March 20, 2019

March 20 at 5:58 p.m. EDT was the official start of astronomical spring. However, here in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on the other side of the International Dateline that time converts to 12:58 p.m. March 21^st.

Today, the ship was anchored by Tabuaeran (Fanning Island), in the Republic of Kiribati, pronounced 'Keeree-baus'. It is an atoll surrounding a lagoon. The ship was anchored near the tiny settlement of Napari

The island’s official name, since independence is Tabuaeran. The island, actually an atoll, is only three meters above sea level at its highest point and located at the north eastern side of the Line Islands group, eight of which are part of the Republic of Kiribati. The atoll surrounds a shallow 42.6 square mile lagoon. The closest Island to Tabuaeran is Christmas Island (or Kiritimati which is a coral atoll) 306 kilometers to the southeast. Tabuaeran‘s coordinates are 03° 51.31’N, 159° 22.00’W, just north the Equator.

The Republic of Kiribati is on the Australia side of the International Dateline, which jogs eastward to encompass Kiribati. It was the only destination of this cruise on the other side the International Dateline.

The local language is Gilbertese, but English is widely spoken by the population of under 3,000. The currency on the island is Australian dollars but American dollars are accepted.

There are only two visits from cruise ships scheduled for 2019, the next one is not until November.

During our pre-breakfast walk, we watched the tender boats being lowered and one of them heading through the gap to take personnel to set up the pier greeting. Many passengers had either shopped at the Walmart in Hilo or brought children’s clothes, school supplies, personal hygiene products and medical supplies for distribution to the medical center and the four island schools. The ship’s staff collected the items to transport to Tabuaeran.

On this rainy morning, the passengers boarded one of the ship’s six 120-passenger tender boats and were taken through an opening in the atoll, that was blasted by the British to allow their sailing ships access to the lagoon. The currents were strong today making navigation through the gap a challenge for the coxswain to thread through the “English Channel”. The passengers disembarked onto the wooden pier was covered by a roof of coconut fronds and pandanus leaves, sheltering from the rain and later the hot sun. The ride was less than 10 minutes. At the end of the pier sat a group of islanders singing welcome songs as people proceeded along to pier to the land.

Souvenirs are hand made by the islanders and sold at the open-airmarket, on tables covered in colourful plastic tablecloths. Unfortunately today, the sellers stood in bursts of rain showers during the morning and later in the afternoon. Shell bracelets and necklaces, ornaments, hand carved shark tooth knives, and woven baskets were offered for sale.

We walked around the area near the pier in the light rain dodging puddles. There was a covered area where postcards could be purchased for $1 US, and the postage was also $1 US. People were hoping the postcards arrived before April 8 when they would be returning home. The same postage cancellation stamp, used for “posting” the postcards, was also used to stamp passports, if you remembered to bring it with you from the ship. For $10 US per prson, a dozen people boarded an old truck with benches lining the sides to carry a dozen visitors on a short tour of the island between the pier and one of the schools. Carol and Dennis took the tour and liked it.

We took pictures of the local thatched roofed raised platform homes, which seemed to have few walls, to allow the cooling breezes to flow through the homes. We even saw two old metal cargo containers supporting a thatched roof, but could not tell its use. The rain water is caught in cisterns for drinking. The yards of some of the houses had piles of open coconut nut shells. Coconuts and fish are staples of the local diet. There were children, dogs and chickens running around and pigs tied to trees with ropes. The sand on the beach was very fine. The lagoon was a beautiful greenish turquoise colour. The paths were full of puddles due to the rain, you had to watch where you stepped. The wait, on the covered pier sheltered from the spurts of light rain, for the tender boat back to the ship was short and we were back in time for lunch. Some people, still were waiting to go to the atoll and had been waiting for about 90 minutes.

Most of the people returning were damp from being caught in a shower. We showered then went to lunch in the Lido Market on Deck 9 and found a table on the aft Sea View deck where people were swimming in the small pool. Larry ordered a fresh made to order pizza that was the best pizza he has eaten on a ship. It was hot and humid out in the sun. We saw three Kiribati officials in white long sleeve shirts, black ties, black sarongs and sandals being escorted around the deck. We assume they were Customs officials.

We spent the afternoon, reading in the air-conditioned comfort of our stateroom. There were intermittent rain showers during the afternoon, but as the 4:30 p.m. final tender boat entered the “English Channel” there a bright rainbow over the atoll.

Our evening fell into the established routine – 5:15 dinner with Carol, Dennis, Jeff and Susan in the main dining room; stop at the 7 p.m. Trivia game to hear the answers; 7:30 Lincoln Center Stage string Quartet plus piano performing music from ballets, arriving late for the feature mainstage featuring the singer Melissa McLaughlin then some time in the casino. Carol lent me her copy of Daniel Steel’s newest book Beauchamp Hall, which seems to be a fast read since I got 100 pages read today.

Total steps: 17,256

A little history:

Tabuaeran is closer to the Hawaiian islands than to Tahiti in French Polynesia. This tropical atoll could be viewed in the closing credits of the mid 1960s television show, ''Gilligan's Island''.

The atoll is named after American Captain Edmund Fanning who “discovered” the uninhabited island in 1798 while sailing his ship, Betsey. The atoll was put under British protection in 1855, then annexed to Britain in 1888.

In 1902, the Pacific Cable Board established a cable station. It was the continuation of the British financed submarine cable that had arrived in Australia in 1871. Canadian Sir Sandford Fleming convened a conference in 1877 to determine a Pacific cable route. By 1900 the route, using British territories, was decided - to go from Vancouver Island, Canada, to Fanning Island, to Fiji, and then to Norfolk Island, Australia. From Norfolk Island, two cables were laid. One to go to Southport, Queensland, Australia, with a landline to Sydney, Australia, while the other cable landed at Doubtless Bay, New Zealand. Finally, in the fall of 1902, the Bamfield – Fanning Island section was laid. It was a 3,459 nautical mile long cable.

Trans-Pacific mail steamers stopped on their Auckland to San Francisco voyages in the late 1800s. Over the years other ships brought mail, but they were infrequent with mail delivery as little as six times per year in the early 20th century. There was also a radio relay station in 1908. The cable station was shelled and destroyed by a German cruiser in late 1914. Independence, from Britain, was granted to the Republic of Kiribatiin 1979.

According to the Pacific C.A.R.E. Missions website information about Fanning Island > https://pcmabout.wordpress.com/visit-fanning-island/,when a line is drawn from the Chilean port of Valparaíso to Shanghai, China and another line is drawn from Sydney, Australia to San Francisco, USA; the point where the lines intersect would be tiny Fanning Island. It goes on to say that, in 2013, “There are still no telephones, no electricity, no ATM, no hotels, no golf courses, no airstrip, no hospital, and they are often out of imported food basics. In just the last couple of years, the secondary school and government building has been able to do satellite internet. Compared to the West there is nothing.”