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Journey to Pitcairn via Tahiti and Mangareva in the Gambier Islands |
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Operating VP6T |
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| Jacques F6BEE, Michel FM5CD, Gilles VE2TZT and Vincent F4BKV at Papeete airport (Tahiti) awaiting the flight to Mangareva in the Gambier Islands, which is the nearest airport to Pitcairn. | |||||||||
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| A four hour flight from Tahiti brings us to Mangereva in the Gambier Islands (OC-063). This is the nearest airport to Pitcairn. Foto : F4BKV | A 45-minute ferry ride takes passengers from the air strip way out in the lagoon to the main town Rikitea on Managreva island. | ||||||||
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| Our skipper Bernard ferries Jacques F6BEE and Gilles VE2TZT from the harbour in Rikitea to his yacht "Pitcairn" moored off-shore. | Pitcairn is some 500km to the South East of Mangareva in the Gambier Islands. | ||||||||
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| Jacques F6BEE, Michel FM5CD and Gilles VE2TZT on the jetty at Rikitea, Mangareva. | Skipper Bernard prepares to hoist the sail on the yacht "Pitcairn" at start of journey. | The 50ft yacht was (just by chance) named "Pitcairn" by its original owner in France. | |||||||
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| After two calm days and nights at sea, we get our first sighting of the remote island of Pitcairn on the horizon. Foto : Vincent F4BKV | On board water bottles identified by callsign suffix: F6BEE, G3TXF, F4BKV and FM5CD. | ||||||||
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| Jacques with co-skipper Françoise. "Sorry, we haven't got a Pitcairn flag. We'll use a New Zealand flag instead. Hope they don't mind." | By the time we arrived off Pitcairn it was already dark. But thanks to careful sailing and GPS a safe mooring was found at Bounty Bay. | ||||||||
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| First real glimpse of Pitcairn in the morning as dawn breaks. A silhouetted Gilles VE2TZT takes some souvenir photos. | The only place to land on Pitcairn is at the quay in Bounty Bay, next to the building (just visible) used to house the long-boats. | ||||||||
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| Our host Andrew Christian comes out to meet us while we sail carefully across Bounty Bay | As heard on Channel 16 "Pitcairn Radio, Pitcairn Radio, this is sailing yacht Pitcairn calling, over..." Our first QSO with Pitcairn! | ||||||||
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| DXers don't travel light : nineteen items of (mostly heavy) baggage are landed ashore on the small quay at Bounty Bay, Pitcairn. | Jacques F6BEE having his passport stamped at the specially erected "Passport Office" tent. Note the Pitcairn flag. | ||||||||
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