Easter Island to Pitcairn and Pitcairn!

We sailed away from Hanga Roa in the early evening of the 13^th May, with instructions from the Harbour Master to email them once we are safely in the Gambier Islands (they know we can’t email from Pitcairn) so they can take us off their notice board.  We had another night of rolling heavily at anchor so were glad to get away to the comparative calm of sailing, and to a good night of sleep between watches!

Harry had to photograph his meal!

  When we were in the Galapagos we had purple sweet potatoes that went grey when cooked so in the Hanga Roa market we asked for white ones.  Well, the skins are a pale cream but the flesh is purple, and when cooked it goes so dark it is almost black.  Mixed with ordinary potato the result was a rich purple – it looked like Play-Doh but tastes fine. 

On the 10 day passage to Pitcairn the wind stayed vaguely east for the first week, not the SE trades we had expected.  With light winds going from ENE to SSE we had the twin headsails up and were zigzagging along as the direct course was 276.  We were all happy to be comfortable, so didn’t mind going slowly and an extra day is no problem. 

Fish for dinner!

On the 21^st, a beautiful clear day and our last calm one, we saw a big pod of short-fin Pacific Pilot Whales, about 16 of them swimming in rows and blowing noisily then, much to our surprise, popping up vertically to look at us – sometimes 4 or 5 at a time.  They stayed with us, just swimming slowly along with frequent ‘spy hopping’, for about 20 minutes before they lost interest and swam off.  

Spy-hopping whale - really hard to photograph as they disappear fast

Later that day the wind went round to the north so we put the mainsail up and at sunrise the next day John decided to shake out the reef but the sail got jammed & he had to wake me up and then go aloft on the end of a halliard.  The halliard is attached at the top of the mast 60 feet above sea level and the boat was rolling so as soon as he took his feet off the deck he was swinging wildly, trying to grip onto anything.  He managed to get up there – he hauls himself up on one halliard and has a second one which I keep taut on a winch – and back down with a few cuts and many bruises.

 With a forecast of slight winds we decided to leave the full mainsail up for the night which was fine until 3.30am when it clouded over and a massive line squall started to form, making the horizon black in the moonlight from the torrential rain.  The danger with line squalls is that the wind quickly gets strong and shifts around accompanied by blinding rain, so I called John so we could reef the sail.  We put the deck lights on so we were in a pool of light in the middle of the ocean, the sea rushing past as the light blotted out the scary squall which then passed astern of us in a flurry of rain. 

Every day we wondered if we would be able to get to Pitcairn and if we would be able to get ashore there as it is notoriously difficult to get to and to anchor safely – but on the 23^rd we had Pitcairn on the horizon - so exciting!

  

Land-ho!  Pitcairn really is there just off the starboard bow

The wind died down so we motor-sailed for a few hours to get in before dark.  As we got closer to this sturdy, rugged little island the cliffs were gleaming red and gold, topped with palm trees and pine trees and looking like a little jewel in the ocean.  Simon called us up on the radio and told us that is was safe to anchor in Bounty Bay, where we found a patch of sand between the rocks and dropped anchor in the evening light.

Bounty Bay, with the Shipping Landing Point lookout at the top of the hill

HMAS Bounty was burned & sunk by the mutineers on the 23^rd January 1790, to avoid detection by the Navy.  Every year on the anniversary a model of the Bounty is burned in Bounty Bay.  The Bounty left England in 1788 to sail to the South Pacific to gather breadfruit plants to take to the Caribbean so they could be grown as a cheap source of food for the slaves.  Unfortunately they had to stay in Tahiti for 5 months to avoid the hurricane season by which time many of the crew were very happy to stay.  Once the ship got to Tonga some of the crew mutinied, under the leadership of Master’s Mate, Fletcher Christian.  They put Lt. William Bligh and 18 men who wanted to go with him, into an open boat and sailed away.  Lt. Bligh then managed to navigate the tiny boat on an epic voyage of 3,618 nautical miles in 41 days all the way to Timor in Indonesia, where the story was told to the world.  Meanwhile the Bounty sailed back to Tahiti but they could not settle and eventually, while sailing through the Fiji islands (full of ferocious cannibals who chased Bligh’s boat in their canoes) looking for a safe haven, Fletcher Christian remembered the island discovered by Captain Carteret in 1767.  They altered course and arrived on the 13^th January 1790 with 19 Polynesians and 8 mutineers on board.  Once they had removed everything of value from the ship and sunk her they started fighting.  By 1794 only 4 mutineers were alive and all the Polynesian men had been killed.  By 1800 only John Adams survived with 9 women and 19 children – he brought the children up according to strict Puritanical morality and when he was discovered in 1808 the British Navy decided not to press charges, though the men who stayed in Tahiti were arrested, returned to Britain and 3 were hanged.  John Adams died in 1829 at the age of 65. The majority of islanders are descended from the Bounty crew. 

