Pago Pago Harbor, American Samoa - Part 5

1 JANUARY - 26 JUNE 2011


NEW YEAR'S DAY SOUTHERN-STYLE

New Year's Day we attended a barbecue at Joe Weilenman's home in Pava'ia'i, which is up the hillside shortly before reaching Leone on the "west" side of the island. Joe picked us up early and drove us out to Leone and showed us some of the sights around that area, which was quite a treat for us since we had never been that far out before.

At the house we met Joe's lady friend Eagle, who comes from a village on the opposite side of the island, and several of Joe's friends and neighbors. There were about 10 of us in all for the barbecue, and the food was wonderful. After drinks and appetizers we sat down to a meal of slow-cooked barbecued ribs, corn bread, black-eyed peas, rice, and salad. Scrumptious! (Joe, who has lived in American Samoa for over 25 years, is an architect from Greenville, Mississippi, and knows how to cook ribs. He even cooked corn sticks in the special cast iron pans like my mother used to use. Amazing!) We ate inside in the cozy dining room while rain cascaded down the windowpanes, reminding us that while we might be eating Mississippi food, we were really in Pago Pago, American Samoa. It poured all afternoon.

Jim and I stayed till late in the evening, after everyone else had gone home, to talk with Joe and Eagle. Then Joe drove us home, which is about a 45 minute drive since the maximum speed limit is only 25 miles per hour. The police had set up a road block on the coast road. They knew Joe, of course, and he was driving slowly, so we had no trouble there. But we had been warned that in American Samoa, 25 mph means 25 mph, and if you drive 26 mph, you may get a ticket.

(See photos of the Leone trip and festivities at Joe's in the sub-album Manuia le Tausaga Fou - Happy New Year! under the album TUTUILA - AMERICAN SAMOA: January 2011.)


THE CRUISING COMMUNITY

Now that the hurricane season is here (mainly January-April), boats that were moving on have already left and the handful of cruising boats still here in the harbor have formed a closely-knit boating community. We have become friends, or at least friendly acquaintances, with all the other cruisers. Everyone helps everyone else, and we stick together as a neighborhood. It is truly wonderful: very reminiscent of our former cruising days in the 1970s and '80s. (So different from our time in French Polynesia where there were usually hordes of boats overflowing the anchorages and you only got to meet a few of the people.) We are so glad to have had the opportunity to meet these fellow cruisers and spend time with them in Pago Pago.


EYE OF THE STORM

Speaking of Hurricane Season, we learned that a Category 1 hurricane was expected to hit Pago Pago on January 23, so we spent a number of hours getting the boat better secured to the dock and stowing items away in preparation for the storm. I think I went to sleep around 1:30 a.m. or so; Hurricane Wilma arrived several hours later, before dawn.

Jim got up and went outside in his foul weather gear. He saw that one of the dock lines had snapped on Honu, the boat docked behind us that had recently arrived from Hawaii. Jim helped Mac, the owner and captain of Honu, to better secure his boat.

By then, of course, the wind was blowing like stink and the rain was pouring down in gusty sheets. Jim noted that an unoccupied motorboat docked across the marina from us had lost a dock line and was beating against some metal at the end of its floating dock. He radioed the Harbor Master and informed him of the situation. The Harbor Master said he would send someone over to secure the boat, but no one ever came and the boat sank.

Panacea, punster Joe's boat, broke loose from her mooring in the harbor, and Joe did a most difficult but masterful job of motoring against the wind even though he sometimes got blown down and turned sideways in the process as he tried to progress down the harbor. Eventually he was able to tie up by the Port Authority.

Don and Judy were on WindRyder trying to fend off a large, abandoned fishing vessel that was dragging her mooring and bumping into their sailboat. We could hear them on the VHF, and it sounded quite dire as they called for help from the Harbor Master or Coast Guard, but no one ever came, and they were hit six times, they told us later. Eventually they, too, moved off their mooring and onto the commercial dock. Fortunately, no one was hurt and damage to their boat was superficial.

Midday the eye of the storm passed over the harbor. The sky was clear, and a number of us went outside and gathered near the main gate of the marina, which had remained unlocked since Thanksgiving. Suddenly a man drives up outside the gate, gets out of his vehicle, locks the gate, jumps back in his vehicle and drives off, leaving us standing just inside the gate staring after him with our mouths hanging open. Then a pickup truck drives up to the gate from the other side and a young man from one of the fishing boats jumps out, grabs a large piece of wood lying on the ground nearby and, with two big thwacks, breaks the lock and drives into the marina amidst our unabashed cheers. Go figure.

