Rapa Nui to Pitcairn Island Jan. 25 – Feb. 4, 2004, 1127 nm
We had been watching the weather for a couple of days and were hoping for a good window. The weather showed low wind conditions coming towards us but we were tired of bouncing back and forth on the anchor so we lifted the hook up on the 25th. In retrospect we should have delayed our departure from Rapa Nui for a couple of days. We started off having to motor for the first couple of hundred miles due to a distinct lack of wind. Then the breeze filled in from the west allowing us to run dead down wind, wing on wing, pretty much dead on course for Pitcairn. The luff of the mainsail took a beating on this leg as the boat was wallowing quite a bit between the swells and the sail was slatting a fair bit.
After ten days at sea we were within striking distance. Stephanie was on watch just after lunch when I had a look at the GPS and figured we should be able to see the island. So I went up on deck and looked out over the bow – sure enough, there it was – and, much to Stephanie’s consternation, called out “Land Ho!” Not long after that, we were hailed on VHF by Randy Christian, asking whether we were going to stop in for a visit. Indeed we were, but the question was “Where can we anchor?” Randy suggested Bounty Bay so we sailed towards the place where the chart said it should be. When we got there, a few hours later, we were still looking for it; turns out that Bounty Bay is really just an indentation in the steep rocky perimeter of the island, fully exposed to the wind and swell from the north, with a deep bottom. Since the wind was coming from the northeast Bounty Bay was a dangerous lee shore.
There really are no good anchorages at Pitcairn so the best we could do was to try to stay out of the prevailing winds and current. We made our way around to the west side of the island and anchored at a place called Tedside. The water was so clear we could see the bottom perfectly, seventy-five feet below the keel. I positioned the boat over a sandy patch and let down the anchor. Once it reached bottom I kept letting out chain and drifting backwards until all 300 feet of rode was over the bow. That only gave us 4:1 scope in an open anchorage with about a foot of swell. The place was pretty rolly and with just the two of us on the boat it made us a little antsy about both going ashore.
Randy Christian called up again after we had anchored and asked if we had a dinghy. I said we did but it was not inflated and we would rather not risk navigating into the treacherous Bounty Bay landing. He said he would come out and pick us up in a long boat for a US$40 charge. It was raining fairly hard by the time Randy got out to us but we enjoyed the fresh water sluicing off a week’s worth of sweat and grime. Randy expertly timed the waves as he came around the short breakwater in front of the landing and, in a lull between sets, pivoted the boat around and drove it up on the concrete ramp. Another man, who turned out to be Randy’s father, Steve Christian, hooked a cable to the bow and winched the longboat up 200 feet of ramp into the Quonset hut boathouse. Then Stephanie and I each got on the back of a Honda four wheel drive all terrain cycles and they drove us up the steep dirt track winding up the cliff to the townsite.
They took us to Steve’s house where we met his wife Olive and Steve’s mother, who was weaving baskets for sale to cruise ship visitors. Over tea and biscuits we found out that Steve had been elected mayor of Pitcairn by the some thirty people in a dozen families on the island. Steve took us on an all terrain vehicle tour of the island. First we went up to the western peak of the island where we looked down on Tedside to see our tiny Wheatstrong bobbing at anchor below. Next we headed east and went to the flat plateau meadow over the southern cliffs. It was here that the Australian air force dropped a caterpillar bulldozer from an airplane onto the top of Pitcairn. The machine is still in use grading the home sites and the island’s few roads. North of the meadow is a radio and satellite transmission shack and east of that is the farm. Each family has a garden plot where they raise cucumbers, squash, watermelon, and other fruits and vegetables that can survive the humid conditions and volcanic soil. Not far from the garden is “Downrope” – a sheer cliff that falls a couple of hundred feet to a small, exposed cove on the east side of the island. The only way to get up or down is by climbing the cliff with the aid of a long, long rope hanging down the face. North of Downrope is St. Paul’s Pool, a huge seawater tidal pool in the rocky shore on the northeast corner of the island, that is continually filled by the crashing waves and blowing spray. I imagine on a sunny, calm day, when the breeze and swell are from the south or west, it must be quite a relaxing place. But in the northeasterly conditions we had that day it was simply spectacularly dangerous. West of the baths is Bounty Bay, with its steep hillside dotted with the tidy wooden homes and few public buildings of Adamstown including the town hall and cemetery.
After the tour Steve brought us to Randy’s house at the top of the hill. Since they had found out I worked for IBM they figured I would be able to fix any computer problems they had. I managed to repair Randy’s ThinkPad laptop – it had a bad hard disk so I fixed it by swapping in a new drive they had on hand and installing the operating system. The island has a satellite internet connection thanks to a seismic station that transmits data to Australia using a large dish on the peak of the island. The island has a wireless network that links the satellite ground station to the PCs. When we were there, the satellite link was down so there was no email or internet access. Steve was having problems with his computer because he had moved some program files out of their installation directory to another disk, hoping to free up some room for more digital photos. The Pitcairners have a lot of computer equipment that has been donated, and installed, by well meaning people but have a very poor understanding of how it works. A good gift for the islanders would be some elementary PC training books to introduce the concepts of operating systems, file systems, and how to replace parts on PCs. Steve took me to another house where their ancient desktop was having sporadic lockups when booting up. My suspicion was that the humid, salty air had fostered a lot of corrosion inside the case and that electrical contacts were probably poor. My advice to them, not happily received, was to, in effect, retire the computer. What I actually said is maybe they could use it as a boat anchor.
After the computer repair tour was over we went back to Steve’s house for a cup of tea. Steph and I had brought a bag of books with us to trade and these were well received. The Pitcairners have a village library run by a wacky woman from California who married onto the island but everyone also has their own book collections and pass all new titles around. After the book trading, Stephanie was overjoyed to get a hot shower for the first time since probably Mexico. Further extending their hospitality, Steve and Olive invited us to stay for dinner. Knowing the hardship of life on Pitcairn and the infrequency of supply ships, we didn’t want to accept but they insisted. We weren’t sure what we would get but it turns out that most families have freezers and stock up when the opportunity arises. Our Pitcairn dinner was corned beef, lamb, and a selection of local vegetables.
After dinner we regretfully took our leave because we wanted to get back to the boat before dark. As we were leaving, Steve and Olive gave us as many vegetables and fruits as we could carry in a spare cardboard box then we hopped on the ATVs and went down to the landing. Randy ferried us out to Wheatstrong in his longboat and in return for the computer repairs, I guess, he waived the longboat charges. As soon as we got on the boat I rushed below with the box of fruit and vegetables and put them all in the sink and tossed the likely insect ridden box overboard. I filled the sink up with seawater and watched as a host of crawly creatures floated to the surface.
Steph and I spent one more night at Tedside and in the morning it rained so we collected some fresh water before pulling up the hook and heading to Gambier on February 6. For our evening meal that day Stephanie, using the squash, zucchini and bell peppers from our Pitcairn Island friends, made a penne pasta that we named Pitcairn Island Primavera.