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Captain Cook's replica ship Endeavour in Sydney Harbour - Source: ONE News -
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It's 4am and my back is bent out of shape. I've been swinging in a hammock since midnight, suspended on the mid deck of Captain Cook's replica Endeavour ship.
At a cost of $20 million, you'd think one of the world's most accurate maritime reproductions would have a comfy bed or two on board.
But I'm told that's the beauty of this 18th-century tall ship...to experience what Cook and his men went through as they sailed around New Zealand and up the East Coast of Australia 240 years ago.
Since its launch in 1993, the Endeavour replica has voyaged around the world twice but remarkably it has yet to circumnavigate Australia.
So from next April, the Endeavour will set sail from its home at the Australian maritime museum in Sydney and embark on a 13-month, $3 million round-trip of the country.
The museum is sacrificing guaranteed income from tourists who visit the ship at the Darling Harbour wharf to give all Australians a close up look at the vessel so steeped in their history.
So here we are, me and TVNZ cameraman Dan, who is also swinging in a hammock a metre off the deck next to me, and a bunch of other media who have also been invited on board.
This time next year, these hammocks will be filled by customers who will have paid up to $10,000 for a berth on one of the 20 legs around Australia.
These swinging cots are hanging above the dining tables we ate dinner at a few hours earlier.
I'm awake for two reasons. Firstly, my back is now the shape of a banana and there was just a very loud thump on the deck that startled a few people on board. Yes, it was the dreaded sound of a journalist falling from their slumber onto the wooden floor.
Twelve hours ago, we'd been sailing on the Sydney harbour, manning the decks and generally getting involved in the sailing duties. There's 29 kilometres of palm-blistering ropes to handle, back-breaking decks to scrub and 20 odd sails to unfurl.
But the biggest challenge by far is the nerve-racking climb up the rope ladder to the crow's nest, or the fighting top as it was called back in Cook's day.
Sure, you clip yourself on to safety ropes and haul yourself up, but 17 metres above a wooden deck appears strikingly high. Given we were on the harbour, there was no real swell and the rocking was fairly minimal but I'm not sure if I could stomach climbing a mast that can lurch 30 degrees from side to side on the high seas.
Actually, I'm sure - I couldn't!
Back to the hammock and it's nearly time to rise. I can see others on board making the uncomfortable dismount onto the deck with that look of longing for their own bed, and reaching for their mobile phones to check their messages, emails and texts.
My how times have changed.
Read Steve's other blogs.
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