Pitcairn island- last hideout of the Bounty-mutineers

ADAMSTOWN: At the very same moment as the sun rose from the horizon, and the famous island of Pitcairn appeared in the far distance, Runes wristwatch stopped, after three years of faithful service. Coincidence? Hm. For us the stay at Pitcairn island became an unforgettable time.

After having cleared immigration and had our passports stamped, Tim takes us on his 4WD motorbike, up the steep hills that are everywhere on the island, and up to the family house. On the balcony, an enormous Norwegian flag is on display. By the entrance, ripe bananas by the hundreds hang for us to pick, peel and eat. Kari Boye, now Young, greets us with fresh, homemade bread, cheese and orange marmalade. We eat until we cant eat no more, and then we eat some more. After having spent 13 days at sea from Easter Island, some good, homemade Norwegian-style food really tastes us. The view from Up Tibi, as the place where the house is situated is called, is stunning. Palm trees swaying in the wind, and the eternal Pacific Ocean hundreds of meters beneath us. The swell is slowly rolling in towards the coastline, before being crushed and transformed into a thousand million drops against the wild and beautiful shore that stretches all around the island. Pitcairn doesn’t have any beaches, and only two places where it is possible to land. The two are Bounty Bay, where the mutineers first came ashore, and Tedside on the Westcoast. Tedside is only possible to land on when the winds are Easterly, and with no swell coming in from the Southwest.

Timothy and his sister Anette are the only two Pitcairn-Norwegians in the world, and both are direct descendants from the mutineer Edward Young, in the ninth or tenth generation. Young was remarkable to the degree that he was the first mutineer on the island to die from natural causes. He had asthma, and the climate on Pitcairn finally got to him. This destiny was not for most of the other mutineers. After just three years, first mate and chief mutineer Fletcher Christian was shot and killed by his Tahitian slaves, together with four other of the mutineers. Only four survived. One of them committed suicide, and one was hacked to death by the other mutineers. So the quest for Paradise remained an exclusive dream for all but John Adams, in the end being the sole survivor of them all. He then sat there with around ten Polynesian girls and a veritable horde of children from all the mutineers and the Tahitians. Long story short, Adams converted to Christianity, and became a responsible and wise leader, transforming the little colony in Pitcairn to all the things that Christian had hoped for. Today, the little community has 48 inhabitants from nine different families. They are well integrated into the larger world community via an internet connection and phone lines. Even then, they are still far away from everything, and on the far side of the vast, blue Pacific.

In the course of a year, 15-20 sailboats will normally sail by Pitcairn Island. We were completely alone for the week-and-a-half that we spent there. A couple of boats passed us by on their way from Easter Island to the Gambiers or Tahiti. They found the conditions in the anchorage too challenging, and that is fair enough. We, as always, were safely anchored, even though the swell and weather helm sometimes came straight into Bounty Bay and were just as violent as the weather had been to us on Easter Island some three weeks earlier. We had engine problems, so the local mechanic, Jay “Squeeky” Warren helped us out and fixed it in no time. A big relief for us at that point. We visited locals, we went to church on Saturday (Everybody in Pitcairn are Seventh Day Adventists, so they basically celebrate their Sundays on Saturdays). We went to the Thursday market (More than 20 people visited it in just a couple of hours!) and we wandered around on the dirt roads in the steep hills. The only ones that have W.C. are the priest and the restaurant, so for everybody else it is being done “Duncan-style”.

One night Finn Olav did a flame spinning show down by “The Landing Point”, and almost everybody in the island participated. They applauded loudly, and apparently appreciated the circus show. Finn Olav also gave away his collapsible bike to the local school. They just loved riding it, but most of all it appeared that they loved putting it together and then taking it apart again. The bike was in surprisingly good order after having spent a year and a half in the bough of Underveis, and will probably give the children joy for many years to come. For us, Pitcairn was to become an unforgettable encounter with heartfelt hospitality, helpfulness and the people in one of the most isolated places on our planet. It reminded us quite a bit about our own island back in Norway, except for the climate, banana trees and the fact that it is situated far below the Equator. We felt very sad as we set sail for Tahiti 1200 miles to the north, talking to the islanders over the radio, and saying good bye. Now, we felt like we were heading back to civilization again, after almost three months of blue ocean, desolate islands and overwhelmingly clear and starry skies during our night watches.