Winds were clocked at nearly 100 mph during Hurricane Wilma, but sustained winds were a bit less. Pago Pago Harbor is the best hurricane hole in the entire South Pacific, so we didn't fare too badly here. Some trees and tree limbs were blown down and fruit covered the sidewalks afterward (we were able to retrieve a couple of mangoes that escaped injury from their fall), but the island suffered little damage overall. Thank goodness for that!

Jim and I walked up to Sadie's-by-the-Sea in the afternoon to see the AFC NFL Championship game. The rain was still pouring down and there was some wind, but nothing too serious by then. (For photos related to the storm, see sub-album Hurricane Wilma under the album TUTUILA - AMERICAN SAMOA: January 2011.)


FIRE!

Super Bowl Sunday I awoke before dawn to the sound of sirens. Okay, nothing unusual there, but this siren sounded different from those on the ambulances, and I could tell that it was getting quite close to the marina. In fact, it sounded like the siren stopped right at the marina gate, so I got up and stuck my head out the companionway. Lo and behold, there was a fire truck sitting on the dock RIGHT BY OUR BOAT! Then I looked over at the long-liner rafted off the barge at the end of the pier and saw the flames. The fire was quickly extinguished, and apparently no one was seriously hurt, but what a shock! Good thing the gate wasn't locked that night, huh? (See photos in the album TUTUILA - AMERICAN SAMOA: February-March 2011.)



SUPER BOWL SUNDAY

After the fire got sorted out, we walked up to Sadie's-by-the-Sea to watch the Super Bowl. Rod (Joint Adventure), who had been batching it while his wife was in the States, walked up with us, and Kimball (Altaira) and Erik (Sidetrack) joined in, so we had plenty of people to talk to during the game. Since none of our favorite NFL teams made it to the final championship game, Jim and I decided to join most of the rest of the island in rooting for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Why, you ask? Because Troy Polamalu, whom we have heard touted as THE BEST FOOTBALL PLAYER IN THE ENTIRE NFL by a sports reporter on National Public Radio, is a native son of this island. In fact, our friend Bryson, who tended bar at Sadie Thompson Inn, said he and Troy are first cousins since Bryson's father and Troy's mother are brother and sister. Bryson told us that while Troy was a high school athlete here on Tutuila, he never played on the football team. He ran track and played baseball and basketball (if I remember the particular sports correctly), but never football until he went to college. Imagine that!

Anyway, Troy is highly respected here, and so our Steelers fan friends will be delighted to know that we were cheering for their team - even though it didn't help them win. (For a fun photo of a teenaged Polamalu "look-alike," see the sub-album A Walk Through Fagatogo under the album TUTUILA - AMERICAN SAMOA: January 2011.)


McDONALD'S TO THE RESCUE

In February our head (toilet) quit functioning. There is only one head on our boat, no such facilities are provided at the marina, and it took a couple of weeks for the new parts to arrive, so... the nearest place we could go at pretty much any time of the day or night, seven days a week, was McDonald's. Consequently we ate breakfast there every morning (the Breakfast Burrito isn't bad), and I often had to run up there for some chocolate chip cookies at night, but I cannot tell you how grateful I was to have such a place nearby. We nearly always purchased something there if we needed to use the facilities, but they wouldn't have minded even if we didn't. The people who work there have always been friendly and gracious, they keep the restaurant clean (the McDonald's in Fagatogo is the cleanest one I have ever seen), and it is a reasonably pleasant place to hang out (yes, it's air conditioned) when not crowded. They also offer free internet from 2:00 to 8:00 p.m. daily, and many cruisers take advantage of this service. For all of the above, we say: THANK YOU, McDONALD'S! (Doesn't make the food any better, but still...)

Speaking of McDonald's food, they offer a couple of items on the menu here that you may not have seen elsewhere. One is the Samoan Burger, which is a hamburger with a fried egg on top, and the other is Fried Taro Pie. Yes, McD's is very popular here in Pago Pago. They even hold wedding receptions at the Fagatogo McDonald's, which has a special upstairs room for such occasions. Classy, huh?


