April 2 Enroute to Pitcairn; A bit of history

Position: S25deg20min;W128deg34min. Day 10's run: 120 nm. It was like a cruel April Fool's joke. We were 175 nm from Pitcairn and the wind died. Fortunately, we carry enough diesel to motor the rest of the way in, albeit slowly, and that's just what we're doing. Then I remembered, no wind was one of the reasons the mutineers living on Pitcairn weren't discovered for so long; boats just couldn't get there! No engines in those days, right? There occasionally seems to be a windless zone around the island that, at times, reaches out for several hundred miles, so depending on the month and weather, boats were becalmed here and the word spread...."don't look there...there's nothing out that way except no wind!...." The boat's Captain gave the command to go another way and the mutineers remained undiscovered for a long time! The actual mutiny took place in 1789; an American whaling ship discovered Pitcairn in 1809, and the British arrived in 1814. If you haven't read "Mutiny On the Bounty," heard about Captain Bligh, John Adams, Fletcher Christian and the rest of the crew, as well as the Tahitians who accompanied them into exile, it's time to get the book out of the library! It's wonderful reading for yourself (and, if you've got any, your kids!) and, obviously, a true story! The film (staring in various film depictions Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Marlin Brando, Anthony Hopkins, Mel Gibson, and others) is also available, and gives the flavor of the situation, with a bit (some would say a lot) of artistic licence thrown in. At any rate, it's those descendants of those very same mutineers that we want to visit with and see how their ancestors lived. Also, one of my sailing heroes, Irving Johnson of the brigantine Yankee fame, was the one who retrieved and raised the original anchor from the HMS Bounty where it lay on the bottom in Bounty Bay, and it now resides in Adamstown. History all around us, and we're hoping to experience it! We're motoring, with 83 miles to go, and should arrive at Bounty Bay tomorrow morning. We're excited!