22 DECEMBER 2007

21 December 2007
Hello Everyone from Pitcairn Island,
After three continuous days of sailing, we reached Pitcairn Island as planned at 7:00 AM this morning. We arrived but we didn’t disembark or go ashore or any of that good kind of stuff. Today, the island came to us. About two dozen Pitcairnese, or what ever they’re called, came out to us in an open boat and came aboard with dozens of cases of stuff to sell.
For the uninitiated who didn’t read “Mutiny on the Bounty” or missed the movie, -Pitcairn Island is where Fletcher Christian and the mutineers landed and took up residence sans Captain Blye. The island is situated below the tropic of Capricorn and halfway between New Zealand and South America. It took us three full days and nights of sailing to get here from Bora Bora and it will take almost the same amount oftime to reach our next destination; Easter Island off the coast of Peru. It was here in 1790 that the Bounty and the mutineers ended their respective sea faring careers. The remains of the HMS Bounty still rest off shore in about forty feet of water. The descendants of the mutineers that survived the first couple of tumultuous years still live on the island. There are fewer than sixty island residents a third of which proudly carry the Christian family name.
Pitcairn Island is really a small group of islands. The largest of the group, Henderson Island, is where everyone lives. These raised coral islands are home to a wide variety of exotic birds. Because of these rare birds, the islands have been made a UNESCO World Heritage Site. While today’s residents don’t raise cattle, sheep or goats, they do enough farming to provide vegetables and fruit for their tables. Our ship left several large packages of meat for the islanders so we decided we didn’t have to feel sorry for them and their limited diet. We were assured that a number of cruise ships like ours stop by for brief visits throughout the year.
We had an interesting Q and A with one of the islanders. We learned that kids typically are sent to New Zealand for high school and beyond. New Zealand claims ownership of Pitcairn Islands and dictates the laws for the territory. There have been occasional immigrants who move to Pitcairn to get away from it all. Pitcairn is undisputedly the most remote and isolated place in the world where people have chosen to live. The source of water for the local residents is rain water. It rains a lot and catch basins and storage tanks store sufficient water for all of the island’s needs. Within the last couple of years, telephones have come to Pitcairn and with them the ability to talk to New Zealand by means other than the short wave radio.
The residents do maintain a “registration” of residents to prevent the kind of inter marriage problems that have historically devastated similar living groups. The people who came on board seemed bright and whole leading me to believe that folks have been careful about letting cousins marry too often. As a matter of fact, the people we met seemed totally ordinary. While the residents all like to claim some form of Polynesian ancestry, the skin coloring of those we met spoke more of their 18th century English heritage than anything else.
The group from the island came on board with all kinds of touristy stuff to sell. I found a patch to add to my collection. I passed on dozens of different kinds of carved objects, tee shirts with Pitcairn prominently screened on the fronts, little jars of jams and jellies, postage stamps that would take your mail absolutely no where and a variety of books for those who like to stock their book shelves with things to impress people. The patch I bought cost $10 US making it the most expensive patch in my collection. Tee shirts were going for $30 leaving me with the feeling that the islanders had learned how to profit from their isolation.
I apologize for not being more timely with my blogs this past week. After my first blog, the system failed me. After struggling with the system for several days, I finally convinced the “Technology Officer” that the problem was in the ship’s system not my computer. I was interested in the source of the solution to my problems. Once it was decided how the problem could be solved, the staff had to notify an office in LosAngles that controls the technology services for all of the Princess Line cruise ships all over the world. We had to wait several days for an email from LA to authorize the steps that needed to be taken to get me back on line. In the mean time, I used the Internet system on the shipe (I usually use their wireless system). The internet system that is available is so slow that it takes a minimum of fifteen minutes to read one email and respond. The wireless system is almost as fast as working at home.
Our bridge sessions are going very well. I have been teaching a beginners group each morning and running a game for the same people for a couple of hours each afternoon. I’m really pleased with how well my students are doing. With the number of “sea days” we have on schedule, my students will be playing duplicate before the end of our cruise.
A couple of days ago the ship began dressing some of the crew in sad looking red Christmas hats with almost white balls on their tips. To tell you the truth, it really doesn’t look very much like Christmas. It will be interesting to see what is done in the next few days to build to the holiday. So far we’ve heard more about the grand New Year’s Eve party that is planned than anything for Christmas. We do have a Catholic priest on board who should bring a little bit of the Christmas story into our pampered and over fed lives.
I’m beginning to forget what it feels like to walk on something under foot that isn’t constantly moving.
Love to all,
Grandpa Bill, Dad and Barnacle Bill