Anchored at Picairn
Dawnbreaker
Lars Alfredson
Sun 28 Oct 2012 17:44
Sunday October 28
14.00 Local time
Hello reader! Solid winds from Easter Island puts Dawnbreaker sitting with an anchor out 150 meters from massive scarey rocks off Pitcairn Island. We are now waiting for the weather to calm before landing and meeting some of the 50 or so descendants of Mr. Christian and his mob who caused trouble for Bligh on the Bounty all those years ago.
We nearly added to the Islands infamous history yesterday by colliding with a big underwater rock and would of done if Lars wasn't switched on. Nice hard Starboard skipper! Anyways, anchored securely now and today is 9 days since last standing on land and if we don't get on soon .. mutiny! J
Simon, a very British sounding local pirate (I say Dawnbreaker old boy!!) got us on the radio yesterday as we cruised in and gave us this anchorage position (didn't tell us of the rock . wait a second!!) and other info to help us get ashore. Nice one Simon, Like it, good show!
Whats been going on lately??? . well . we made it to Easter Island, had a ball and swapped out Hernan and Cabral for Fred and Grette from Sweden. The two boys from Brasil nearly got eaten by locals on one of their last nights on the town and left Dawnbroker in a purple haze with only 25 bottles of various childrens sweet milk drinks and their beard hairs all over the boat to say they where ever actually here .. lets call them beard hairs . Captain's Dinghy and Cook, we salute you!!
The two new crew checked out the mystery of Easter island on a scooter and then came on board, settled in and hit the Galley of our boat like a Pacific Squall. They have been putting out incredible food everyday since we set sail for Pitcairn, we are spoiled! Freddy has had a little trouble with who he sleeps with at night, throwing his clothes overboard and spilling alcohol all over everything, but he is adjusting. The sea does strange things to a man. Speaking of which I was sleep walking a few nights ago, walked right up to the watch house sound asleep, stood in front of Lars and Fred in my underwear freaking ever so slightly and asked if they could get the hook out of my tongue, it all made sense to me in my dreamtime . the sea does strange things to a man alright I thought walking back to my berth after the boys woke me up laughing.
We got to Ducie atoll on the way to Pitcairn but could not land for the rocks however we still had a fab day anchored off it. There was washing clothes, Snorkling, sunbathing, beers and Fred and Mike caught a very unlucky shark which Freddy filleted and Grette turned into one of the best fish dinners eva! Who would of guessed shark was so tasty!
We cruised on for Pitcairn and a few nights later passed Henderson Island and it was another tough one to land so we just slid on by as the moonlight reflected off Mikes tears whilst he mumbled "coconut, so close, so close" . on repeat for the next hour or two .. staring at the slowly disappearing island!
For me the highlight was a night a few hundred miles out from Pitcairn, somewhere in the Pacific Blue, 2am ish, Dawnbreaker sliding along the silver carpet of moonshine as I sat at the little seat right over the bow hanging out with a big pod of 20 or more dolphins. 10 or so coming up at the same time to breathe and dance just below my feet for an hour or so. I breathed and laughed with them crying tears of joy and inhaled the wild freedom as we sailed into the night. Sailing the pacific is my latest relationship and she drives me crazy! Everytime I have had enough and want to call it off she shows up at my door with the most beautiful sunset Ive ever seen and a big bunch of deep blue magic and a little deeper in love I fall and gratefull.
Steve, Dawnbreaker crew ready and waiting to explore Pitcairn.