Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?

Day 44, Grand Asia 2017

Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2017 – At Sea

I had a curious note on my bed tonight, asking me to set my clock ahead by 30 minutes in order to be on the local time when I wake up tomorrow morning in Darwin, Australia. Thirty minutes?

We have grown accustomed to changing the clocks, but generally for an hour at a time. We crossed the North Pacific Ocean where the time zones are close together. That meant we set our clocks back by an hour every night. One night, we set them back two hours and then immediately ahead 24 hours, as we crossed the International Date Line. My body reacted by waking up earlier and earlier, despite my attempts to stay awake later each night to compensate.

All of Japan is in one time zone, so over the nine days we were there we gradually grew accustomed to the local time. China was only an hour different, and Vietnam another hour. However, during the two days we were in Vietnam, daylight savings time ended in the United States. I didn’t need to change my clock on the ship, but I went from being 12 hours ahead of the US Central time zone to 13 hours ahead.

For Singapore, we set our clocks back an hour, but two days later ahead an hour for Semarang on the island of Java in Indonesia. The islands of Bali and Komodo, Indonesia, required us to again set our clocks back an hour. And today we set our clocks ahead an hour once at 2 p.m., but another 30 minutes tonight.

Why 30 minutes for Darwin, Australia? I have no idea, but it is not alone. Among other countries with at least some areas having a 30-minute offset from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC, aka Greenwich Mean Time) are India, North Korea, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Iran, Nepal and Canada. Some countries like the United States have multiple time zones, but other large ones like China have one time zone for the entire country.

I’ve written before that the routine on the Amsterdam is to give us our extra hours while we sleep, but take them away in mid afternoon.

Yes, it is very confusing, for the body as well as the mind. Usually the Holland America Navigator app on my smartphone has the correct ship’s time, but on occasion even it seems to be confused.

It also is confusing for my Fitbit watch. It sets its time to my iPhone time, but it requires me to be connected to the Internet to sync, even though it is using Bluetooth. With the ship’s expensive and slow Internet service, that is an annoyance. (Fitbit, are you listening?)

Fortunately, a life at sea doesn’t require that you know the exact time, unless you have a spa appointment, a scheduled activity or plan to meet someone for dinner.

It’s less important to know what day it is. But the Amsterdam keeps us up to date by daily changing the carpet showing the day of the week in the elevators.

This morning, a passenger reported to me that when he entered the elevator at 6 a.m., it said Monday. He thinks it really is Tuesday. But then again, he really doesn’t care.