy for a few hours. Doré’s big issue was with the ship rolling so much, she was very uncomfortable walking on her own. All of which kept us close to home.

And just to give us something to think about, we crossed the international date line overnight as far as the ship time is concerned. And our clocks were still messed up because Chile keeps Rapa Nui on its time (i.e., Eastern to us) even though it is closer to our Pacific time zone. The bottom line is, for the ship, two AM Saturday became one AM Sunday. We lost a day, but gained an hour. Instead of being 11 hours behind Greenwich, we are now 12 hours ahead, I think.

We haven’t actually crossed the date line yet. That should happen at 180 degrees (W or E,) which is just east of New Zealand and we are about 165 W. The official line isn’t always where it should be so we will actually cross it at 170 degrees W, which seems to have been drawn to put Samoa on the west side so they get the new year first instead of last. Then there is of course ship time. They apparently changed the date at the same time they changed the clock. That way they don’t have to try to explain why we have part of a Saturday. It doesn’t matter much; when we are this far from anywhere, we don’t have to coordinate with anyone else’s schedule. And we don’t know what the date or time is where you are anyway.

Even though Saturday isn’t happening, the staff did publish the usual schedule of events for the non-day, which includes the movie double feature “Titanic” and “Poseidon Adventure;” art class is ship painting (report to the Bosun; overalls and scaffolds provided), and beginner pole dancing with Lorraine, Keith, and your dance hosts. (For any Kelloggs reading this, Lorraine and Keith really are the dance instructors.)

Other British humor: New Castle United beat Manchester United six nil; British MPs have adopted a new song: ‘Rule Britannia, Britannia Waves the Rules;’ Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today, unless there is no today.

You have to be here.