February 3, 2013 International Date Line Crossing
Today we crossed the International Date Line and lost an entire day. Yesterday was Friday and Today is Sunday. The International Date Line follows the meridian of the 180-degree longitude roughly down the middle of the Pacific Ocean, although it deviates to pass around the far east of Russia and various island groups in the Pacific. The International Date Line mostly corresponds to the time zone boundary separating +/- 12 hours Greenich Mean Time.
Bruce Linder’s lecture today was on: The Cruise of the Great White Fleet during the beginning of the twentieth century under the presidency of Teddy Roosevelt. It was the first time that the U.S. had built a fleet of naval ships and paraded them around the world in a show of power. It was also a time when the navy gained incredible knowledge about how to manage a fleet of ships that needed coal to propel them and how to re-supply the ships on a regular basis. We began to have agents in ports around the world to negotiate and procure supplies, which is still done today.
In the afternoon we went to see the movie: 2016 Obama’s America in the movie theater. This was the propaganda movie that was released during the 2012 presidential campaign to discredit Obama. It does everything to make you believe that Obama is a communist with an agenda to overtax and support the Muslim extremist agenda. Several people walked out during the film and many were outraged after it was over. In particular Canadians and Germans told us that they thought it was outrageous and that in their countries people thought that we were crazy if we elected Romney. They seemed happy and pleased that we had re-elected President Obama.
Tonight was Classic formal night in the dining room. The tables and chairs are decked out in Black and White and everyone was dressed up. The entertainer tonight was a gentleman by the name of Andy Bunger. Andy is a multi-instrumentalist from Germany who plays the panpipes, marimba, steel guitar, drums, saxophone and trumpet. He was an excellent musician.