AUTHOR/TEACHER/TRAVELLER GRAEME LAY REPORTS FROM THE PACIFIC

- a report from the middle of the Pacific Ocean, aboard Pacific Sun.

11 June.
Longitude 155 degrees west, latitude 18 degrees south. Skies clear, seas moderate, wind south-easterly. Pacific Sun is averaging 14 knots.
Ports of call so far, Vava'u (Tonga) and Rarotonga. Tomorrow Raiatea, the following days Tahiti, Moorea and Bora Bora.
My hunch was right, people on a ship are very keen to get information about their ports-of-call. Many of them also books read for much of the day, and the ship's library is very popular. But still, I'm surprised that my onboard talks on Pacific history and culture have filled the Atlantis Lounge on the mornings at sea (It holds 600 people). And all the copies of The Miss Tutti Frutti Contest I brought along have sold.
Fortunately I also brought along copies of my non-fiction book In Search of Paradise and my novels Temptation Island and Alice & Luigi, to sell as well.

My Book Club is being held in the Speakeasy Lounge, probably the first time a book club has met in a speakeasy. People are keen, and it's fun.

The Pacific is very beautiful, a deep indigo shade and heaving gently.
An albatross followed the ship for two days, its wing-tips skimming our wake; over Tonga the full moon rose like a giant mandarin.
We passed Niue Island on our way to Rarotonga, where we spent the day ashore yesterday. It was great catching up with old friends over lunch at Trader Jack's, including Mike Mitchell and Don Silk. Don's memoir From Kauri Trees to Sunlit Seas (Random House) has now sold 5,000 copies, he told me. 'It almost pays my bar bill at Trader Jack's,' Don added.

Best wishes,
Graeme