Early on the morning of the sixth day at sea I stood on the bridge of Aranui 5 and watched an uneven grey shape materialise on the horizon, in the apricot-coloured dawn, beneath a vast bank of purple altocumulus. This was Pitcairn Island, refuge of Fletcher Christian and his band of mutineers in that most compelling of true-life maritime dramas, the Mutiny on the Bounty; and for most, if not all of the 216 passengers aboard Aranui 5, the principal focus and attraction of this voyage across French Polynesia and beyond.

It was 6.20am and we were 30 nautical miles to the northwest of Pitcairn, with the bows of the Aranui rising and falling in a distinct swell. As the island took on a deep-green colour and unfolded into three dimensions of ridges and cliffs, with a shifting hem of foam along its shoreline, I recalled the words of the Aranuis captain, Christophe Dupuy, the day before. In Pitcairn, the challenge is to get you ashore, he had told me.

Excerpt from:

A rare voyage to Pitcairn, the lonely island with a dark history - Telegraph.co.uk