All the pictures I have previously seen of Henderson Island are in lovely sunshine. A tropical paradise. But, Ina Koys has sent me the picture above which tells a very different story! Remember that these cliffs are 30 meters high!

Last year I was onboard the British brigantine "Eye of the wind". On our way from Easter Island to Pitcairn we tried to visit Henderson. We failed due to rough weather conditions. Most of the other people on the "Eye of the wind" were crazy about visiting Pitcairn. To me Pitcairn was just a remote island, not that object of almost religious importance which it is for Brits. I was interested in Henderson and its endemic birds. But as you can see the swell was definitely too high for a landing, and so we had to sail on for Pitcairn. Imagine: 2,5 m swell and 20-25 Beaufort from astern. The wind and swell direction were in line with our course to Pitcairn and this gave us no wind stabilisation. I was thrown in my bunk from one end to the other as our old freighter was caught in the waves. It was a nightmare for the helmsman. Normally I don't do a bad job there, but by that time I joked there must be a giant octopus sitting on the rudder. I simply couldn't find a connection between my steering and the ship's moves. We just left the lower top to slow down, but we would have needed brakes not to reach Pitcairn at night time.

A couple of days later we returned with the Pitcairners for timber but there was still no chance of landing on Henderson