Crossing the Antarctic Circle

A couple of weeks ago, we crossed the Antarctic Circle (66 S latitude). I am now part of a small and select group of people that have crossed this boundary by boat. I received a cryptic email on the morning we entered the Antarctic Circle, explaining that I, along with other first-time crossers, had angered Neptune, great god of the sea with our scientific meddling in his waters. I don't know who is behind the Neptune emails, but it's been a fun narrative to play along with as we work long days and nights.

More recently, we crossed International Date Line! The actual crossing itself was unceremonious and occurred when most of us were still asleep. Since clock time is really more of a formality when you are this far out in the open ocean, the captain basically just decides when we switch time zones so we can all adjust our phones and show up for meals on time. 

In regard to the international date line, our captain made a decision that I was rather fond of. We crossed early on Saturday morning, but he decided that our ship operation clocks wouldn't switch until 00:01 on Monday. However, we were not just switching time zones, we were actually skipping ahead one day. We literally got to skip Monday altogether. I went to bed last night with it being Sunday and woke up today with it being Tuesday. It was so weird but of any day to skip, Monday was definitely the right choice.