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.We made this stop before Moorea. It's not on my blog map.
2.09.2007
We arrived at Pitcairn Island this morning and dropped anchor at 8AM. The island is 2 miles long and 1 mile wide and looks like the top of a steep mountain most of which is under sea. It does not have either a port or a harbor. Visiting ships anchor in Bounty Bay-a small bay on the southeastern side. We were informed that we were only the 5th cruise ship to visit this year and due to sea conditions none of the others could use their tenders . Capt.Chiesa was determined to get us ashore and tried several different anchor sites finally returning to Bounty Bay where he permitted the locals to come aboard to sell their wares. They had difficulty making it aboard and consequently only agile passengers were permitted ashore. Off duty crew members were prohibited. Once ashore there was nothing until after a 20 minute steep walk up to the village,Adamstown-named for John Adams the sole survivor of the mutiny who took the remaining 10 women and 23 childen under his wing.At his death in 1829 the population had reached 86 including79 born on the island. There have been several unsuccessful efforts to relocate the population to an island offering more room to grow-but many have chosen to return and today the population is only 55. Even the mutineers of the HMS Bounty led by Fletcther Christian chose to return to the island 4 months after casting Capt. Bligh adrift and looking for a place to hide from the British. Upon returning to Pitcarin Island they burned The Bounty in Bounty Bay. In 1957 divers found The bounty’s anchor and it now rests in front of the local government bldg
We spent the next two days cruising and keeping busy with our activities. We initially had some concerns about becoming bored with too much time at sea. There is plenty to do. While we have been playing bridge several groups have been engaged at building model boats- leading up to a competition in the swimming pool..The competiion included testing for boyency by loading them with full coke cans. One boat carried 100 cans but the overall winner chosen by the ship’s officers based on design, materials etc. was” Black Rat”, build by a team headed by a doctor, Ken Axmith from Toronto lives across the hall from us. In any event everyone seemed to enjoy the activity.
Last night we had another interesting dinner. The four of us were invited to join the Hotel Director, Giuseppe Gagnato and his significant other for the past four years, Joanna
Danninger,The Hosekeeper for dinner..We think the staff terrific and it was interesting to hear something about them, how they are selected,trained and supervised and some of the situations that arise involving them. We heard how one passenger who complained about everything and bothered other passengers trying to get a petition signed, was put off the ship with a full refund and a plane ticket home. In answer to the question about the most special passenger, we were told it was easy- Nelson Mandella. The most exciting experience for Giuseppe(Italian) and Joanna (Austrian) was when the Russian Government rented the ship for 3 wks, at a high rate, to have it in St. Petersburg for 3 days entertaining during the celebration of Russia’s 300th Anniversary. Security preparations, the preparation dinner by Russian chefs served on china and silver bought from one of the palaces for the dinner Putin hosted for 97 heads of state on the ship, was their biggest challenge but they would gladly do it again.
We are excited about getting up tomorrow as we sail into and anchor in the beautiful Opunohu Bay,Moorea,Tahiti one of the four French Polynesian Isalnds we will visit in the next four days. Thanks to the splendid lecturer, Matthew Wilson we have gotten a taste of what we will see. He has a book being published soon about the South Pacific based on his eight visits and his love of this part of the world. His slides and his presentations are.special.
previous travel blog entry
Benjq says:
Bill and Sallie, We are enjoying your travalog with irs good pictures. Keep up the good authoring. Ben and Mary Anne