10/21/2009, American and Independant Samoa
Our visit to American Samoa - ie Pago Pago was a little different than most stops we have made to date in the Pacific...
After checking in, Patrick and I, without even saying it to eachother, silently boarded a ruckus bus with heavy bass music, and went straight to Pizza Hut...it wasn't even mealtime! Then for dinner, we had chicken mcnuggets, burgers, french fries, and Chocolate Sundaes at the golden arches of McDonalds. Needless to say, we pigged out more than once in American Samoa. My stomach hadn't ached like that for years.
After our "pigout day", we went grocery shopping for more than one bag of groceries- the first time since Panama. We shopped at the CostULess and got American steaks and hamburgers for our freezer, as well as boneless skinless chicken breast and big buckets of feta cheese, Blowpops, and Reeses Peanut butter cups. We went to local stores and bought swordfish steaks, and cereal. Cream cheese and sour cream, hard cheeses and snacks...it seems like everything we have done without for 6 or so months is American and bad for you. No wonder Americans (and American Samoans) are so BIG!
And plastic- I always thought America was ahead of the curve with environmental practices. I have learned how far behind we are compared to the rest of the world. Most countries we have been to in the South Pacific have recyclable bags or "bring your own bags" at grocery stores. Nothing is wrapped in plastic if another material can be used. Back in America, ie American Samoa, I am overwhelmed at how everything is plastic wrapped and bags in grocery stores are "no problem". And because of this, there is "no problem" finding plastic bags on the streets, in the waters, in the parks...everywhere you look. Most Pacific Islanders don't have this problem because plastic bags are so scarce.
In more than one way, it was like coming "home" here. FDIC signs on the bank teller windows, American flags hanging in yards, parks and busses, yellow ribbons tied around trees and fences honoring those in wars, US Post Office with the same PO Boxes and forms on the counters as the mainland. When we were done checking in with the officials I commented to one of them that it was good to be back in the USA! He corrected me that I was in an "American Protectorate". I asked another local about this, and she couldn't understand why the man had said this. They consider themselves full fledge Americans and are proud to be so. It was very interesting to me to see this very strong American identity and patriotism mixed with the traditional Samoan culture. One memorable example of this is from attending a "White Sunday" celebration. One Sunday each month all of the children from the different churches put on a show. It's attended by all the locals...I was the only cruiser there that particular Sunday. All of the children are dressed in white, and they sing and dance through a skit, mostly in Samoan language. It was very noticeable how the boys really let it all hang out. They danced with familiar Polynesian movements, as well as American rap music type moves...with enthusiasm and vigor. The girls barely move their bodies during the same song...all that they really move are their fingers.
The wind continued to blow for a week after we got there, often in the 30s in the anchorage. We kept a close eye on Brick House from various vantage points during the day around the harbor, but she never budged an inch. None of the other boats moved either despite the repuation for poor holding here. Our batteries also stayed charged all week, with constant wind and sunshine. We had the anchor alarm on at night for the whole first week, just to be sure.
One day we shared a rental car with Chuck and Joanie on SV Tender Spirit to explore the island. We saw fruit bats and beautiful overlooks in the rainforest on the east side of the island. They showed us where to shop, and we enjoyed lots of good conversation. Another day, we rode the musical busses all over the island to pick up supplies, as well as to simply see the whole of the island. Another day we hiked up a long trail in to the rainforests , where it indeed rained every 10 or 15 minutes, to the top of the mountain with awesome views of the harbor! I even had a HUGE fruit bat hover right near me...with its wingspan of nearly 2 feet sounding like luffing sails inside my eardrums. What an awesome creature - you have to see it to believe it...they look just like the giant monster vampire bats you see in the movies except they like fruit juice way better than blood. We shared our picnic lunch at the top of the mountain under a fale with numerous skinks enjoying our tuna fish sandwich leftovers.
With fast Wifi on the boat, we placed our orders to Amazon for books we have been wanting, boat parts, as well as camera lenses to replace Patrick's old mildewed ones. The US Mail system is great there and within 10 days we had everything we wanted as though we were having it shipped to Rhode Island. We better keep writing and snapping those pictures to pay it all off! The problem with cities and conveniences...you spend too much...and realize before too long that you had better leave before you think of anything else that you "need".
After 2 weeks of making new friends, and exploring this truly beautiful island and buying too much food, we were ready to depart to Independant Samoa. Hurricane season and an empty wallet pushes us onwards. Just when our wallet was at its emptiest, the officials wanted $165.00 to check out. Highway robbery. This is more than we had spent combined for the last 8 months of countries. (We had avoided the Cook Islands because its even more there). We complained to the harbormaster and wrote a letter to the editor which was published a week later. We totally enjoyed ourselves here, but that kind of fee will not encourage us to go back there next season. I'm not sure American Samoa cares OR minds that we there, which is some of the charm of the place. But it seems that most cruisers now, and even more so in the future, will likely travel on to Apia and skip American Samoa.
Our sail to Independant Samoa - I don't even remember it- must have been a calm 80 miles overnight. We arrived Apia, with again many familiar boats tied up at the marina there. Its funny how as time goes on, you know more boats thatn you dont, in each anchorage. Samoa is very organized in its check in procedure and within about 4 hours there had been about 5 or 6 officials on the boat, many of them with head colds that I promptly caught with a vengeance. One wanted a fumigation certificate but settled for a list of the ingredients on our handy dandy bug spray can that we keep at the companionway. I'm glad one of our tiny resident ants didn't bite him while he sat in our cockpit.
