Fanning Island Tourism
Tourism Fanning IslandThe Fanning Island Cruise Port Terminal: Ferry Harbour Information Fanning Island
When you arrive on Fanning Island, a part of the Republic of Kiribati and formally known as Tabuaeran Island, you have probably come with a personal boat, a sailing boat or one of the few of them. Fanning, a brother and sister of the more famous Christmas Island, is very secluded and has no electricity and no house installations.
Yes, it's beautiful, it reminds of a Robinson Crusoe story or a "Gilligan's Island" happening. Since there is no electricity on Fanning Island, there are no ATMs; make sure you have money on board or in another harbour before you arrive. The most widely spread English is the most widely spread English on Fanning Island.
Genuine grasscirts, mussel chains, feather duster and sharkstooth knifes, which are actually made on the island and not in Korea or China, are great gods.
KIRIBATI'S FANNING ISLAND BECOMES A TOURIST DESTINATION
TARAWA, Kiribati (17 August 1998 - PACNEWS/Tuqiri)---More than eight Norway based vessels will be visiting Fanning Island (Tabuaeran) in Kiribati's Northern Line Island this year, according to a plan by the Kiribati Ministry of Tourism to develop the island as a tourism area. Kiribati's CTO, Tarataake Teannaki, says the rest of the Line Island group could be involved in further travel.
The Fanning Island, just to the South of Palmyra Atoll, is known for its unspoilt nature.
Fanning Island Travel with Johnbo
Our first glimpse of Fanning Island after two long day and night at the seas. When my miss Lynn and I went on a trip in a few short get-togethers, I thought it would be great to be sharing our cruising experiences from a few years ago. Also known as Tabuaeran, Fanning Island is a part of the Line Island range, which lies about 250 northeast of the Ecuador.
Although the island was not inhabited when it was found by the Europeans, today it is inhabited by about a thousand Kiribatians. Norwaygian Cross Lines (NCL) was present there for a while. It' constructed by the shipping company for the island's population. Norway no longer operates the NCL in Tabuaeran, a diversion via its Hawaii based cruises under the Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886.
This part of US naval legislation is designed to provide protection for US carriers against overseas carriers engaged in haulage activities. Kabotage is a viable undertaking for a cruise liner and involves the carriage of persons or goods to several harbours along the coastline of a state. As air travel has emerged, the Act now also covers international airliners for aircrafts.
The US Act is particularly important for ocean liners with alien registers, which most ocean liners are, I believe, due to higher charges and various regulatory requirements in the United States. Put in a nutshell, a cross-country registred liner must have several US stations on its route, at least one international dock.
About 1100 nautical leagues in the southern part of the islands of Hwaii, Fanning Island was the NCL international harbor for cruising in Mt. There was a satellite receiver on the TV which showed the actual location of the vessel. We took this picture the night before we arrived on Fanning Island. Lynn and I booked a trip around the islands of Andalusia in 2007.
Hawaii we wanted to go and a buddy of ours proposed that a trip around the island would be the best way. You will be travelling with your room, baggage is unpacked and repacked only once, and you will be travelling at nights when you sleep, every evening in a new harbour with new sight.
While we had reserved two week in our timetable, all the island trips in US vessels were only seven whole week carters. The Bahamian Registry offered a 12-day sailing trip with NCL's Norway Wind. For the other five working hours we had to go to a harbour abroad.
Today is the day of Norway Wind, which was soon after sailing and the Pride of America, NCL's US licensed Mega-Cruiser offers 7 day trips around the Hawaii Islands. It' a little harder to go to Fanning Island now. There' s one of the freighters heading for the island.
Can' t get very near to the flat island beach, so tender took us ashore and back. The majority of cruisers use life boats as a tender to take people from the vessel to the waterfront and back when the waters are too flat to allow the vessel to moor at the docks.
Soon after our trip, Norway Wind was shut down, bought by an Asiatic firm and transformed into an offshore gaming establishment. In order to safe some money, we bought a barricaded viewing booth. Heading for the bank, the tanker stepped onto the Weston Point waterfront and moored at English Harbor, on the west side of the tunnel.
By clicking on the Fanning Island and enlarging the image, you can see the wreck in the Laguna just south of English Harbor. Looking at the bank as the boat drew near the island look. As we were getting closer to the island, we could see part of the NCL building structure to help their cruisers.
The NCL crews took meals, drinks and equipment to land in front of the guests to prepare a barbecue picknick on the island. The guests of the boat loved to watch the choir of schoolchildren sing for us at the docks. On Friday mornings, on our way in, the cruiser docked.
But when we got to the island, it was Saturday morn. As we had traversed the International Date Line, which runs slightly eastwards, Tabuaeran can stay in the same timezone as the remainder of the Kiribati Republic. After returning to the boat it was Friday evening again.
Local artists and local performers were entertaining the international visitors. Yes, many of the residencies look like something the professor made on Gilligan's island. In order to get an impression of how the inhabitants of the island were living, we left the harbour partys. Just after luncheon a gust of tropic storm turned westward and finally the island was rained briefly but quite heavily.
But it was over as quickly as it began, and the island was once again immersed in the heat of the tropics. Following an interesting and queued tour with the stamp "Republic of Kiribati", we went back to the boat for the two-day trip to Honolulu and the departure of our boat.