Birthday Fishing Trip for Paul

Birthday Fishing Trip for Paul

Clear skies. Warm June sun.  Three men in a boat.  Trolling for some really big fish.  Three hours later four big Wahoo fish are on board. 

Now comes the job of filleting and bagging up the fish.  Paul landed two of the four fish.  We took one home which is fair as Vaine provides the boat and the lures.  One large fish yielding 20kgs of filleted fish is more than enough for our needs.

  

 Wahoo is a firm fish that you can cut into small round fillets and the fillets have rings like a cut open onion.  Our cat could smell the fish arriving home and she was ready and waiting for her plateful.

The fish we took home was 1.7 metres long.  Paul’s a happy chappy.

Discovery TV Film Crew Visit Pitcairn Island

Discovery TV Film Crew Visit Pitcairn Island

Discovery TV which has an audience of 38 million people sent a film crew to Pitcairn Island.  The company called Pilot Productions, based in London is filming a travel project of the South Pacific for a programme called “Globe Trekker”.  Of interest to them is the culture, the lifestyle, food, environment and activities of the islands of the Pacific. 

Ian Sciacaluga (aka “Lord Shack of Mole”) is the director and he along with his team arrived on Pitcairn Island on 7^th June for a three day intensive filming schedule.  Zay is the commentary man and Nigel is the guy behind the camera. 

Friday morning saw the team at Pulau School filming the children participating in their once a week Pitcairn Island Culture lesson.  It was an interesting hour for the children and gave them all an inside appreciation of the collection of footage for a film.  We look forward to seeing the results in the future. 

Internet Upgrade on Pitcairn Island

Internet Upgrade

Six years ago a team from Stratos came to Pitcairn and installed a satellite antenna on the island giving residents access to the telephone system and internet.  This opened up communication to the world in a new way and made Pitcairn residents feel a lot less isolated from the rest of the world.

In January 2012 Stratos was bought out by Inmarsat (International Maritime Satellite) who have a Land Earth Station based at Albany New Zealand. 

On 31^st May 2012 a team of three arrived on Pitcairn Island. John Pronk, Tim Jones and Dave Thew are all from New Zealand.  It has been their job to upgrade the communication system. They have achieved this by replacing the rusty backing of the satellite dish, replacing the buc and low noise block, installing a new Cisco router, switches and river bed.  With the new acceleration equipment the internet speed will improve from 0.8mb up to 10mb.  This will mean internet speed will have quadrupled.  Residents will not find it practical to view You-Tube or down load music or movie clips but all the basic facilities like email and access to web sites will be faster and more efficient.  This is exciting news for all of us here on Pitcairn and we are grateful to the British High Commission for funding this project.

To give you an example of the improved speed of the new system.  Last week it took me more than 40 minutes to add a post to this blog site.  Today it took just 10 minutes.

Dave Thew inspecting the back of the satellite dish

John Pronk inside the satellite shed

Satellite Systems

In addition to the work on the internet system they also installed a monitor platform for Inmarsat “Isat Data Pro”.  Pitcairn Island is in an ideal location for monitoring and testing the satellite systems but this does not directly benefit the residents on the island.

Sharks at Bounty Bay

Here is a shark caught overnight (5.6.12) by Brenda Christian and Dave Brown on a set line just off Bounty Bay. And to think I (Ruth) swim out there often! Aagh!

Grey reef shark (Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos)

 

Queen's Diamond Jubilee on Pitcairn Island

Queen's Diamond Jubilee on Pitcairn Island

Monday the 4^th June dawned bright and sunny.  It was perfect weather to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.  A team of people cut the coconut fronds to decorate the square and assembled wood for the beacon bon-fire down at the Landing.  Others were home cooking the food for the community dinner. 

The ceremony got underway at 5:00pm with a good speech from Carol Schumann, the Governor’s Representative. Paul Shelling led the Queen’s prayer and we all stood to sing “God Save the Queen”. The children were presented with cards and a letter from Prince William and his new wife Kate.  Last year the children wrote to congratulate them on their marriage so it was special to receive a letter back.

The announcement that Brenda Christian has been awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal was greeted with applause.  This special award has been awarded to Brenda for her long service on Pitcairn Island as the Police Community Support Officer. Well done Brenda.  The actual presentation of the medal will take place in August.

The meal was enjoyed by all and to cap off a great day we enjoyed the fireworks display and the lighting of the beacon down at the Landing.  The evening was amazingly warm for June and if the Queen had been present she would have thoroughly enjoyed herself.

Pitcairn Island Art paintings

Tribute to the Polynesian Women of Pitcairn

Pitcairn Paintings
If you ever wonder what I do to fill my time in when I am not teaching at the school or writing the Miscellany newsletter, or growing our vegetables, or baking our bread or swimming in the bay, then the answer is I dabble with my paints.  The above photos show two large paintings I have completed since arriving on Pitcairn Island in February.  The colours of Pitcairn Island are quite wonderful and inspire me to use vibrant bold paint.  I’m aiming to complete one painting per month for the duration of my stay and I am quite sure I will never run out of inspiration.

                                                          Pitcairn Island Geckoes

Dental Care on Pitcairn Island

Dental Care on Pitcairn

The Medical Centre on the island has a room set aside for dental purposes and it is fully equipped with all the necessary equipment. Every two years the Pitcairn Island Government employs the services of a dentist to visit the island and check the teeth of the residents. Pitcairn Island residents were fortunate to have visiting dentist David Templeton arrive on the Claymore supply ship on 31^st May for a ten day working trip. David is from Virginia, USA. He previously came to Pitcairn Island for a similar trip two years ago. After checking the teeth he scheduled follow up appointments for those that needed them. We are all grateful that we are able to receive this treatment in such an isolated place.

Paul has a filling that broke away a month ago so he is very happy to be able to get this repaired. In the photo you can see Paul in the dental chair and in one photo you can see Daralyn in the background. Daralyn lives here on the island and is employed at the medical centre.