A nice relaxing sea day, a good thing for my ears at least. Very clicky today so am dosing up with Sudafed to try and clear it all up before we arrive in Rarotonga, Cook Islands tomorrow where we have more diving arranged.

A lovely sunny day, so after a good lie on and some breakfast, we pegged out on deck for a while, enjoying the occasional swim and reading. The Captain made an announcement that Rarotonga, which is a tender port, can be tricky to land in because of swell and that it was possible we might not be able to go ashore. Yikes! Hope we can as otherwise we will lose about £60 in admin fee from the dive centre. Fingers crossed. He said he was hopeful it would be ok so I hope he's right.

After lunch we had art and today a naïve style painting of a fat man lounging under a tree with a dog. This style suits me and I was really pleased with my effort today. A keeper.

Then to rehearsal where we found that one of our four who actually has the largest part has had to withdraw for reasons of ill health. So, someone read in for us today, but guess who has agreed to join our company and take the part?: Bob Man of course!!!! He didn't know he'd volunteered until I took him back a script but has risen to the challenge and will join us at the next rehearsal.

Tonight we had a Maori Cultural show on board in preparation for entering New Zealand waters beginning at the Cook Islands tomorrow. They put on a lovely show of warrior dances including the Haka plus some songs and traditional games.