Pamela Stephenson reborn after following her muse

Pamela Stephenson took to the sea after famous author's wife appeared in vision. Picture / Martin Sykes

New Zealand-born comedian Pamela Stephenson says seeing the ghost of famous author Robert Louis Stevenson's wife, Fanny, in her Auckland hotel room inspired her 10-month sailing holiday in the Pacific.

Stephenson, a therapist - who has just published a book, Treasure Islands, about her voyage - said she was having breakfast in bed on November 22, 2003, when a female spectre clad in Victorian garments "floated up from my unconscious realm", and she identified it as Fanny Stevenson.

"I had just been reading about the intrepid voyages she and Louis made around the South Pacific Ocean in the late 1800s," she said.

Scottish-born author Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and many more novels, settled in Samoa in 1889 before dying of a stroke in 1894.

He and his wife are buried on Mt Vaea in Samoa.

Stephenson, 55, said her sailing trip involved her in deep-sea diving, swimming with sharks and exploring cannibal sites.

She had to endure squalls and seasickness while sailing 19,000 nautical miles.

Her book's original title, Fanny and Me, was rejected by her publishers, but Stephenson wrote at length about Fanny Stevenson in the book, describing her as a pioneer woman and a singular adventuress.

Stephenson made her voyage in her 10-year-old cutter-rigged sloop with a steel hull Takapuna - named "after my birthplace".

She said her husband, Scottish comedian Billy Connolly, was horrified when she told him of her plans saying, "There's f****** pirates out there."

She took 16-year-old daughter Scarlett with her on much of the voyage, with occasional visits by Connolly.

Stephenson honed her own sailing skills on a three-month course, and did medical training, practising stitches on raw chicken legs in case she was called on to perform an emergency operation on board. She also learned how to handle a pistol and an AK-47.

She said the "treasure" of her voyage was that it had left her a changed woman.

"This has been a voyage of discovery for me in every way. It has made me a better therapist, a better wife, a better mother, better in every way. I'm healthier, stronger, much less spoiled and much more resilient.

"You have to face yourself on the ocean. I've never felt so alive, so humbled, so moved or so terrified as I have in the past year. Honestly, I can't wait to head off again."

The Takapuna is at present in Brisbane getting a lick of paint, ready for its next adventure.

Stephenson plans to sail through "the glorious Indian Ocean and beyond", setting off next April.

- NZPA