Some bumps and bangs in the night as the ship moved about but not too bad. When we got up this morning we found a very rough sea, huge swell, grey skies, Force 7 wind. The swell was hitting us pretty much sideways on which I always find the worst as it makes the ship corkscrew a bit. Anyway, we made it up to breakfast and managed to get a hearty plateful down.

The captain came on and said that we were keeping a westerly route to keep Aurora out of the main cyclone area and that this major reroute meant that we would now not call into the Republic of Samoa (Apia) but would proceed to Pago Pago, American Samoa. This was not a surprise. I rather expected we would be missing out Samoa altogether and proceeding to Honolulu. He was very reassuring and said that there was absolutely nothing to worry about - some of the older people have been very concerned - and that Aurora would ride it all out well. Queen Victoria and Queen Mary who are a couple of days behind us have had to reroute to western New Zealand and shelter there.

It wasn't cold at all (22C) so we found two loungers by the pool and wrapped a towel around as a shawl and read our Kindles. Better to be in the fresh air. Managed a good plate of curry for lunch just to prove our sea-legs are in place. LOL.

Art was a bit of a trial. The class is in the Crow's Nest, a lounge right at the bow up on deck 13, the very top of the ship. It is one of the places which moves most therefore. Began to feel a bit strange waiting for the class to begin but once underway I forgot about it and felt fine. It was the second part of our portraiture workshop and we were drawing a woman's head in the pre-Raphaelite style using a square as dimensions for the head. Amazingly given the circumstances, we did very well today. It was all pencil and shading work with just a light colourwash over the top. As usual, our two pictures are very different but both very pleasing.

Formal night tonight so best big and tucker on. Had a good table at dinner and another Marco Pierre White menu. After dinner we went to the late theatre show which was a tribute band called The Beatles Experience. They were absolutely excellent and it was most enjoyable. They played through the early stuff up to about 1966. Excellent musicians all and they were using the old style amps etc so it very much sounded authentic. Looking forward to another show from them in a few days.

Amazingly, given the volume of the band, I looked down the row and to my astonishment there was a man fast asleep!!!!! He slept through so much I began to wonder if he was dead LOL but at one point he did stir and he managed to get up at the end… Incredible….. There's another funny couple on board who apparently do this long voyage every winter and have done for about 20 years. Anyway, it clearly doesn't make them very happy as they habitually always sit in the front row of the theatre with faces like smacked a**es and never so much as clap… Must be ghastly for the performers. I overcompensate by clapping wildly and singing along at top volume! Possibly this is even more disconcerting to the artistes… but…. It occurs to me that those readers who remember my dear mum and her great enthusiasm for all my amateur dramatic performances might consider I am morphing into her in old age. I have not yet started calling out "Well done! Well done!" but it can only be a matter of time!