Spectacular Sunsets, Iwo Jima, Interesting Diversions Fill Sea Days
Day 41, 2024 Majestic Japan
Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024; 25°29’8” N 174°44’22” E (North Pacific Ocean)
Two items in the news caught my attention in the last 24 hours – and neither has anything to do with American election politics.
First, a Japanese grassroots organization (Nihon Hidankyo) of atomic bomb survivors won the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize for its work to ensure that nuclear weapons never again be used. With visits to Hiroshima and Nagasaki fresh in my memory, I read this news with a new perspective – a rich reward of travel.
Second, today’s “must-read” from The Atlantic is a deep dive into Point Nemo – the most remote place on earth. The magazine’s editor at large, Cullin Murphy, takes a deep dive into many aspects of this little-known geographic spot in the South Pacific Ocean, describing it as the answer to the “longest-swim problem.” In other words, this point in the ocean is the most distant from any point of land.
It turns out the closest humans are 250 miles away in space when the International Space Station orbits above. In the depths of the ocean there are the remains of many spacecraft that have fallen to earth. The remoteness of this point makes it a good place to direct “deorbiting” space junk.
If like me you enjoy in-depth reporting about such topics, you can find the article at this link even before the November issue goes to press. I’ve made it a gift so you needn’t subscribe to read it (although I highly recommend The Atlantic for its excellent journalism).
At coordinates of 48°52’52”S and 123°23’51”W, Point Nemo is 6,400 miles from our current position (which I used as the today’s locator at the top of the blog post), showing the immense size of the Pacific Ocean.
The closest I have been is Pitcairn Island – the isolated island populated by descendants of the HMS Bounty after the infamous mutiny. Pitcairn was a stop on our 2020 world cruise and is on the itinerary of our upcoming 2025 world cruise.
These sea days between Okinawa and Hawaii are flying by. Today is our seventh, with three more to go. Careful followers of this blog will note that I last said there would be 11 sea days. Our plans changed when a medical emergency on board led to the cancellation of a scenic cruising day around Midway Island so we could sail straight to Honolulu, where we will arrive a day early.
We earlier sailed around Iwo Jima, inhabited only these days by a Japanese self-defense force. Mount Suribachi is perhaps best known for the iconic photograph of the raising of the American flag, taken by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press.
We don’t see many birds here, but this morning a large group of dolphins entertained us by jumping alongside the ship. My grainy photos through the windows of the Lido restaurant don’t really do them justice.
Our daily program is full of activities. Four Hawaiian cultural ambassadors are leading lessons in hula dancing, ukulele playing and jewelry making, while also performing each evening during an Aloha Sunset Music Hour.
A couple of nights ago my friends John and Jolanda were among those dressed for the Costume Party.
The art studio is busy with Japanese painting and various crafts. The sports-minded can play pickleball, compete in golf putting and shuffleboard and walk a mile around the promenade deck. Today’s afternoon movie is Midway. The Crow’s Nest is full of people playing mahjong, Mexican dominoes and other card and board games. Surprisingly, I haven’t heard much grumbling about the long stretch of sea days.
On our journey west earlier in the cruise, we gained an hour every night, and two hours once. Because we are farther south in sailing back east, our time changes are spread out. For the last three days we lost an hour at 1 p.m. each day. I like it better than losing an hour at night. We still have two more hours to lose before Honolulu, and three between Hawaii and Seattle.
Perhaps of more interest, tomorrow will be a repeat of Oct. 12, as we cross the International Date Line again today. It generally follows the antimeridian, or 180th meridian – the opposite of the prime meridian, or 0°, as measured from Greenwich, England.
The captain calls today and tomorrow Groundhog Day parts one and two. Instead of being many hours ahead of the United States, we’ll be behind again. I guess that’s why my WordPress app thinks I posted this on Oct. 11, even though it is Oct. 12 where I am. Thank goodness for apps like World Clock that tell me the current time in any city.
So much interesting info always! Thank you for sharing!
I really enjoyed reading your post today, I actually enjoy everyone, but this was even better for me.
All your blogs are interesting and entertaining, but this one here especially was loaded with interesting facts and information, I very much enjoyed it.
Hi Jo, the world clock has not caught up with the start of Australia’s 2024 daylight saving. That’s when we go from three time zones (Eastern, Central and Western Standard Time) to Eastern Daylight and Eastern Standard Time, Central Daylight and Central Standard Time, and Western Standard Time). As you may recall from our visit in February last year (and perhaps also in 2018), when daylight saving was in force, the reason for this is that Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia do not adopt daylight saving. We will really notice this from next Friday, when we are in Queensland for nine days – we must take our eye masks so we don’t get woken too early by the early morning sunrise, but there isn’t anything we can do about it getting dark earlier in the day than Canberra.
And then places like Darwin really mess us up by being 1/2 hour off! Crazy Aussies. 😀
…Part 2: oh and how funny that it was possible to read this blog on Oct 11 even though it was written on Oct 12….
Hiroshima, Iwo Jima and Tinian were the highlights of my WW2 cruise in 2019. The historical events in those places had a huge effect on me, made more so by the great guides we had.
Enjoy your sea days and Hawaii.
Thanks for your interesting post (as usual!) and for the Atlantic Article. The latter was a fun and interesting read also!
Thank you for teaching us so much. Looking forward to seeing you soon on the ultimate Atlantic
Thanks for taking us along!
Really enjoy your emails Jo! Thank you!