We were scheduled to visit Fanning Island today. HA (Holland America) made all the arrangements with the local government. Unfortunately, two days before visiting, the local government informed us that it is impossible for the customs officials to travel to Fanning Island and consequently, we would not be able to visit. I personally found this amazing because I had just learned that Polynesians could easily travel between islands with nothing more than an outrigger canoe and their knowledge of the sky. It makes no difference. Impossible is impossible and I’m sure there’s an excellent reason (not). Anyway, it’s all part of the adventure.

So HA made arrangements to visit Christmas Island. This island is rarely visited by cruise ships. In fact our specific ship, the Volendam, has never visited Easter Island. Christmas Island is only a few tens of feet above sea level. One town has been deserted. But the islanders were welcoming our visit. They even went so far as to set up a market aboard our ship. As you can see, the market is wildly popular.

Conditions for tendering are not very good. We have 6 foot swells. You can’t see it from the picture, but the tender boats are bouncing around in the most lively way. Safely transiting from the ship to the shore is a 30 minute ride. Danita and I aren’t beach people. We quickly decided not to visit. Our decision was reinforced by a couple that had visited the island while on another cruise. As the husband so elegantly put it, “There’s nothing there.” Nevertheless, many brave people wanted to visit the island. The captain had to get on the PA and ask passengers for their patience several times.

As the day wore on, conditions continued to deteriorate. The tide was going out. The tenders were in danger of running aground even with only 20 passengers on board. About 1:00, the captain announced he was canceling the visitation and focusing on getting passengers already on the island back to the ship. Tendering started about Noon. Danita and I watched a couple of tenders load up from our balcony. There have to be at least 100 people on the island. I don’t envy the crew’s job of rounding up everybody on the island.

We had a rather interesting sidelight. You may remember the hullaballoo in 2000 about being on the spot where the sunrise was earliest, hence being the first to usher in the new century. (I’ll skip over the point that the century actually began on 1/1/2001.) Easter Island invented an impossible time zone of GMT – 14. This put them on the other side of the international date line and made Christmas Island the point where the new century started. The captain decided to ignore the date line crossing. As a result, people on the island are experiencing the day as Monday, while on board ship, it is still Sunday. You could say that the islanders who came aboard to sell their wares stepped back one day into the past.

There’s only a couple of pics. You can find them on the website. I hope all are well.