21 Apr What Day is it? What time is it? It’s a conundrum.
What Day is it? What time is it? It’s a conundrum.
Friday, 22 April or Thursday April 21, 2011?
1015 Z or 1914 JST or 0015 HST?
Boy have we been confused!!! Not about our port of departure (Osaka) or our port of arrival (Honolulu), but about what time are we using on the ship’s clocks and what time is it when we report to our weather router or write entries at the start of each watch in the Passage Log.
This morning we crossed the International Date Line (22 N/180 E/W). We started our voyage on Japan Standard Time (JST), but as we continued to cruise east we became totally out of synch with the sun and the moon. Eating dinner in the dark and missing the sunrise (which occurred around 0300 Japan Time) was making my mind and body feel weird.
We departed Osaka, Japan on Tuesday, 5 April (which was really Monday 4 April in Seattle and Hawaii). We cruised with the clocks on JST and used JST each watch change in our Passage Log until 18 April, but made our position/weather data reports in Zulu time (Greenwich Mean Time). On 18 April we changed the clocks to Hawaiian Standard Time (HST) and started to write in the Passage Log using Zulu time. This is what we should have started with and will in all future passages where Starr is traveling across vast stretches of ocean from east to west or vice versa. Our Homeport in Ashiya, Japan was at 34 degrees North /135 degrees East. Here at the International Dateline we are at 22 degrees N/180 degrees East, which now changes to 180 degrees West. Our destination of Waikiki Yacht Club in Honolulu is at 21 degrees North/157 degrees West .
Today our confusion about the day and the time is over. The clocks are on Hawaii Time and we just have to wait for Starr to catch up with the Sun and the Moon. We report to our Weather Guy in Zulu time, which is the time we have set on both of our GPS. And today is firmly Thursday, April 21. It is a tremendous relief to know where we stand (or float) in the World.
We expect to arrive at WYC the morning of Friday, April 29, 2011.
It has been a very long passage: we still have plenty of provisions, the crew all still enjoys each other’s company, and Don and I are still best friends.
Sharry Stabbert
Friday, 22 April or Thursday April 21, 2011?
1015 Z or 1914 JST or 0015 HST?
Boy have we been confused!!! Not about our port of departure (Osaka) or our port of arrival (Honolulu), but about what time are we using on the ship’s clocks and what time is it when we report to our weather router or write entries at the start of each watch in the Passage Log.
This morning we crossed the International Date Line (22 N/180 E/W). We started our voyage on Japan Standard Time (JST), but as we continued to cruise east we became totally out of synch with the sun and the moon. Eating dinner in the dark and missing the sunrise (which occurred around 0300 Japan Time) was making my mind and body feel weird.
We departed Osaka, Japan on Tuesday, 5 April (which was really Monday 4 April in Seattle and Hawaii). We cruised with the clocks on JST and used JST each watch change in our Passage Log until 18 April, but made our position/weather data reports in Zulu time (Greenwich Mean Time). On 18 April we changed the clocks to Hawaiian Standard Time (HST) and started to write in the Passage Log using Zulu time. This is what we should have started with and will in all future passages where Starr is traveling across vast stretches of ocean from east to west or vice versa. Our Homeport in Ashiya, Japan was at 34 degrees North /135 degrees East. Here at the International Dateline we are at 22 degrees N/180 degrees East, which now changes to 180 degrees West. Our destination of Waikiki Yacht Club in Honolulu is at 21 degrees North/157 degrees West .
Today our confusion about the day and the time is over. The clocks are on Hawaii Time and we just have to wait for Starr to catch up with the Sun and the Moon. We report to our Weather Guy in Zulu time, which is the time we have set on both of our GPS. And today is firmly Thursday, April 21. It is a tremendous relief to know where we stand (or float) in the World.
We expect to arrive at WYC the morning of Friday, April 29, 2011.
It has been a very long passage: we still have plenty of provisions, the crew all still enjoys each other’s company, and Don and I are still best friends.
Sharry Stabbert
Milt Baker
Posted at 15:50h, 22 AprilSounds like the good ship Starr is having a terrific cruise, if any 3,800-mile trip to weather can be good. I must say that you’re Hard Core . . . only two time changes across all those miles!
The way I learned to do it in the Navy was make a one-hour change every 15 degrees of longitude as we passed into each new time zone, which had the effect of lengthening (or shortening) the watches on those days. That kept us more or less on zone time and avoided especially early and late sunrises and sunsets. The clock was usually advanced or retarded on the dog watch (1600-2000).
Your real world fuel management and fuel numbers are impressive. Starr’s daily mileage reminds me of Bluewater’s when we were in fuel-saving mode from Bermuda to Horta, but even with wind and seas on the nose your daily averages are a little higher thanks to your longer waterline. Our daily fuel burn was much like yours.
Judy and I still wish we were with you. We leave for California in two days, and I start my treatments at Loma Linda May 2.
Aloha,
–Milt