Two days at sea after Pitcairn

Mutiny on the Princess

Two hot days at sea, 30 degrees, sunny and humid and two lazy days doing nothing. I caught up on some reading and went up to the Royal Lounge for our afternoon trivia game. Our Sunday game was going well until she asked ‘where is Transylvania?’ and when she insisted it was in France, there was almost a mutiny. Some people take their trivia seriously. As the crowd cried out with calls like ‘keel haul her’ and ‘make her kiss the gunners daughter’ she remained firm and said it was her game and the correct answer was France. We didn’t win. We bypassed the main restaurant that night and had dinner in the Italian Bistro, it was delicious, lasagna for starters and then an excellent Margherita pizza, it was all excellent and I managed to finish the 18”pizza myself, Izzy had Chicken Kiev. After dinner we went to the production show (singers and dancers) with Rikki Jay the comedian.

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Pitcairn island answer

Hi Lorraine, hope you’re not getting too much snow, it feels like about 30 degrees here and it’s sunny and humid. The island is less than 2 miles by 1 mile and projects from the sea with cliffs or steep slopes all around, highest point is about 1100 feet. Their early history was full of violent deaths and murders after being settled by the Bounty mutineers. There were a couple of places where it was possible to go ashore, though viewed from the ship, they looked pretty rough. The islanders came on board via a large open boat which looked like it could have come from the Bounty except it was metal hulled. Current population is 54, (11 seniors, 33 adults and 9 children, youngest being about 6 months). About 15 came on board including one Pitcairn policeman, they were a mixed bunch age wise and some of them a bit short tempered, though I can’t blame them they were all but mobbed by our 600 passengers even before they got a chance to lay out their wares. I heard a rumour today that one of the passengers had walked off with a $120 model of the Bounty, without paying for it, don’t know how true it is. They have fresh water (though they depend on rain to keep it topped up), have regular telephone system, internet access, tv (CNN and a movie channel), generate their own electricity and have a school, church, museum and medical centre, though serious medical cases are shipped and flown to Tahiti and even New Zealand. Their main supplies are delivered every 3 to 4 months plus whatever they can buy from/trade with passing ships like ours. Adamstown, named after the last surviving mutineer John Adams, is the only community and sits on one of the less steep slopes facing the sea, they grow a variety of vegetables, tropical fruits, produce their own honey from bees and fish from the rocks and from their boat.

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Pitcairn island

Saturday February 7th. When we awoke Pitcairn island was in sight and the accursed Saga Rose once again lay anchored ahead of us. Pitcairn is about midway between Australia and South America, no more than a large rock projecting from the ocean, it was settled in 1790 by mutineers from the British ship Bounty. One of the most remote islands in the world, it was annexed as a British colony in 1838 and descendents of the Bounty’s first mate, Fletcher Christian, and eight other mutineers still inhabit the island. There were no planned shore visits for any of our passengers but as scheduled, around 10.00am the islanders arrived by boat to come on board and sell their wares. About 15 people came on board and set up tables in the Royal Lounge for the sale, as they came on board our Princess crew aided by a few islanders were loading supplies onto the small boat. Potatoes, onions, powdered milk, coffee, pasta noodles and toilet paper were some of the supplies I saw being boarded. We spoke to the daughter-in-law of Steven Christian a descendant of Fletcher but didn’t buy anything as I considered them expensive and unfortunately the items I was interested in were marked ‘made in China’. There were some nice carved wood items at reasonable prices, most were marked as made by one or other of the Christian descendants. Around 11.00am a presentation on the islands history was given by Tom Christian and our ship made a complete circumnavigation of the island before disembarking the islanders. The weather has turned nice again and we had a mostly sunny day with a high of 24 degrees and calm seas. Tahiti is our next stop, 1170 miles to the West.

