Sabin’s at Sea - Day 33 - Sea Day #17
by Nina Sabin - Travel Blog
The title of this blog is Sea Day number 17, which means in total on this trip we have had 17 sea days. Today is the first sea day since we left Tonga. We will have a total of two sea days before our next port of call.
What is interesting with the two days at sea is we will be living the same day twice. It will sort of be like Groundhog Day, except the activities change.
We are living Saturday twice. At midnight tonight we will be changing our clock 24 hours. So instead of being 16 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time; we will be six hours behind like we were when we visited Hawaii. This concept of going over the dateline can be a bit mind boggling.
Every sea day, as I mentioned before the captain shares a nautical topic. Today’s was on the ships GPS.
The Global Positioning System (GPS) works on satellite transmission basis. The GPS pinpoints the position and the location of the ship in the water. By using GPS, the ship can clearly come to know about what routes to take, what courses to avoid and all other points that might be important and necessary for a ship in its navigation.
GPS refers to a group of U.S. Department of Defense satellites constantly circling the earth. The satellites transmit very low power radio signals allowing anyone with a GPS receiver to determine their location on Earth.
Twenty-four satellites are in what’s called a “high orbit” about 12,000 miles above the Earths surface. Operating at such a high altitude allows the signals to cover a greater area. The satellites are arranged in their orbits so a GPS receiver on earth can always receive from at least four of them at any given time.
The satellites are travelling at speeds of 7,000 miles an hour, which allows them to circle the earth once every 12 hours. They are powered by solar energy and are built to last about 10 years. If the solar energy fails (eclipses, etc.), they have backup batteries onboard to keep them running. They also have small rocket boosters to keep them flying in the correct path.
Basically the rest of the day consisted of practicing the Thriller dance for the flash mob at the Halloween Party in three days, learning to play Chinese Mahjong (much easier than American Mahjong), playing Bridge and Euchre with our friends.
Today the waves were around seven to nine feet and the boat was really rocking. The stabilizers were on and we were moving along at 15 knots. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop the sea sickness for me. I used the anti-nausea wrist bands, anti-nausea patches behind my ears, and took anti-nausea medicine. Nothing seemed to really calm down my stomach. I drank Ginger Ale too and smelled peppermint. All are supposed to help with sea sickness. The best thing I can do is sleep.
Hopefully tomorrow will be less rocking. Even though we will be repeating the day, I pray we don’t repeat the rockiness. This is the roughest it has been so far. It is interesting John felt fine but a few days ago he experienced sea sickness. It seems once it gets going it is hard to get your stomach to calm down.