TRUBBLES IN PARADISE

In mid-February, our friend Tom (Kiwi owner of both the Sadie's restaurants/hotels) closed down his other restaurant, Rubble's Tavern, in Nu'uuli. A year before his 30-year lease ran out, the head of the family that owns the land (many of whom now reside in California) signed a new lease for Tom and presented it to the governor, who had one year in which to sign it (a lease apparently is not valid in American Samoa unless it is signed by the Governor). Meanwhile, the family member who had signed the lease died and some of the California members of the family did not want the lease to be renewed, and so the Governor never signed it. Consequently, when the original 30-year lease ran out in February, Tom and several other businesses who were renting from him had to vacate the building that Tom had built and still officially owns.

The case went to court, and the judge decreed that the owners of the land were not required to renew the lease; however, neither were they allowed to "steal" Tom's building. If the landowners did not renew Tom's lease, then they would have to pay him for the building. Unfortunately (from Tom's point of view, anyway), there doesn't seem to be any way to make the landowners pay, and chances are they don't have the money to do so anyway, and so the building sits forlornly by the coast road in Nu'uuli, no longer offering a pleasant stop for refreshment or sustenance to hungry or thirsty travelers.

A few weeks later, we were on the bus passing by the vacant building and noticed that someone had made a "T" (from the same type bamboo used to form the other letters on the Rubble's sign) and placed it in front of RUBBLE'S to form TRUBBLE'S. I guess not all the flowers smell sweet in Paradise after all.


TSUNAMI

On the night of March 10, Anatoli and Natasha (Puppy) were having drinks and nibbles with us in our cockpit when, at about 9:30 p.m., we heard someone on the VHF radio announce that a tsunami was heading our way due to the big earthquake off Japan AND that it was expected to arrive in Pago Pago in about 15 minutes. Anatoli and Natasha jumped up and dashed to their dinghy in order to get back to their own boat in the anchorage as we desperately tried to gather more information.

As it turned out, the "15-minute" alert was vastly incorrect (thank goodness!), and we learned that the storm was not actually due till early the next morning. I started stowing things to prepare to go to sea while Jim kept a close eye and ear tuned to tsunami reports. We decided we should prepare to go to sea, but Jim thought we could wait till 1:30 or 2:00 in the morning before making a final decision.

In the end we elected to stay at the dock, and so there we sat on the pier with several other cruisers at approximately 4:30 in the morning watching for the tsunami. We watched and we watched, and all we saw at the appointed time of arrival was the boats rise a few inches and then go back down a few inches. Nothing else happened for the next half hour or so, and so we finally went to bed.

Late in the morning we got up and walked to Sadie's-by-the-Sea. To the best of our knowledge nothing had happened, and everything seemed to be back to normal. When we returned a couple of hours later, however, we were informed by cruising friends that the tide was going up and down like crazy; it had started soon after we left. And so again we joined our friends and watched as the water rose a couple of feet in about 5 minutes and then went down about 4 feet in the next 10 minutes. That went on for hours. In fact, it was still happening the following afternoon. But it wasn't a problem for us. In fact, it was kind of handy. If you wanted to get off the boat and the tide was too high or low for comfort, you only had to wait a few minutes and then you could just step straight across to the pier. Cool.


A TYPICAL ATYPICAL SAMOAN SHOPPING DAY

Date: March 15 (beware the Ides of March)
Weather Forecast: Sunny (ha!)
Mission: Obtain bronze fittings for gen-set exhaust system (good luck!)
Agent: Ann (lucky me)

Jim has now decided that perhaps the exhaust system is the problem with the generator and has dispatched me to go in search of several small parts, so off I go on the aiga bus. First stop: Ace Hardware all the way out by Leone. (I am skipping True Value because Jim feels sure that they would not have the parts he needs.) Ace has one part, but not the others. Purchase: $1.98.

Jim really thought Ace would have these fittings, but they are out of stock for the other sizes. What to do now? Take the bus back to Tafuna and eat lunch (3 chocolate chip cookies and an orange juice for $3.95) at McDonald's #2 (not nearly as nice as the McD's downtown in Fagatogo) while I think about it.

Plan B: Check at C&L Lumber (as recommended by others as a place to find hardware), which is just about a block up the road from McD's. DONE. They have NO bronze plumbing parts whatsoever, only galvanized and PVC.