We enjoyed the sunset over Pitcairn Island - never though I would see that.

We had a dreadful night, rolling like crazy – the anchor chain got caught around some rocks making a horrible noise and causing the boat to jerk.  At first light, once we could see the direction of the chain, we re-anchored but during the night we had lost our ‘chain-hook’ that helps to soften the jerking of the chain at the bow – perhaps it will be found by archaeologists in years to come!

We had a fabulous welcome to the island – the boat came out to get us through the treacherous surf and we leapt aboard as it crashed against us in the swell.  We hurtled in and as soon as we were all on shore the boat was hauled up onto the dock.  Garlanded with seed & palm-leaf necklaces it seemed as if half the population had come to meet us.

Harry with the Police Force

 We cleared in, with the radio man, Simon, now becoming the immigration officer, ordered a box of fruit & vegetables from Carol Christian’s garden and some eggs to be delivered to the dock for us and then were driven in convoy up the hill to Adamstown. 

Our convoy

48 people live permanently on the island and 6 Government officials plus partners come on one year contracts from New Zealand – hence the Police Officer/Customs Officer is in the uniform of the New Zealand Police.  

The church

In the town square, a covered area flanked by the church, post office, town hall & offices Heather the tourism officer gave us a quick run-down of the island. She called up on the radio (everyone has a VHF in their house) to see who could do lunch for us, called the guy who runs the Post Office to come and open up for us and called Nadine, the museum lady, to take us round the tiny museum. 

Chatting to Nadine outside the musem

John trying out the old mode of transport - the wheelbarrow is solid wood and they were used all over the island to transport everything.  One person is still using his.  Some of the many beautiful stamps are on the wall.

This quilt was designed in 1990 by the children of Pitcairn

Heather gave us her phone number & said to knock on any door to use a phone if we needed her and arranged to meet us after lunch.

 The bible from the Bounty is kept behind the altar in the church

This stern anchor was used when the Bounty arrived – they would have dropped the anchor to keep the ship off the rocks as they slowly crept into the bay.  It was so well caught in the rocks that the archaeologists who recovered it had huge problems freeing it up.

On the way to the school

We had a box of Lego for the school and spent a lovely couple of hours there with the 6 children and their teacher. 

They also have 2 pre-school children on the island and 2 teenagers at boarding school in New Zealand.  The children go to school from age 5 to 12 then do a couple of years of correspondence school with NZ ( they come into the school to do it) before heading off to board. 

The supply ship comes 4 times a year & does a 2 week round trip to French Polynesia each time so locals can get away for a holiday or to visit the dentist inTahiti, but the school boarders can’t get home – they all have family and friends in NZ so they stay there in the holidays.  

Exploring the school tree-house

After a walk along the cliffs we had a delicious lunch at Daryl Ann’s house, finding out more about life on this unique island and she gave me her recipe for the tasty veggie ‘meatballs’ she had made for Harry (as well as some to take back to the boat). 

Finding out more about island life from Heather, up at the Shipping Landing Point lookout

Looking down from the Shipping Landing Point over Bounty Bay

More walking along the beautiful paths enjoying the scenery and the extraordinary silence, and chatting to people we met and all too soon it was time to leave.

 

Walking down the hill we could see Sara Jane rolling back and forth, as the surf pounded in to the dock at the bottom right of the photo.

With our freshly picked vegetables and fruit, eggs, honey and souvenirs we said goodbye to everyone as we got into the launch. 

Launching the boat is a family affair

Jay picked the right time to race out through the waves and we then had to leap and scramble as the boats crashed together in the swells to get safely aboard.

The weather forecast was for strong winds and the supply ship was due to arrive the next morning, taking up the space in the bay and also involving all the islanders in the unloading of stores, so we hoisted the (reefed) mail sail, weighed anchor and sailed out into the Pacific once more.  We ate supper by the light of the full moon, illuminating the island against the starry sky, and all wished we could have stayed much longer in this beautiful, friendly place.