Saturday 31 July 2010

Big Fence, Adamstown, Pitcairn Island; Saturday 31 July 2010 בס"ד

Friday morning, we woke up as usual at 0715 and Jimmy and I resumed our work on the charthouse applying more fiberglass, rustbusting, corrosealing, and priming. Did that until lunch, then we got ready to go back ashore. I bought a flat of beer from the hold to donate to Steve and Olive (since we're drinking a lot of their beer), and at about 1430 the longboat arrived and we swapped watches. We headed to the Bounty Bay landing, and while everybody else went off, Shawn, Bob, and I jumped in the water and had a swim. After that we went with Shawn and Michelle to check out the Frenchy's sale at the square, and while they were shopping, Bob and I went down past Len Brown's house to meet up with everybody who was processing sugar cane with the Browns. The cane was already chopped down, but I got to work at putting it in a press attached to a tractor and extracted the juice. Then I moved the sugar juice to a vat and boiled it over the fire and sifted out all the goo. I also learned how to grate a coconut with a coconut-grating stool from Debra. After it was all processed, we had delicious cane syrup with coconut eaten from banana stalk. It was awesome. Went to Big Fence for dinner, and the Australian doctor Bruce and his wife Julie were over as guests (plus Steve is having bad hip problems so the doc is seeing to him). Bruce brought a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue Label, and the Captain allowed me to have some, and it was smooth as all hell. After dinner, went to Andy's for a wild dance party. This time I was awake enough to go crazy. I bought a fid from him too. Walked back with Jo and dropped her off at the Daves' before going to Big Fence.

Today I woke up at about 0900 and had toast with beans for breakfast, then Olive taught Bob and I how to make the ever-popular Pitcairn breaksticks. While we were rolling the sticks I had my laundry done. After this, went to Down Rope with Shawn, Michelle, Brian, WT, Bob, Sue, Chris, and the kids Ryan and Emily, and Niko and Jimmy came shortly after. The way down was super steep mountain climbing. Saw the old Polynesian drawing on the rocky cliff face, and after a bit headed back up. I made it all the way to the top, passing by Liam, Rebecca, Brad, and Julie on the way, when Chris came up and said Jimmy fell. Shawn and I rushed down and I passed by Niko saying that Jimmy slid from this spot, and from the looks of it, I figured I'd go down to the rocky beach and find a dead body (not to be morbid, but it was a long, long, long, long, rocky fall). Anyway, fortunately the others were already responding to him by the time I got back down to the bottom, and although we couldn't tell how bad his condition was, he was definitely alive ב"ה. It took several trips up and down to get everything we needed down there, from doctors and supplies to the stretcher, rope, more people, etc. They put a cast on his arm at the scene, and doped him up for the several hundred foot ascent. It went fairly smoothly and quickly considering the extremely difficult nature of his location and the limited resources. We got him up alright, and the on-the-scene verdict was that he definitely broke his elbow and wrist, possibly other things on the arm, and possibly lumbar injury. Jimmy seemed to have grabbed a clump of dirt he mistook for a rock and fell about 150ft down the rocky cliff face into the one tiny spot with some palms to break his fall instead of rocks. Miracle Jim. After the rescue, the Captain told all of us about what may or may not happen now; A) a nearby French naval vessel might medevac him to Mangareva, where he can be flown to Tahiti; B) we'd leave and transport him to Mangareva immediately; C) an air ambulance would fetch him. All of these scenarios would take a few days to effect. Went to Brian's afterwards and had some beers and tried to relax considering the whole ordeal that had just happened. Came to Big Fence for dinner, then we went to the square for the concert (at Jimmy's request the show was to go on). The little Pitkern kids sang a song, then we did our numbers. Everybody seemed to love Liam's and my skit with midget Roger the trainee. It was a very nice show, though bittersweet without Jimmy, who was a big part of it all. The end was filled with songs from the islanders, and it was very good fun we had. Now back at Big Fence; just chilled with the Captain and everybody. Shawn and Michelle are standing medical watch at 0500 to 0600, much like we would aboard, and soon Bob and I will join them and take care of our Jimmy.