A lovely hot sunny day. We spent the whole morning lying by the pool and soaking up the rays. Well, actually, we did have to make a launderette run but that went off smoothly. I had a rehearsal at 11 and we read through the play again starting to put in some bits of business. It is getting better now as the others are getting more confident. I laughed out loud a few times today which is a good sign as I've read it about a million times now. LOL

The captain came on at midday to announce some bad news. Apparently a very elderly gentleman had fallen over on deck yesterday afternoon and sustained a life threatening head wound. He was going to have to be evacuated off on Easter Island and then flown to Santiago in Chile. There is a doctor and medical staff on board and indeed an operating theatre but not equipped for something as serious as this. It meant that we would not be able to cruise around Easter Island as planned to view the famous stone statues. A blow for many of us, but obviously not on a par with the poor chap who was so badly injured. We approached Easter Island around 2pm. It was much, much bigger than I expected it to be. I think I was expecting something volcano shaped but in fact it is very long and low with volcanic peaks standing on the horizon. We went more or less straight into the bay near the main town and the man was tendered ashore (there is no pier) and then flown to Santiago in Chile. We wish him well.

Interestingly the runway on Easter Island was massively elongated to allow the space shuttle to land in cases of emergency and we could see it clearly from the ship from perhaps a mile out to sea. Once the casualty was safely handed over to the medical authorities ashore and the crew returned, the captain came back on and said there was time for a short cruise along the coast and we would see some of the statues. Well, we did - there are over 1000 apparently - but it was from quite a long way off and even with binoculars they were pretty small at that range. Fascinating to glimpse, but impossible to photo from where we were I'm afraid.

The sea was absolutely gorgeous colours around Easter Island. The island itself was very green with high soaring cliffs. It used to be thickly wooded but archaeology has shown that all the trees were cut down to facilitate moving the ancestor statues from the quarries to their positions. The denuding was disastrous for the island's survival and it suffered very hard time subsequently. Looked reasonably thriving now and trees have been replanted. I would love to come back one day and see all those statues close up. It's so remote though….

I think I might have got a bit too much sun because I didn't feel much like dinner. We grabbed something light up in the buffet which was Indian themed tonight. Then went to see the Headliners resident company give their Killer Queen show which is a song and dance tribute to Queen. Very good. Finally, the late show in the theatre which was a mind reader a la Derren Brown. Good but no one is as good as Derren.

Totally dark outside but still so very warm.