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Easter Island to Pitcairn island

Today, Thursday Feb 5th, was our first sea day after Easter Island and we didn’t do much of anything, sat by the pool talking to friends ’til it rained and we went up to the Royal Lounge for a game of trivia. The sea days are very relaxing and we find most of the time is spent talking with friends, attending a lecture or demonstration, eating, eating and eating . I actually did some exercise this morning, walking around the upper deck for 10 minutes, they have a full gym set up on board with all the usual machines but it’s generally busy at the popular times. Dinner was good as usual, though one of our tablemates, Jim, was not present due to illness. After dinner we went to the evening show, starring an English comedian, Rikki Jay, he was quite funny. Later we went up on deck for a presentation under the stars by an onboard astronomer, Dr Norman Caisse, unfortunately the stars didn’t co-operate and the sky was too cloudy for the presentation, it was delayed ‘til a clearer night. Clocks went back an hour last night and again tonight, first time changes since we left home.


Half way through the first segment, 17 days gone already and it was raining heavily this morning, Friday Feb 6th, the forecast is for the same all day. We’ve been having breakfast delivered to our cabin most mornings, it means we can relax and not have to get dressed before breakfast.


It was delivered by our usual guy, Michael (picture left), from Philippines, always happy and upbeat, maybe because his contract is complete when we reach Sydney and he gets to go home and see his girlfriend, they’re working on buying a house before getting married. Izzy wasn’t feeling too good so stayed in bed all morning, trying to get over her head cold. Princess had told us that all shore excursions for the entire 107 days would be charged to our credit card at the end of the first segment, Feb 25th, an announcement that wasn’t universally popular, so I, among many others made our way to the shore excursions desk to request that the excursions be charged at the end of each segment. The sky cleared around noon and it got hot and sunny, we planned to spend some time by the pool but got stuck in the casino as we both had good wins. Must have been our lucky day, we won trivia in the morning and again in the afternoon, each win gives you a coupon which can be used to acquire items like baggage tags or baseball hats. Tonight was formal night, lobster was on the menu along with a load of other stuff, lobster was on for lunch too and the buffet was the scene of mob mentality as the starving passengers pushed and shoved their way in to grab as much as possible, you’d think they hadn’t eaten for weeks. We watched Kaitlin Carr again in a new show tonight and when we got back to the cabin our dinner waiter had sent us a tray of delicious marzipan and truffle treats in case we got hungry during the night.

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Easter Island

Sheree see the fifth comment, previous post


I was up just before sunrise and the island was visible off our port side. I could see the lights of another ship already anchored in the bay at Hanga roa, the largest town. Easter Island gets about 15 ships per year and as luck would have it, we happened to be there at the same time as the Saga Rose, the ship that passed through the Panama canal with us. Because the other ship had acted first, all the islands tour buses were fully booked for the morning and Princess passengers had all their tours in the afternoon, the hottest time of day, fortunately we had booked a private excursion. We caught the first tender over to the dock and Josephina of Haumaka Tours was waiting, as arranged, holding a sign with our name on it.
After introductions, we were quickly on our way in a comfortable 4x4 Suzuki to our first stop the volcano of Rano Raraku. The drive across the island reminded us of Scotland, narrow roads surrounded by mostly rough grass terrain, rocks and occasional trees. One difference from Scotland was the number of wild horses who seemed to prefer the roadway to the grass, they frequently looked underfed, many with ribs clearly visible and later we did see the bones of one of the poor creatures close to the roadway.

From the volcanic rock of Rano Raraku 95 percent of all the statues on the island were carved and it must have been quite an undertaking, many times they were removed from the sheer face of the mountain, requiring a long descent down the slope of a stone weighing several tons. The area is beautifully maintained and we were fortunate to have near perfect weather, clear blue skies and a warm breeze. I could have stayed for a while just enjoying the view out over the ocean, contemplating the many giant heads staring out to sea along side me, but we had limited time and a lot to see. Next stop was Ahu Tongariki, a platform holding 15 of the largest statues on the island then on to Anakena beach and Ahu Nau Nau, another 7 statues. The white sand beach was beautiful, but we were soon on our way to visit the Ahu Tahai complex, ceremonial site with village, canoe ramp and cave dwellings and all too soon we were back at the boat dock and our visit was over. Our time with Josephina was most enjoyable, she has an easy going personality and was very knowledgeable of the history and culture of the island.

We arrived back on board the ship just in time for a late lunch and an afternoon crash before the rigours of the evening ahead.

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