April 1, 2025
Breaking news…..
There has been another Mutiny. It seems that the guests of the Seabourn Pursuit, inspired by the tales of the Bounty, have seized the ship and set Captain Steve off in a zodiac with the 2 faithful officers that still believe in him. The problem is, none of them have ever driven a zodiac. They crashed onto Pitcairn Island directly above the wreckage of the Bounty. Fortunately, though battered and bruised, they all survived. The wrecked zodiac was located and brought back aboard the Pursuit.
April fools!
Thank you all for leaving comments. It fuels my juices to write more. There has been some interest in life on Pitcairn Island, so I am going back to answer as many of those questions as I can.
But first, we were sitting on Deck 9 aft as we were leaving Pitcairn Island when we heard a man say that it had been his dream since he was 7 years old to visit Pitcairn Island. He said he was now 74 years old and just retired in February of this year. His sister is a travel agent and set him up on this cruise to get to the island. Okay, I’ll stop here, because if that doesn’t just make you pause for an emotional moment, I’m just sorry you don’t get it. This is real history from 1790. I didn’t get it, until I realized how much of a big deal it really is. There is some serious history in this part of the world, including the ancient Moai on Easter Island and only few fortunate mariners get to step in the footprints of the history makers.
Okay, now to the questions:
The island gets supplies every 3 months. The entrance to the very small harbor dock is very sketchy, they call it “sporty”. There is no way even a lifeboat from a cruise ship could enter and tie up, so only ships like ours that carry Zodiacs can even think of landing passengers there. Basically, boats ride in on a wave and hope to get back out between the waves. The tide must be timed out for the entrance and exit.
There is one store, it is stocked by a small cargo boat and the residents buy what they need for the next three months. They grow vegetables and fruit. They fish in the local waters, they have one boat, the “long” boat, pictured here. Pitcairn Island is also known for producing honey. Their major source of income is tourism (really). When a cruise ship comes in, either they load up the long boat with their wares and set up a market on board, or in our case the lucky cruisers get to experience the island itself, I told you we were the only ship in a year that got to land passengers. I can’t tell you how many t shirts and hats I saw today aboard our ship that were purchased from the residents of the island. Kim bought a T-shirt and a jar of honey.
There is a Doctor and a Nurse among the 42 residents, but for anything serious they must go to Papeete Tahiti, 1000 miles away or New Zealand. There is no airstrip, so transportation on and off the island is by the cargo ship that comes every 3 months.
They have a diesel generator for power, but they have been installing solar panels and storage batteries for the last few years. Currently 80% of their electricity is solar and they expect to be totally solar within a few short years.
They are a territory of Great Briton and receive $5.2 million pounds per year from them. There is a treasury office and a post office. They said most of that money goes to keep the island operational, there is a monthly stipend for each resident. When something needs to be built or repaired, they all work together to do it. Satellite tv and cell phones keep them connected to the world. Ham radio is still their method of choice when contacting others.
They have 4 new residents this year, but as I said earlier, there really aren’t any young people to increase the population, no babies anytime soon.
I hope that satisfies the curious among us all.
More later……..
Thanks, Steve, for informing us of all this. What a fascinating visit it must have been.