Captain's Log #14: Pitcairn

omorrow we make landfall on the most remote populated island and historically interesting piece of land in the South Pacific. Pitcairn is 1.75 square miles and is visited by less than 8 private boats each year.

Approaching Pitcairn

It lies over 1100 miles from Tahiti and over 3400 from South America. It has 50 residents, mostly direct descendents of a handful of the fabled Bounty Mutineers, led by Fletcher Christian against Captain William Bligh in the late 1700's. The only way to reach Pitcairn is by personal sailboat, or by the one or two sailing charters that go from Mangareva (310 miles to the NW) each year; or go on a very infrequent cargo ship from Panama or New Zealand (there's about 3 each year). Outside magazine recently listed Mangareva (in the Gambier group of French Polynesia- the launching point for a sail to Pitcairn) as one of the top 25 most adventurous destinations in the world. And Pitcairn makes Mangareva look like a breeze! We sailed ten days from Tahiti to reach Mangareva, where we prepared for our Offshore Odysseys' inaugural charter.

Bounty Bay

Saoirse has a new crew of myself, a Swede named Erica and a Texan named Peer. We're making a run that can only be classified as nutty: 2300 miles round trip, 1100 going the wrong way (against the prevailing winds), to visit an island whose people don't read the news, don't have CNN, whose only traffic is on foot, and don't have any clue what Melrose Place is. Must be paradise. In two weeks we will make the trip a second time with another group of adventurous souls. Saoirse will be visiting this isle of lore two times in one month, easily shattering all records of Pitcairn visits in the last two hundred years!