Day 34 12th February 2011

Gordon and Janet

Easter Island Cliffs

Birdman Cult - Natives swam the mile to these rocks to collect a bird's egg and then returned to climb the cliff. The winner's clan ruled the island for the following year

We lost yet another hour last night so that ship’s time is GMT-6 or six hours behind the UK. We are due to loose another hour tonight so that tomorrow (13^th February) we will be at GMT-7. It makes live television programmes from Britain slightly odd. The live broadcast of the Manchester derby started at 6.45am this morning.

This morning we went to hear the port talk about Pago Pago which is a port in American Samoa. It is a small island with many local flowering plants so should be very colourful. However, none of the local tours are suitable for disabled people so our plan at the moment is to walk around and see the town. It is quite small and near to the ship’s moorings. The island is an American overseas territory.

There was also talk given by the ship’s second officer about the workings of the bridge. It was very interesting to know that the ship can be moved using a joy stick only about the size of a finger and that the wheel (they do have one) is only used occasionally. Each ship’s system seems to have at least one backup if not two. They can apparently see 24 miles form the bridge which since it is only one deck above our cabin suggests we can see about 20 miles from the balcony. From the promenade deck (7^th floor) you can only see about 8 miles.

The high spot of the day was sailing past Easter Island at 2pm today. The ship sailed about half mile from the land so we could see the famous statutes in places although many our inland so out of our view. It was a surprisingly rugged coastline with some very high cliffs but also trees that must have been planted in more recent times since when European came here the entire island had been deforested. The Aurora followed the shore for an hour before returning to its path. Gordon and Janet, who are our table companions at dinner each night came and joined us for our trip past the island since it was on the starboard side of the ship and we have a balcony on that side. Their balcony faces port.

The second officer told us we were following a great circle path similar to those flown by aircraft. It is the shortest path between two points on the Earth’s surface. Our next view of land is Pit Cairn Island in a couple of day’s time. This shows the size of the Pacific Ocean.