Day 2: June 27, 2019. Pitcairn Island Plan (Talk this morning) For for proposed landing on Sunday, June 30th or July 1st
The captain and the ship have been to all islands around, but have never been to Pitcairn before. A first for everyone but the anthropologist on board. For the ship and captain, this will be the first time. Captain knows exactly where to anchor and how to get us all ashore safely, but will be practicing on us! From looking at the chart, the whole thing reminds me a lot of our voyage to San Quintin long ago. There is a long narrow passageway into Bounty Bay. If the weather and seas are calm, we will go all the way inside the bay— hooray.
If the weather is a bit rough, there is an Option B. The tender boats from this boat have a shallow freeboard and would not be useful in rougher waters. We would have to board boats set out from Pitcairn on Pilot Ladders which are made of rope. This will necessitate that anyone who goes ashore on Plan B, be very strong and healthy enough to go up and down from the deck to the pilot boat by rope ladder.
Already, people are asking great questions: How will it be determined who can board and go ashore and who cannot? Can we practice on the rope ladder? How far is it from the deck to the water?
Option C is that the entire population of Pitcairn will come aboard the ship and give talks about the history of the island and island living now. Many people seem quite excited about that option.
The captain and crew stress that moving 316 guests on and off the island must done safely and quickly. We will have a window from 1 pm to 5 pm to manage the whole affair. It sounds like they have a very safe and sure plan. If June 30t doesn’t work, there will be a second attempt on July 1st. It sounds like everyone will have a chance to experience some sort of Pitcairn excursion.
