Wednesday 28 July 2010

Picton Castle at anchor off Tedside, Pitcairn Island; Wednesday 28 July 2010 בס"ד

Woke up at 0800, had some toast with homemade guava jam and Australian Vegemite, which was pretty good I must say. Bob and I went out with Shawn and Michelle on the quad over to Tedside to check out the sights and we met Miss T, the Galapagos tortoise that lives on the island. She was a present from Irving Johnson (who sailed on the Peking in the film “Around Cape Horn”) when he came on the Yankee voyages, and the used to call her Mr. T until a tortoise expert came to the island and informed them otherwise. We fed her, went down by blowhole, climbed some coconut trees, came back and fed Miss T again, then went up to Highest Point and the old radio station and saw Olive's gardens. By the time we finished, we had to get ready to go, so we ran by Big Fence, grabbed ourgear, and went to the landing to get on the longboat for return to the PC. Got back aboard, swapped out the watches, and sent them off. I was unable to remove the smile from my face for quite a while, telling everybody on starboard watch how great it had been as they went off. Seriously, I'm not a landscape junkie (you see one island you've seen em all), but this place will take your breath away. I also feel like part of the family with Steve, Olive, Shawn, and Michelle, and I already miss them. I'm not exaggerating in the slightest when I say that this is one of the most memorable occasions of my life. If only I were a more eloquent writer, I could do it justice. Anyway, once aboard we cleaned up the deck, and got our emergency station bills and our anchor watch schedule. So far, the weather has been very agreeable, but Pitcairn is one of the trickiest places at Earth to stay at in a ship, and if the conditions change even slightly we'll have to react quickly and adjust our anchorage or just heave-to. Anchor watch at 2200 and all went well.