Cruise The World With Us

Tuesday – February 18, 2025

Today we visit (don’t get off the ship) Pitcairn Island. It is the only inhabited island in a four-island archipelago. 2021 population was 47. It is the site of the famous Mutiny on the Bounty. Fletcher Christian forced Captain William Bligh and 18 men loyal to Bligh off the HMS Bounty. Christian sailed to Pitcairn Island, landing on January 15, 1790. After stripping the ship of useful masts and spars it was set on fire and destroyed on January 23, 1790. You can read more about the background of the mutiny in this article on Wikipedia.

We knew we would be viewing Pitcairn today but weren’t sure when. Jan and I were preparing to go to breakfast in the restaurant when we looked out from the balcony and there it was lit brightly by the morning sun! The “head-on” photos I took at that time are opposite Bounty Bay where the HMS Bounty landed (and was destroyed). We saw what appeared to be one third of the inhabitants coming toward our ship to offer merchandise for sale. Don’t know what they had to sell because we didn’t want to fight the crowd that was bound to form around them. I suspect hand made goods and perhaps t-shirts.

There was no World Cruise game today because this call was considered a “port”. I Face Time’d with my friend Mike and, this time, got a good photo of him (much better than the one posted during our first Face Time this trip). Mike knew we were approaching Pitcairn because he has been tracking our ship online. Not sure what software it is but how amazing is that when compared with the way islands were discovered by mistake in the past. We had a nice conversation and during that time the Pitcairn inhabitants boarded their ride and sailed away from MSC Magnifica.

Once the Pitcairn boat cleared us our captain blew the horn to signal our departure. I included a short video capturing part of that. As it turned out the boat left to travel to another cruise ship that had arrived in the area. Don’t know how often ships arrive here but it is clearly in the middle of nowhere and you would think they welcome these chances to meet with outsiders. Mike mentioned that some of the current inhabitants are descendants of the mutineers. We sailed clockwise around the island so I was able to get a photo of the stone named for my sister, Nancy. While traveling around the island it began to rain. Where I was on deck 15 there was no cover. As I was looking for same I discovered all the Starlink receivers near the exhaust stack. I’ll take a photo of them sometime and include it – I’m sure that will make your day!

As I was getting soaked Kelsey and Jan were playing cards in the card room. Today was not Kelsey’s day – Jan won both games they played. Following that I met them for lunch. One of the restaurant heads was preparing pasta at a stand as you entered the restaurant. While we were waiting for a waiter to take our order I took a photo of us using the mirrors in the ceiling. They have mirrors everywhere which makes spaces brighter and appear larger. Our waiter arrived and offered us some of the pasta being prepared by the entry – I accepted the offer. Jan and Kelsey declined. Jan and Kelsey had fish and seafood. I was surprised Kelsey ordered the linguine with clam but when it was delivered there was only one clam (which she put aside). There are photos of some of our lunch selections.

Didn’t do anything of note during the afternoon. Dinner had some items which were called Pitcairn Specialties. I had grilled Hawaiian fish. Not sure how that is a Pitcairn dish but is was good (sorry Sharon). The dessert many at our table had was described by Kelly as a Mounds bar on a plate. Those at our table then repeated the Almond Joy/Mounds jingle (as kids watching commercials dutifully should). Kelly liked the dessert so well Subagia brought her a second!

Tonight’s theatre show was a return of Roberto Sinagoga. The sound level of his first show was so high that I wanted some way to protect my ears. I decided to use my AirPods during the show. That turned out to be a good idea. The show was entirely French music – which we didn’t understand. The staging and his singing were both good but it is hard to really appreciate the performance if you don’t know what is being sung. During one song a good portion of the audience joined in singing a word I didn’t understand – but obviously they did. We had been told that the largest groups on this cruise were from France and Germany so I could see why many sang along with Roberto.

Last two photos for today are from Kelsey of the latest jigsaw puzzle on deck 7. She has been keeping tabs on progress solving the puzzle. She believes there is a piece missing and that has been bugging her.

Here is a link to the video and photos from today.