10th and 11th May (1919)

Two calm dull days in succession, concluding with a beautiful sunset over a glassy sea glimmering with a hundred different tints.

We had a deck concert, and for the first time in many days, the stars were visible.  There was the old Southern Cross well up in the sky – Laus Deo!  During the day we sighted several mountainous islands, one of them a great wedge-like rock towering out of the ocean, with almost perpendicular sides, like an island in a fairy tale.

Well across the line now.  Good old Pacific – calm-cool (comparatively) – birds both great and small – whales spouting, and, occasionally in the distance schools of porpoises pouncing out of the water in glee.