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Tiny Island Creates Big InterestBy Lynn Danaher posted 09/13/05 Tom was the radio and communications officer for 45 years on Pitcairn. During that time he has communicated with over 100,000 other ham radio operators. Now they have satellite communication and email. Betty is the Island Secretary and Administrator of the island. Rob and Jacque, a pharmacist, are enroute to London to work for two years but plan to return to Pitcairn to permanently settle. Marie fell in love with a man from New Mexico when he came to the island for a project, over 30 years ago, so now lives in Albuquerque. They are traveling around the USA in a motor home, sharing their story and visiting friends. They were hosted on San Juan Island by Bob Schotz, Mike Close and Lynn Danaher. They were treated to a barbeque on the beach, an opportunity to view the island from air in a small plane and a whale watch trip. They didn't want to leave and have vowed they will return. They felt this was the most beautiful and friendly place they have visited to date. Pitcairn is located in the far reaches of an isolated portion of the South Eastern Pacific. It's a tiny two square mile beautifully rugged island with only 55 residents. For such a small and distant place it continues to capture our collective imagination. Nothing made that more evident than this past week when two presentations made by Tom Christian, a direct descendant of the famous mutineer, Fletcher Christian, were so well attended. Wednesday night at the San Juan Island Yacht Club, approx 70 people showed up to hear the Pitcairn story. On Thursday night at the Grange, Surina Business Park sponsored a potluck and another 70 plus of our islanders attended. On both nights all came to hear Tom tell the story of Pitcairn and the lifestyle of the current residents. Each presentation began with the entire group singing a traditional Pitcairn Island welcome song and ended the presentation with a sweet song of good bye. Both songs were traditional songs sung to the many who have come and departed on the ships, that have visited the island. As there is no airport or harbor on Pitcairn, ships are the life line even today. Tom illustrated with his slide show the difficulty of embarking goods and building materials, through sometimes raging surf onto a rocky exposed shore. Ships sometimes have to lie offshore for days before they are able to off load. Once off loaded all goods need to be brought up to Adamstown where everyone lives approx 500 feet above, up a steep dirt track appropriately name the Hill of Difficulty. Life on Pitcairn though seemingly difficult, is also is one of family, close community ties and working together toward the common goals. When someone needs to build a house or harvest a crop everyone just pitches in to help. Because the population on Pitcairn is slowly dwindling primarily because of economics there is a trend towards developing tourism, which will always remain very limited because of the logistics, but promises some additional resources. In the meantime the primary products of Pitcairn are the sale of stamps, collected worldwide, dried bananas and the purest honey on the planet. There is an opportunity for immigration to Pitcairn as well, one couple has been there five years, he is from England and she is from California. The Island Council supplies land for a house and garden, which remain yours so long as your remain on the island. If you leave for a year or more it returns to the Island Council to be reallocated to another immigrant. The truly amazing aspect of this visit by our fellow islanders was we discovered how many of us had actually been to Pitcairn, by last count it was over 16. One woman attended both nights from Vancouver BC, she had ship wrecked on the island in 1975. There are ways to get to Pitcairn and stay for one to several days or an extended period. If anyone is interested they can contact Lynn Danaher at 378-6692 and she will be happy to give you the names of the different travel companies that stop at Pitcairn or check out their web site at www.government.pn/ |
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