Pacific Explorer made it to Norfork Island today - 27th June 2023.

[Kiwi_cruiser]

I normally would not post just screen shots of a map of a place, but this is special 🙂

Pacific Explorer has made it to Norfork Island today!  😮 and going by reports from Facebook friends, passenger are going ashore on Norfork Island!

 

 

As we all know Norfork Island is a hard place for passenger to get ashore.

 

I think this is Pacific Explorer only 2? - 3 time passenger have been able to get ashore there!.

[Ozwoody]

Pacific Explorer seems a long way from a  tender dock in the location shown, Main Dock is at Kingston on the southern side, and the other is on the eastern side in the cove.

 

Assuming the maps show the ship on its way its anchorage location further around.

[arxcards]

Just to honour history, today is the 28th.

 

Definitely more miss than hit, but I feel a few more have landed over the years.

 

An interesting place. My mum spent a few days there last month and had the fun of sitting through three attempts to land the plane. The video of the landing was an eye-opener.

[MMDown Under]

10 minutes ago, arxcards said:

Just to honour history, today is the 28th.

 

Definitely more miss than hit, but I feel a few more have landed over the years.

 

An interesting place. My mum spent a few days there last month and had the fun of sitting through three attempts to land the plane. The video of the landing was an eye-opener.

I feel sorry for your mother enduring three attempts at landing on Norfolk Island.  I'm a nervous wreck after one failed attempt.  

(Two attempts last visit from Brisbane at Lord Howe Island.  Sydney flight had to return to Sydney.)

Great news that a ship got into Norfolk Island as a lot can't!

[arxcards]

3 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

I feel sorry for your mother enduring three attempts at landing on Norfolk Island.  I'm a nervous wreck after one failed attempt.  

(Two attempts last visit from Brisbane at Lord Howe Island.  Sydney flight had to return to Sydney.)

Great news that a ship got into Norfolk Island as a lot can't!

The conditions being shown on AIS would suggest it to be a bit rough, so kudos to them for getting ashore.

 

@Kiwi_cruiser - have you taken note of what Carnival Splendor is doing today? Currently anchored off Bundaberg. A butt scrape perhaps?

[mr walker]

4 hours ago, Ozwoody said:

Pacific Explorer seems a long way from a  tender dock in the location shown, Main Dock is at Kingston on the southern side, and the other is on the eastern side in the cove.

 

Assuming the maps show the ship on its way its anchorage location further around.

The map shows the ship off Cascade Bay where the new pier was built, so I guess that's where they are tendering to, rather than at Kingston. The semi-circular bay on the east side is Ball Bay, where the fuel ships unload. 

 

We are hoping for good weather on our 23 Oct visit on the Pacific Adventure 🤞

[MMDown Under]

29 minutes ago, mr walker said:

The map shows the ship off Cascade Bay where the new pier was built, so I guess that's where they are tendering to, rather than at Kingston. The semi-circular bay on the east side is Ball Bay, where the fuel ships unload. 

 

We are hoping for good weather on our 23 Oct visit on the Pacific Adventure 🤞

Hope this is good practice for your cruise in October.  

[Ozwoody]

28 minutes ago, mr walker said:

The map shows the ship off Cascade Bay where the new pier was built, so I guess that's where they are tendering to, rather than at Kingston. The semi-circular bay on the east side is Ball Bay, where the fuel ships unload. 

 

We are hoping for good weather on our 23 Oct visit on the Pacific Adventure 🤞

Your right I have been to both those bays, and I think I have confused them in my mind.

The Ball Bay must be the one that does not have a dock. 

Funny how distance in Norfolk Island is confusing, I did a drive direct from the bay with the dock to Kingston area, and in my mind it was just over the hill. (A bit like me🤣), but most places in Norfolk is just over the hill. It does't take long to drive anywhere there.😃

We love Norfolk Island will go there again in the near future.

 

[mr walker]

Just saw a post by Norfolk Island Tourism on social media with video of the tendering process & the water looked very calm. The new island tenders were being used.

They posted that 1700 passengers visited the island today & they hoped they all had a good visit.

[Kiwi_cruiser]

9 hours ago, arxcards said:

@Kiwi_cruiser - have you taken note of what Carnival Splendor is doing today? Currently anchored off Bundaberg. A butt scrape perhaps?

 

I noticed Carnival Splendor was anchored off Bundaberg today.

I put I post up on Facebook about that, so I will be interested to see if any passenger see it and say if it was a port of call or a butt scrape.

[arxcards]

4 minutes ago, Kiwi_cruiser said:

 

I noticed Carnival Splendor was anchored off Bundaberg today.

I put I post up on Facebook about that, so I will be interested to see if any passenger see it and say if it was a port of call or a butt scrape.

It wasn't originally scheduled, and they were there too long for a medevac. They skipped the sail-past Willis Island to shortcut back to Bundaberg. The seas are calm, so that wasn't done to avoid bad weather. I hope they still scored their duty free.

[arxcards]

On 6/28/2023 at 9:24 PM, Kiwi_cruiser said:

 

I noticed Carnival Splendor was anchored off Bundaberg today.

I put I post up on Facebook about that, so I will be interested to see if any passenger see it and say if it was a port of call or a butt scrape.

