11 October 2002 - The day that wasn't.

We left the US via Los Angeles Airport, heading for Aukland, New Zealand, on October 10th. We were in the air for 15 hours. When we arrived, it was October 12th. We "lost" a day during the flight by crossing the international date line, an imaginary line that splits our planet on a vertical axis. People live all across the globe, and in absolute time, the sun rises later and later as you move eastward. But if we worked according to absolute time, in some cities people would be eating breakfast in the middle of the night, and lunch at sunrise, and trying to sleep while the sun was still up. So that everyone has a day during daylight, we divide the globe into slices like the sections of an orange, and shift the time one hour later in each section east. In Boston, it is 3 hours later than in Monterey. And along one line between sections of the orange, we switch from one day to the next. When we crossed that line, we lost a day. When we return and cross the line the other way, we will get it back by having the same day twice.

When we get to the Antarctic, we will be on the same clock as Christchurch, New Zealand. This isn't because we are in the same slice of the orange, or time zone, but simply for convenience. With 24 hours of daylight at McMurdo Station, we don't have to worry about working when it's light out. Communication between the flight crews in Christchurch and McMurdo is easier, though if they are on the same clock.

Smiles, Stacy