12th August

12th August.
Easter Island. Partly cloudy some blue sky. Temp 20c.
Breakfast in the cabin this morning as we had an early start for our tour. As usual breakfast came earlier than we ordered it. In fact it was still dark outside. By the time we had showered ab
Nd had breakfast we began to wonder if in fact we would be going on a tour today because there is no dock here and so we had to use the ships tenders. There was quite a swell which makes loading and unloading the tender boat unsafe. Sure enough the Captain came on the PA to tell us that they had lowered a boat but it was deemed unsafe so we would not be leaving the ship. In stead we spent all morning and part of the afternoon circling the island at about 10 knots. We took lots of photos and were even able to see some Moais. Moais are the main attraction of the island, they are statues which have been carved out of the hardened volcanic ash. They stand about 13 feet high and weigh up to 14 tons. They stand with their backs to the sea and are believed by most archaeologists to represent the spirits of ancestors, chiefs or other high-ranking males. The Island is controlled by Chile, it has an area of 292,258 sq miles and it has a number of extinct volcanos.
There was a revised Princess Patter issued and the social program was changed. At 9.45am Evon gave a lecture called "Immigration to Australia, where they came from and why" as I was one of them and know why we came I did not go to it. Later on at 1.15pm the production show which we missed earlier due to illness of one of the cast, was put on. It was called "Classically Yours" and it was exactly that, music and dance of the classics and it was as usual very good. At 3pm the video which was made of the ship' s tour of Machu Picchu was shown. As none of us went on this tour we were all very interested in seeing it. Coral says if she was younger she would have loved to have gone there, Betty and I have our doubts but the video was good to see. We have ordered the DVD set from Southampton to Sydney so we may get it as part of the set.
Show time tonight was Bayne Bacon in the Princess Theatre. He is an American who now lives in Australia. He told jokes, sang, and played the piano and the guitar. He was excellent.
PS. I notice that I posted yesterday's blog more than once. I thought it had only gone once.