We were up bright and early this morning for the scenic sailing into Bounty Bay of Pitcairn Island…… the very same island involved with the Mutiny on the Bounty saga. Actually, there are four islands that comprise these remote British Overseas Territories in the Pacific. Starting with the largest, there is Henderson, Pitcairn, Oeno Atoll, and Ducie. Only Pitcairn is inhabited with about 54 residents who live in the tiny town of Adamstown and speak English and Pitkern.
Breakfast was at 7:30am today, but we had gone outside on the bow briefly to take some pictures of the island on the starboard side. One of us came carefully out of the door to the bow, strolled over to the railing, and got hit with wind that took some of my hair and wrapped it around a rope. That rope was full of black grease…..good grief. It took a minute to unwrap it from that rope with hands full of the grease. That will teach me to braid it before going outside in the wind. It did come out after three washings with shampoo and gobs of conditioner.
At breakfast, our waitress, Joan went in search of some Bounty Rolls which Florin had mentioned were different. She came back with two rolls that were filled with chocolate coconut….different, but OK although we prefer the mandarin filling. One time they served Hong Kong Rolls with bean curd, and the crew loved them. The guests? Not so much.
Pitcairn has a total of 5 square kilometers with a landscape of desolated rock cliffs, valleys, and two peaks that are 892 feet and 1105 feet in elevation. Their currency is the New Zealand dollar, however, there are no banks here. They use a treasury office as well as credit cards. Interesting, but there is no unemployment here. The average salary is the equivalent of $885 US dollars a month. The people that live here are Polynesian and descendants from the Bounty.
Their police force consists of two constables. There is one post office, and the locals rely on the UK government for support. Although they do all right with tourism and selling souvenirs when ships like the Volendam stop for a visit. That occurs from 10 to 15 times during the season when ships make a stop here. Small expedition ships and yachts will also pay them a visit during the year.
Another interesting fact is that the houses here all have modern appliances which can be ordered online. Their diet consists mainly of fish, and home-grown fruits and veggies. They have what is considered the purest honey in the world which is sold in small amounts. Today the guests were allowed only two jars per person. We have no doubt it was very expensive. All of the necessary staples and supplies come from Mangareva in French Polynesia, about a 36-hour chartered vessel ride to here.
There is no hotel here, but homestay accommodations. They do have a few shops, a pharmacy, one gas station, a hospital and a doctor and one nurse. The average life expectancy is 50.4 years old, and that applies to both sexes. They do have TV and internet provided by Starlink. Guess what…..there is NO cellular service. There is one school that is closed because there are no kids living here now. They have one bar called Christian's Cafe. There is one church and the main religion is Seventh Day Adventists. Electricity is diesel generated using 75,000 liters of fuel a year. There are plans in the future to convert to a hybrid photovoltaic solar energy, which may have already happened.
In 2012, there was one car on the island (or so it was written), but we have seen 4x4 quad vehicles and many motorcycles. It sure is a far different picture from what the mutineers found back in January of 1790, when Fletcher Christian and eight other officers and crew settled on this small island. He also brought six Tahitian men, twelve Tahitian women and one child with the group. And from there, the story continued. If you are as old as us, you might remember the three movies that depicted the story of the mutiny. We doubt any of them are 100% based on actual history as Hollywood tended to glamorize the events. Today there was a guided pictorial presentation by resident Darralyn Griffiths, a seventh-generation descendant of Fletcher Christian, who showed what life was like living on this tiny but beautiful volcanic island. As we chose not to waste any time inside a dark show lounge, we hope to catch this talk on the TV tomorrow.
A little bit more info on Henderson Island reveals that it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988 and remains a scientific site for studies done annually. The island is 170 kilometers from Pitcairn, while Oeno Atoll is 150 kilometers away, with Ducie 530 kilometers and the furthest from Pitcairn.
There was no announced plan for our short stay here in regards to staying in Bounty Bay or circling the island slowly for several hours. Because of some deep swells and higher winds, the ship had to move out of Bounty Bay to allow the islanders to board from their long boat. We counted about 25 or more people in that boat. The printed plan for their visit was well laid out with their craft market set up in the Lido Poolside area. Then at 10:30am in the World Stage, Captain Rens and the Mayor of Pitcairn exchanged plaques for this memorable visit. Following that, there was the guided presentation by native Darralyn. We did get a chance to watch her talk and photos on our TV late after dinner. Hotel manager, Florin, presented the Mayor with a giant check that was representing $5000 of food supplies donated by HAL, if we understood correctly. Great idea and the gift was well-received.
Now, regarding the scenic sailing, it appeared that it was working mostly for the folks on the starboard side of the Volendam. We jokingly call Captain Rens the "starboard Captain". Perhaps there were more calls for equal time coming from other portside guests because we eventually noticed the ship turned and gave us all the spectacular view. We were happy to find many of the island's birds were flying overhead and above the water. One such bird is a favorite of ours and that is the tropicbird. For some unknown reason, we were not seeing them early in the morning. There were plenty of white terns and a few frigatebirds. While shopping for some treasures in the craft market, we did have a chance to talk to Mr. Christian, the son of Irma Christian, and a descendant from Fletcher. He told us that his mother lived to within one month of 91 years old and passed away in 2016. Lucky for us, we had purchased her cookbook which she signed for us. Then we asked him about the tropicbirds and he said they were there mostly in the Bounty Bay area. By golly, we went back out and finally saw several of them flying over the ship close to the time we left. Another lucky find for us, however processing the over 2000 photos taken today is going to take time.
We have one good question for whoever authorized the painting of the railings on some outside decks, such as deck 9. They had two days at sea to do this, so why pick a scenic sailing day to paint where people come to take photos or just enjoying watching this remote island? We happened to notice more than a few folks come outside on deck nine, go directly to the railing, and put their hands right on the wet varnish, not seeing the sign below.
Back in our room, we did have the chance to witness the longboat pull alongside and load up with much appreciated food supplies such as rice, flour, sugar, and many other staples. Although most everything was boxed up, sometimes they send them back with fresh fruit and veggies and eggs and meats such as bacon and ham. And other times we have seen some cases of alcohol being gifted for the adults and plenty of ice cream as well. It took well over a half hour for them to stash the goodies, then the rest of the natives boarded and took their place on the boat. Some of our crew went along for the ride back and that included the Captain, Florin, and some other officers. Passengers on all of the portside decks were cheering them on as they sailed into their harbor. Our crew were returned by 1:30pm, and before 2pm, we were on our way towards French Polynesia. What a day we had here, and even though we did not step foot on the island, we enjoyed every minute of the sailing and mixing with the locals in the craft market wishing them well in the future.
We kept busy all afternoon until dinnertime arrived. Lunch was room service mini sliders, just enough to tide us over to 8pm dinner. Tonight the menu offered a lot of fish items. We really like the shrimp cocktails, so we ordered those and Caesar salads. Mains were the same with small chicken meatballs and ziti pasta with a tomato sauce. Dwi suggested a "jar" dessert that mentioned cake and cream, but the cake was crumbs and it was way too gooey. Slices of watermelon worked for one of us. Cannot go wrong there.
The clocks went back another hour tonight, and according to the Kindle, we will need to set them back one more hour tomorrow evening. We will be eating breakfast when we were having lunch a week ago! Some folks went to the show of David and Dawn, instrumentalists and visual artists with imaginative creativity. And the movie in the Wajang was Broke.
Bill & Mary Ann