They did the same on Feb 7th. For that cruise, they pre-announced a cancelled day at Mystery Island and changed the itinerary for maintenance while anchored 12 miles off the coast at Bundaberg. They informed passengers they may see divers in the water, and it was believed to have been for hull cleaning.

[vozzie]

Tendering at Norfolk Island

[arxcards]

9 minutes ago, vozzie said:

Tendering at Norfolk Island

Cool. Very calm day.

 

Seems strange to be using local boats for tendering.

[SinbadThePorter]

36 minutes ago, arxcards said:

Seems strange to be using local boats for tendering.

 

"Furthermore Norfolk Island’s investment in the cruise industry received another boost as the Federal Government commissioned new passenger tenders. Construction is complete with Norfolk Island taking delivery of the vessels in July 2019. Use of these tenders will make disembarkation easier for visiting cruise ships by removing any risk to their tenders. These tenders are operated by Islanders who are familiar with the piers & local conditions. The tenders serviced their first cruise ship in October 2019 with the arrival of P & O’s Pacific Explorer and were key to the successful landing of passengers."

 

From here.

 

I'm there in two weeks, so if I'm lucky I'll get to see how they work. I give the tendering odds of 5 to 1 of happening.

Edited July 4, 2023 by SinbadThePorter

[snoopyonthehill]

We were lucky to actually make it.  We booked the Honu Explorer - hop on hop off bus which picked us up at Cascade Bay and did a great round trip of the island with 11 interesting stops.  Highly recommend it.  Booked through Norfolk Island tourism.   Otherwise there is free shuttle operating on cruiseship days from whichever port to Burnt Pine.

[mr walker]

4 hours ago, snoopyonthehill said:

We were lucky to actually make it.  We booked the Honu Explorer - hop on hop off bus which picked us up at Cascade Bay and did a great round trip of the island with 11 interesting stops.  Highly recommend it.  Booked through Norfolk Island tourism.   Otherwise there is free shuttle operating on cruiseship days from whichever port to Burnt Pine.

 Great to read. We will be there in Oct & have booked a rental car as we have been there a number of times & have our plan for the day. Glad that the HOHO bus worked well. Cheers

[cruisine21]

We went to Norfolk Island in May. My daughter did our family tree and found out we were a First Fleeter. My relative Ann Forbes spent 3 years on Norfolk Island as a convict. She was the oldest surviving First Fleeter. A 750 page book ‘Transported to Paradise’ was written on her. 
We are going back in March next year for 10 days for First Fleeters Week.

[arxcards]

31 minutes ago, cruisine21 said:

We went to Norfolk Island in May. My daughter did our family tree and found out we were a First Fleeter. My relative Ann Forbes spent 3 years on Norfolk Island as a convict. She was the oldest surviving First Fleeter. A 750 page book ‘Transported to Paradise’ was written on her. 
We are going back in March next year for 10 days for First Fleeters Week.

I have a Norfolk Island connection with a Pitcairner line in my tree, so also a good reason for me to spend some time there one day. My mum spent a week there in May and had a great time except for a rental car that kept breaking down. 

[cruiser3775]

2 hours ago, arxcards said:

I have a Norfolk Island connection with a Pitcairner line in my tree

I also have a Norfolk Islander family connection.  I didn't know a lot about my great uncles, who married women from Norfolk, so I went to their research and genealogy centre when I visited. They were very helpful, and I was able to locate some family graves in that amazingly atmospheric cemetery in Kingston.

[reeves35]

1 hour ago, cruiser3775 said:

I also have a Norfolk Islander family connection.  I didn't know a lot about my great uncles, who married women from Norfolk, so I went to their research and genealogy centre when I visited. They were very helpful, and I was able to locate some family graves in that amazingly atmospheric cemetery in Kingston.

A fun fact we learnt about the cemetery when we visited there on Explorer last week is that anyone can be buried there for free even if you have have no connection with Norfolk Island at all.  Not sure why you'd do it and, by time you paid for the coffin and the body transport from mainland, it may not be such a good deal anyway.

[Yaya_in_Oz]

1 hour ago, reeves35 said:

A fun fact we learnt about the cemetery when we visited there on Explorer last week is that anyone can be buried there for free even if you have have no connection with Norfolk Island at all.  Not sure why you'd do it and, by time you paid for the coffin and the body transport from mainland, it may not be such a good deal anyway.

 

A colleague of mine, her father died while on holiday on Norfolk Island. He is buried there.

[mr walker]

Photo posted by a local on the island taken this morning of P&O ship visit today - they are at Cascade Bay. Weather is good and tendering can proceed.

[arxcards]

2 hours ago, mr walker said:

Photo posted by a local on the island taken this morning of P&O ship visit today - they are at Cascade Bay. Weather is good and tendering can proceed.

Looks calm and the Norfolk palms look lovely. Great photo.

[SinbadThePorter]

5 hours ago, mr walker said:

they are at Cascade Bay. Weather is good and tendering can proceed.

 

Sea conditions are very marginal. I was kind of surprised the Captain allowed tendering. It was quite rough in the bay and the water around Cascade jetty was surging a bit.