The next day about 10 cruisers got together and went on a taxi tour of the island. The taxi driver knew where to take us and I had my guidebook to read to the others about what we were seeing. It worked out to be very economical- I think about 15$ per couple for an all day tour. Again- a very beautiful island, and we saw a lot in a short while.
The dock was almost 20$ per day, which is a deal by Newport RI standards, but too pricy for us to stay long. We got our internet time in, went to the veggie market, and headed out a short 3 days later to Samoa's "big island"- Savaii. We planned to take a look at Apolima - a small island between Upolo ( Apia), and Savaii. I could not find on the internet a single account of anyone going there in a sailboat but my tourist guide suggested a "gem", so I wanted to go. If it didn't work out, there was asemi-exposed bay on the southeast of Savaii, not too far away that we could enter in time for sunset. Who knows, maybe we would love the reefs there and stay a week.
As we approached and I further examined that "Plan B" if Apolima didn't work out , we decided to carry on to the anchorage on the north side of Savaii where we would be more protected and be closest to most of the sights, with a good beach and reef to explore too. It turned out that this was a very good choice.
We anchored in beautiful Matautu Bay. The water was the warmest we have felt for a long time, and the reef was pretty. Turtles were plentiful and the beach was an easy landing. We were anxious to see some of the sights on the southeast side of the island so we planned a bus trip early for the very next day. Unfortunately when we woke up, we saw that our freezer had stopped working. Patrick worked quickly to resolve it so we could still take our bus trip. Then the earthquake happened....
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10/11/2009, American Samoa
Sailing to Tutuilla (Pago Pago) American Samoa from Vavau, Tonga
The first 2 days sailing were windier and bumpier than hoped for, but that is what makes for fast passages. We could not make any easting though. The wind was on the nose, we went straight north and passed just east of Niuetopotapu. Then the wind finally started shifting and the Monitor self steering vane followed the wind shift and headed us nearly north east. It was on our minds to possibly take a detour to the rarely visited Rose Atoll which is east of American Samoa. We heard from other cruisers who stopped there that It is in no way similar to Suwarrow atoll. On the one heavily vegetated island, there are many birds nesting with many chicks scampering about but there are only a few coconut palms. There is little live coral inside the lagoon except near the one channel. The channel is narrow and can be difficult to navigate and has a depth of 10 feet at the shallowest. There is always a strong out flowing current in the channel as there is nowhere for all the waves washing over the reefs to go but out that channel. Outside the reef, there are some larger fish, like grouper, in the deep water near the channel. Overall, the place sounded like not the unique spot one would go out of their way to visit plus it is supposed to be a restricted park.
There are islands a day sail to the east of Tutuilla but the charts show no good anchorages especially in the strong winds we were now encountering. There was no choice but rotate the airvane of the Monitor which put Brick House onto a beam reach.
With Tutuilla barely on the horizon, I saw something GREAT! Just off the starboard bow, 100 yards out, there was a big splash that caught my eye. I stayed focused on the spot and suddenly something great and mighty rose from the water. It was like a rocket, like a new building growing up from the sea. It was big and black and rose in slow motion, taller than the mast of the boat! It was the body of a whale- the whole body, head to tail .it was all in slow motion with water splashing all around it. It just rose and rose and rose. This is mating season for the whales here, and either that was a female that was playing very hard to get, or a male showing off, and very successfully, to his potential mate! I've never seen anything so majestic in my life!
On the beam reach we were sailing fast yet the wind grew stronger. We had to shorten sail and eventually were reduced to only the staysail. Still we were doing 6 knots. We were in a storm! The seas were mounting fast and the wind was increasing every second! Before not too long the wind was up to 45 knots moving us along at 6.5 knots. When the wind piped up to 50, Patrick went out and rolled up most of the staysail. We were still going 5 knots under practically bare poles. The waves built and soon they were crashing over the boat with great force. It was a little bit scary the sound of it all. Water often came right over the hatch boards and because they are not hermetically sealed, some waves slipped through the gaps into the cabin. It became a very damp hot place quickly. Keeping an eye on radar and calling on the VHF to see if other craft were in our ocean, we locked ourselves inside and enjoyed good books and movies, getting up on occasion to mop up water and look out the windows. The Monitor was doing all the steering for us and taking all the dousing we would have been the target of. How nice to sail through a storm snug in the cabin.
One wave did wipe out a side panel of the dodger. While rolling up the stay sail it was allowed to luff a bit too much which shook off and shredded parts of the ultraviolet protective panel.
The GRIB files- weather files - showed a consistent 15- 20 knots of Southeast wind. Never 35-50 knots for 24 hours! We surfed in to Pago Pago Harbor, Island of Tutuilla, American Samoa late in the afternoon. It has been a very long time since we experienced Pizza Hut, and a MacDonald's Chicken McNugget and fries, and an ice cream sundae for dessert - its been literally years!! Maybe that is why we have been so healthy.
Oh- and the first series of emails we get as we are coming in to the harbor Dosia's Dinghy has been found in Niue! The dinghy was found upside down by a local fisherman there, but the dinghy itself is in great shape! Amazing! It had floated about 25 days from Beveredge Reef to Niue.
In Pago Pago harbor, after 2 attempts at setting our anchor right behind our friends on Tender Spirit, our anchor appears to be well set as we settle back in the 25 knots of wind, and welcome calls on the radio from friends we haven't seen in months. The Pacific is becoming a mighty small world!
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