After leaving Easter Island, our anticipation of turning the
clock back – over and over – became a reality!
We have had five twenty-five hour days in a row, creating havoc in our
sleep patterns.
One morning at Good Morning Amsterdam, the subject of Tim
Horton’s came up. Being big fans of Tim
Horton’s, we eagerly tossed in our own comments. We are not connoisseurs of coffee to say the
least, but interestingly, most of the people who have tried Starbucks and Tim
Horton’s prefer Tim Horton’s coffee. And
those of us who have enjoyed Tim Horton’s doughnuts find it a near insult to
mention Tim Horton’s in the same breath with that American chain that’s famous
for its doughnuts! There is absolutely
no comparison, and since that’s all we have in the Chicago area, it’s very easy
for us to take a pass on doughnuts. The
little doughnuts one gets at that other doughnut chain are miniscule by
comparison with the gigantic and mouth-watering ones we get from Tim. Later in the day, we made sure we told Cruise
Director Bruce and Hostess Adele that they absolutely must try Tim’s peanut
doughnuts! We sure do wish they’d decide
to open a franchise in the southern suburbs of Chicago, but I guess it’s too
far from Canada to even hope for such a thing!
Those people from Canada and Western New York (as well as other states
that border Canada) will know exactly what we mean, I’m sure!
The day before we were scheduled to do our scenic cruising
of Pitcairn Island, Captain Jonathan made a disappointing announcement. We had missed Pitcairn Island last year due
to a massive storm in the Pacific that caused a delay in our crossing and the
necessity to eliminate a few stops, including Pitcairn. Unfortunately this year the island’s
inhabitants were visiting another cruise ship recently and contracted the
flu. Currently more than 20 of the 57
people are suffering from the H2N3 flu virus – the same one that has ravaged
the US. Since we have had no problem
with this dreaded epidemic on board the ship, the captain and Seattle came to
the mutual agreement that they didn’t want to chance the islanders coming on
board and passing the flu on to the ship.
It is amazing to realize how interconnected the world is, even when we
are in extremely sparsely populated and remote areas.
One of our friends made a comment that had not even crossed
our minds! She told us that if we
contracted the flu and a significant number of people were sick, port officials
wouldn’t let us ashore, meaning that we’d have to sit floating at sea until the
virus ran its course. So far this year
there have been absolutely no health issues on the ship, and everyone certainly
wants to keep it that way!
We had so looked forward to visiting Pitcairn Island and
being able to tell our friends, Jim & Kathryn Pitcairn of New Lenox all
about our experience, but we can now only show them the pictures of this small
island. Pitcairn Island is named for the
midshipman, 15-year-old Robert Pitcairn, the first European to spot it back in
1767. Pitcairn Island is the second
largest of four islands spreading out across 400 square miles of ocean (the
others being Henderson, Dulcie, and Oeno) that make up the least populous and
most remote jurisdiction in the world.
It is not a nation but is under the jurisdiction of the United
Kingdom. Pitcairn Island is a very small
island inhabited by descendants of the Bounty mutineers – Fletcher Christian
and his compatriots (as of 2010, only four families remained: Brown, Christian,
Warren, and Young). They chose that
island because it is virtually impossible for large ships to land, which
afforded them the protection they needed after their mutiny. Seeing it, we could definitely comprehend why
this island was selected – it is virtually impossible for ships, or even
tenders, to land on the shore without permission from those who live there. We saw no
docks, though there have to be some because they use small boats and outriggers
to fish.
The islanders usually come to cruise ships to sell their
handmade goods, talk with the passengers, and present a lecture as the ship
does scenic cruising around the island. Back in the late 90s the UK provided the
islanders with bees so that they could produce honey; Pitcairn Island honey is
among the highest quality honey in the world, so we were hoping to get a sample
of this as well as well as other local handmade souvenirs, but that was not to
be (no pun intended). Although we would
have thoroughly enjoyed welcoming the islanders aboard to speak with us as well
as sell their wares, we did appreciate the opportunity to do the scenic
cruising.
As we approached, we were struck by the small rugged island
rising up out of the water. We observed
a boat bobbing in the water and wondered if it was a fishing boat, but as we
neared it, we realized that it was loaded with islanders coming to meet the
ship and receive goods. As a goodwill
gesture, the ms Amsterdam donated the goods the islanders had requested to
purchase. After all, because they
couldn’t come on board and sell their wares, they were definitely losing an
opportunity not only to interact with the outside world, but to make a
considerable amount of money. With zoom
lenses, we were finally able to figure out that there were 16 people on this
boat – more than ¼ of the current population of 57! (I visualized two of our fifth grade classes
with an average size of about 27 or 28 students. However this is the entire population:
babies, children, adults, and senior citizens, not just 10-year-olds!) Apparently
the island’s children are sent to New Zealand to get an education so we’re not
sure if the population includes those who are off the island for academic
endeavors or not. But still, as Chuck
commented, imagine a population that small and coming across someone you really
didn’t like!
After the transfer of goods, we enjoyed a scenic cruise
around the island, a whole seven miles in circumference! Having been told that it would be a clockwise
circumnavigation, which meant that our stateroom was on the correct side of the
ship for excellent viewing, so we searched out our friends Sally & Ange and
Bob & Nancy and invited them to come up and enjoy the sights from our
verandah. They were very appreciative as
this way they could get good pictures without dodging others to jockey for
position. We had lovely views of entire
trip around the island and were struck by the sheer cliffs as well as the
shoreline caves. The mutineers had certainly
chosen well!
The whole scenic cruising experience took about two hours
and soon we were on our way again, but the “Bounty” theme continued throughout
the day. Because they had anticipated
having islanders on board, they had not scheduled any lectures so the day was
pretty much free for other things. The
movie of the day was the 1984 version (Anthony Hopkins & a very young Mel
Gibson) of Bounty. I had seen it when it came out, but I enjoyed
it much, much more this time, having been to Tahiti and Pitcairn Island as well
as having had multiple lectures on our Pacific cruises on the subject of
Captain Bligh, Fletcher Christian, and the HMS Bounty. Dinner that evening was a themed formal night
– you guessed it, Mutiny on the Bounty with
dining hosts dressed as captains and stewards dressed as sailors and the dining
room decorated like the bow of an 18th Century sailing vessel.
Our days at sea have been relaxing yet full of activities to
choose from. The seas have been a
beautiful ocean blue and very calm. We
were informed of Cyclone Gary in the South Pacific, but Captain Jonathan
informed us that it will most likely pass about 600 miles to the south of
us. The only likely effects we’ll have
will be more swell to the water and possible rains in our days in French
Polynesia. We would love to have the
perfect weather there for such beautiful ports, but we are reminded that this
is their rainy season. We’ll have to keep our fingers crossed that
the weather will cooperate!
BT
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