We arrived safely and anchored at 0800, having called ahead to officials of our imminent arrival. We were picked up by a small launcha at 0930 and met Simon, the Agricultural officer, and Brenda, the Immigration officer. Clear-in procedure was easy and fast. We then had coffee and toast with Brenda, her husband Mike, and Dave and Sherry, as well as Paul, the captain of a charter boat named Southern Cross. We planned our morning, and what a wonderful morning it turned out to be. Brenda took us on a tour of part of the island, with both of us holding on as we sat in the back of her Honda four wheeler. There are so many ruts and unpaved roads, the islanders started using four wheel drive vehicles a few years ago. We visited Rope Bight, climbing down a near vertical cliff to get to a small beach area where there were petroglyphs in the rock wall. You had to think and hold on like a mountain goat. We also got to see St. Paul's Pool, Highest Point, and several other bays suitable for anchorage when weather permitted. Brenda is, if I recall correctly, a fifth generation descendant of the Bounty mutineers. We arranged lunch at Betty Christian's, who, along with her husband Tom, are also mutineer descendants. Betty cooked a sumptuous lunch on short notice, and what was of particular interest was that she and her husband were friends with Irving and his wife Exy Johnson (of Yankee fame that I alluded to in a previous blog entry) and they had them as house guests on a number of occasions. After lunch, we visited the Museum, where artifacts and a wonderful stamp collection were seen. We eventually wandered down to the dock at Bounty Bay, being given a ride by David, the Ham operator (VP6DB) I had made contact with a few weeks ago. We were loaded down with bananas and fresh veggies. Upon our return to Infini thru the building surf, the rolling motion aboard was still horrible, so we made the decision to depart for Mangareva, feeling that we'd get a better night's sleep underway than at anchor. Three other boats departed the same time, as there were five of us visiting this tiny 2 mile X 1 mile size island! Brenda had told us that 39 yachts had visited last year, one of the busiest on record. Unfortunately, Pitcairn has no really safe anchorages, and with the swell situation expected to deteriorate, we felt that getting just about thrown out of our bunks while anchored was a bit much for us. Our visit was way too short, but we feel fortunate we were able to get off the boat to make the visit, and in so doing fulfilled a childhood dream of mine and have wonderful memories of the friendly people we met and the historical sights we visited.
