Arrival at Pitcairn Island
April 25, 2006; 25º 10” S; 130º 10.55W Pitcairn Island
We arrived off Pitcairn Island early in the morning. The sea reports were not promising. There is a substantial surf at the entrance to “Bounty Bay,” a tiny, virtually unprotected, wharf. We elected to wait for the islanders to send out their 44’ aluminum longboats that Tom Ritchie chartered. After some effort that involved fouling one of their props with an errant line, the longboat came alongside the Endeavour and 30 of us climbed aboard. We sat or kneeled on flat plywood boards, holding on to each other as we rocked and rolled through the surf to the landing. Rosemarie, wisely, did not attempt the trip.
Once ashore (soaked with salt spray) we hiked up a steep, newly paved road (called the “Hill of Difficulty”) to Adamstown, named for, John Adams, the only survivor of the mutineers found when they were discovered in 1808, 18 years after the mutiny. About halfway up, a friendly guy offered me a ride on a motorized Honda dune buggy tricycle. There were woodcarvings and tee shirts for sale in the town square.
I hiked up to Fletcher Christian’s old home with his Tahitian wife, Maimiti. Also went to John Adams’ grave and their Bounty museum. We had brought sandwiches and sodas from the ship that we consumed in the town square.
Near the museum, I saw a couple of ham antennas and was invited into a home, owned by Meralda Warren (a descendent of Fletcher and Maimiti). She is VP6MW and showed me around her “shack.” She has a Yasau all-band HF - VHF radio and normally operates on the 15meter band on Sundays. She told me about a DXepedition she and some fellow Pitcairn hams made to Ducie back in 2003. She has set up a wireless internet network on Pitcairn Island with a slave wireless repeater on a nearby mountaintop. It is battery powered with solar cells to re-charge the battery. The main wireless access point communicates via satellite with an ISP in Albuquerque NM. This odd routing is because the Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory has installed a seismic station on Pitcairn that is satellite-linked back to Albuquerque. She told me that about half the islanders have Internet access.
She and her mom served me tea as I sat out some passing rainstorms on their front porch and when the time came to depart on the 3 pm longboat back to the ship, she drove me down to the wharf on her Honda. By this time, the seas had risen and getting back to the ship was a hairy event as the long boat rode up and down 6-8 feet relative to the small door in Endeavour’s hull. She was banging against the ship’s hull, scuffing her new paint job and doing who knows what damage to the longboat’s gunnel. Eventually everybody made it back with just some scrapes and bruises, but nothing broken! It was an extraordinary day!
Later, Tom Ritchie, expedition leader, estimated that the ship and the spending of its passengers had contributed upwards of $17,000 to the Island economy. More, if you count the 20 tons of diesel fuel that the ship gave to them. Among other things is the charter fee for their two longboats plus a per head fee for transporting us to the island.
The Pitcairn islanders sent out their aluminum longboats to ferry us from the Endeavour to Botany Bay. The big guy with his back to the camera is "Pawl" which he claims is the masculine way of spelling my name. I wasn't going to argue
Tiny Botany Bay has a surf inside the harbor which makes getting on and off their island a challenge.
Ham radio antennas mark this house
Meralda Warren's mom was making Christmas tree ornaments of folded palm fronds. She gave me one for Rosemarie
The ride back on the Longboat was wet and wild. We're all sitting on plywood sheets that are all muddy from our shoes. When everyone got back to the ship we all walked around with muddy rear ends