Pitcairn Island

Wednesday, Feb 13, 2019

Where am I?

So, what’s been happening?

Today has been very interesting in terms of visiting our port of call. This morning, we rolled up to Pitcairn Island, arriving at about 10:30 (so we got to watch as the island appeared on the horizon and slowly grew closer and closer to us.) This is unusual since most of our arrivals are early in the morning, so our approach is in the dark.

More things that make this call different from any other that we’ve made so far include:

• Pitcairn Island has no harbor, so we can’t tie up to a pier
• It also has no tender dock, so we can’t even go ashore
• We’re only scheduled to be here for three hours

So, what’s the plan? We can’t go ashore, but we’re going to be bobbing in the water here for three hours. What gives? The captain says we will be circling part of the island. We can’t even circle the entire island because the ship does not have (and, seemingly, can not obtain) reliable sounding depths of the waters to the south of the island. So, are we in a remote part of the world? You betcha! We’re so remote that the ocean depths here have not been reliably plumbed and, apearantly, it’s not important enough to do so owing to the dearth of marine traffic (which is the only kind of traffic on this island.)

Now, here we are, parked in front of this tiny speck of real estate in an otherwise empty ocean. Why? Why are we here?

History of Pitcairn Island

Have you watched the movie “Mutiny on the Bounty”? The 1962 version of the film stars Marlon Brando, and Richard Harris, among others, and received an Academy Award Best Picture nomination in 1963. It’s a great movie and gives you a (dramatized) account of the events of 1788 on the HM Armed Ship Bounty. It’s the story of some severe differences of opinion between Captain Bly and Acting Lieutenant Fletcher Christian that ended with the Captain and several other loyalists being cast off from the Bounty in the ship’s boat while Fletcher Christian and the other mutineers sailed away.

Now comes a long story, and I’m going to skip it here for purposes of brevity. If you don’t know the details between the beginning and the end of the mutiny story you should stop reading now and go watch the movie. Go watch it, then come back. Go on. I’ll wait for you here.

Welcome back! Now, Pitcairn island is where Fletcher Christian, several of the mutineers, and some Tahitian natives ended their search for a place where they might avoid detection and arrest by the British Navy who were patrolling this part of the South Pacific looking for them. As it turns out, Pitcairn was a good choice as a hideout! Why? Because even though the British navy knew about the existence of Pitcairn Island, all of their charts had it located 300 miles away from its actual position. No GPS in those days. 

In order to stay hidden from the British (and to prevent any of the mutineers from leaving the island and reporting where the other mutineers were hiding) the HMS Bounty was burned and sunk in what is now Bounty Bay on Pitcairn Island, in front of what is now Adamstown.

And today, 230+ years later, we are here at Pitcairn island, anchored near the underwater wreck of the HMS Bounty. The real deal! In a way, it’s like visiting a movie set except that this movie set is a historical reality!

Pitcairn Island in the present

There are still some decendants of the mutineers living on Pitcairn Island, but not many. The entire population of the island is considered to be about 34 people, according to one of the islanders who delivered a presentation to us. The population has been shrinking for about 20 years now, and there is some concern that Pitcairn Island will soon cease to be a viable settlement.

Even among those that do not plan to leave the island, there are challenges. For example, the electrical power on the island comes from a diesel generator that only runs during daylight hours. It feeds a small electrical distribution system to bring power to the homes in Adamstown. Sounds pretty normal for island living, except that there is only one man who runs, maintains, and understands how to power up this little place and he is 67 years old! I did not hear of any contingency plans.

We’re being boarded!

Since we cannot go ashore, a longboat full of islanders came out to greet us and to bring handmade crafts, postcards, stamps, and t-shirts directly to us. 

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With the help of the crew of the Amsterdam, an outdoor market was set up around the pool area on the Lido deck, and it was an instant hit. I’ve never seen this many passengers at one time on the Lido (mid-ship) since this cruise started and it was a Pitcairn Island souvenir feeding frenzy! Honestly, trying to work my way through the crowd to get to the customs officer was like swimming through frenzied piranhas after somebody innocently placed their bleeding wound in the water just to wash it out. 😏

I was looking for the customs officer because I wanted to get my passport endorsed with the official Pitcairn Island immigration stamp. (And, I got that stamp!) Along the way to the immigration desk I stopped to look at some of the crafts being offered. There were lots of things made from wood including some pieces that would have made excellent candy or appetizer serving plates. One table selling such plates was being operated by a husband and wife islander team whose last name was Christian. I had a hundred questions running through my head, but the shopper-piranhas were too much for me and I simply moved on.

And, the bar staff was kept busy as you can well imagine. Shopping in the tropical sun is thirsty work, but the bar staff (dressed in appropriate costumes to celebrate the day) kept cold drinks coming hand over fist. I know because I watched them for as long as it takes to consume two Anchor Brewery Liberty Ales. (In Matt Danger Tolle time, that’s about 10 minutes.)

In about 3-and-a-half hours time, it was all over. Everybody had whatever souvenirs they wanted (or acquired before they were all gone!) The outdoor market was disassembled, all of the displaced tables and chairs were relocated back to their original position and, “presto!”, everything was back to the way it normally is.

As the islanders boarded their longboat and headed back to their island, the passengers on the Amsterdam prepared to party. As has been a tradition throughout this cruise, we had a sail-away party with happy hour drinks, even though it was only 3:30 in the afternoon! Well, it’s not as if I have to go to work tomorrow, so why not?

All in all, it was a marvelous day spent: 

• interacting with a very large percentage of the population of Pitcairn Island (14 islanders!)
• shopping in a Filene’s Basement-style manner
• enjoying a mid-afternoon happy hour that lead to a lengthy evening of imbibing

Cheers!

http://youtu.be/ir6Hb5xqBIs

What is it?

Ok, the previous towel animal to be offered for your analysis was this one:

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And most of you guessed correctly that it was the NBC peacock!

So, here’s a new one for you. You may need to use a little more imagination than you did last time. Add your guess via the “Reply” area at the bottom of this post, and forgive my photography.

Next, we sail for two days and then arrive in Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia. So, if you don’t hear from me over the next couple of days, you can probably find me at the bar.

G’night!