Lost at sea...

January 25th: Lost at sea...

Writer: All lost at sea. In this case it's literal rather than metaphorically descriptive of my normal state of mind. Who knew the Pacific was this big? Yes, it's impressive on the map, but the endless expanse of sea and sky with no living creature otherwise present is a little unnerving.

Communication is rather erratic. We are of course in New Zealand's yesterday which doesn't help, and I'm certain that half my emails aren't actually getting through. Never mind. We are having a wonderful time.

Tomorrow morning we reach Pitcairn Island, and although we aren't disembarking - a prospect I gather is fraught with danger - we do circumnavigate the island. We need to be on deck at 7.45am, which sounds fairly benign until you realise that for the last three days our clocks have been put forward one hour every day.

I'm a wee bit discombobulated, short on sleep, and time deprived. Heaven knows how the stewards cope. I've spoken to them and they reference long work days and short rest periods as a result of this punishing transition to South American timezones.

On the other hand, we catch up on the return journey to NZ where we will have endless days and nights to recover our composure.

The first of my three-part lecture series went really well. Rather disconcertingly, they'd put me in the largest theatre they had on board - which was just as well as we had some 200 attendees: Roughly 180 more people than I expected. The shop is also now selling my books, so it's all a lot of fun.

Everyone has been wonderfully supportive.

I'm still praying to the weather gods to make Easter Island safe for us to land.