Pitcairn Island

The crew on the ship was from all over the world and very interesting. The only German was Anthony, a waiter in the pizza restaurant. Anthony was born in Germany, raised in Nice. Dad was not happy when he went to a cruise ship after finishing his degree at uni. He wants to tell his dad that he met an Asian woman, they are having a baby and he’s moving to Asia. Said his Dad will explode.

We met interesting passengers, too. Susan from Naples, FL. This was her 4th WC and she has #5 booked. She had some great stories from previous ones.

• 6 nights of blackout when they were near Somalia. Had a Naval cruiser with them and they could see guys in boats nearby.
• Some lady on one cruise had 2 suites – one for her shoes!

Nacham and Stephen from Pittsburgh who we saw quite a few times in the Salt Bar before dinner. Then there was the lady who “held court” every day. She’s sailed about 1000 days on Silver Sea and was Elton John’s Australian publicist at one time. We only watch her!

First stop after Panama was Manta. Ecuador.

After 2 sea days, we docked in the port for Lima. Our boat expedition to Palomino Island included the opportunity to swim with the sea lions. Susan passed but Mark took them up on the offer! Sea lions love toes for some reason and love to lick them. Yes, Mark felt their whiskers!

Both of us have colds by this time! We get the announcement that the ship will not dock at Easter Island because the water is expected to be too rough to tender in. Booooo …. Now we have to plan another trip just to get to Easter Island.

We had 7 sea days before we got near Pitcairn Island. One day the Captain’s noon announcement – “400 miles from nowhere”. He told people to go to Dolce Vita if the rocking bothers them since that is a lower deck and to eat something. Neither one of us gets motion sickness so we were good. I played Bingo everyday and Mark made his way through “Mutiny on the Bounty”.

Arrived at Pitcairn Island about 8:30 AM and circled to the other side of the island by Adamstown. Locals came on board with arts and crafts and t-shirts.
Had a nice talk about living on Pitcairn by a Brit who moved there with a U.S. wife.
Notes about Pitcairn:
• 37 people live there
• 7th day Adventist Church is the only church
• PO, store, Treasury for banking and paying workers
• Christmas day dinner together at the square
• Museum has artifacts from HMS Bounty
• Doctor and nurse full time; doctor comes for varying length contracts
• No kids at school currently 2 kids in NZ finishing education
• Brit overseas territory – governor is not on island
• Banana, pineapple papaya taro grow there
• Diesel and solar mainly
• Everyone has Internet via Starlink
• Septic tanks for waste
• No taxes … Don’t own enough to tax
• Babies are born on island or NZ or Papeete; most women go to NZ because they have relatives there.
I bought 2 postcards with stamps for us and Ellen from the ex-postmaster. The supply boat to NZ just left about 2 weeks ago so the mail won’t leave again for 3 months or so. Supply boat comes every 3 months from NZ and orders have to be placed at least 3 weeks before it sails. They have a ship to Mangareve, FP that goes about every week.

NOTE: It’s now the middle of July and I have not seen the postcard yet!