Plan C: Check The Tool Shop #2 located in the Tafuna Industrial Park about 5 blocks away. And so I walk to The Tool Shop, but no luck there either. However, they suggest that I try Industrial Gases located RIGHT NEXT DOOR to C&L Lumber. (BUT I WAS JUST THERE!!!)

I am tired and hot now, but I walk on back toward Industrial Gases, which is just beyond C&L. Right before I get to C&L the sky opens up and it POURS! As usual, I didn't bother to bring an umbrella, so I get soaked before I can make it to C&L. However, the receptionist there is very kind and lets me come inside to wait for the rain to calm down. After 10 or 15 minutes it does. Meanwhile, the receptionist has called Industrial Gases to see if they have the fittings I need, but they have to check and call back. So I wait a bit longer until they call back and say, no, they don't have them.

Plan D: Go see Harvey at the motorcycle repair shop just up the road past Industrial Gases. He has rebuilt the generator engine for us already, and who knows what parts he might have lurking about. But no, he does not have what I need. However, Harvey suggests I check TMO Hardware in Ottoville (not far from Tafuna). The problem is that although I could catch a bus there, it is highly unlikely that I could get a bus back. So Harvey's wife Via offers to take me. GREAT!

Plan E: And so Via and I head out in her car over waterlogged streets to Ottoville and TMO. Omigosh! They actually have the part I need (Purchase: $5), but they only have one and I need two. Zounds! Foiled again!

Plan F, Etc.: But TMO tells us of another place in Nu'uuli that bought out some store that used to have plumbing parts, and Via drives me there. Alas, they no longer carry such stock. However, it is right next door to True Value Hardware, and so I decide I may as well look there, too, just in case. But Jim was right in that instance: True Value has no such bronze fittings. And so Via kindly drops me off at CostULess on her way back to Harvey's shop.

I do a bit of shopping at CostULess and then catch an aiga bus home. (Total bus fare for the day: $3.) I walk the couple of blocks home from the bus terminal and proudly present Jim with my precious purchases for the generator system - two-thirds of the total parts needed - only to have him inform me that one of them is the wrong size. (Yes, the bin it was in said it was three-eighths-inch and so does its package, but it's really only one-quarter.)

I am devastated. I have failed again. I'm afraid my days as a purchasing agent for small parts for engines and related systems is fast nearing an end. What can I say?

YEA!!!!!


FORTY YEARS AND COUNTING...

March 20 was our 40th wedding anniversary. (Jim says you only get half that time for murder. What gives?) Oddly enough, we are both still alive and together and happily so after all these years, and so we went to dinner at Sadie's-by-the-Sea to celebrate. Rod (Joint Adventure) and his wife Patti, who had returned from the States, asked if they could come with us. We said, "Of course," and so we had a lovely time eating swordfish outside in the fale (think gazebo) down by the water. To top it off, Rod & Patti treated us to the dinner, so it was indeed a most special and enjoyable evening.


THE LEGEND OF SADIE THOMPSON

Speaking of Sadie's, we quit going to her sister restaurant, Sadie Thompson Inn, in early January when the price for the house wine there doubled from $4 back up to $8 a glass, but by spring we were wandering over there again from time to time. Bryson was no longer there as he was off doing his two-year Mormon missionary work in Puerto Rico, but the lovely Tui was still there along with the equally charming Reti, our new bartender, who has a marvelous singing voice. And so it seems appropriate at this time to offer you the Sadie Thompson Inn's version of "The Legend of Sadie Thompson":

"Somerset Maugham, as a young writer, sailed from Pago Pago to Hawaii (EDITOR'S NOTE: Or perhaps Hawaii to Pago Pago?) aboard the steamer Sonoma in 1916, when American Samoa was a recently acquired U.S. Territory under Navy rule. Heavy storms prevented the boat from leaving for Apia so the passengers stayed in Pago Pago, including, as the story goes, Sadie Thompson and a group of missionaries. The events that transpired inspired Maugham's short story Rain, or he was bored and made it up. Either way, it's a great story.

"There is evidence though that his lead character Sadie Thompson, a woman who knew how to have a good time, traveled on the same boat. He described her boarding of the Sonoma as a 'blond runaway from Iwelei running up the gangplank at the last moment before departure.' Iwelei was the redlight district on the outskirts of Honolulu. Sadie stayed behind in Pago Pago and, as legend has it, set up shop to entertain sailors.

"There is no deportation record for Sadie Thompson in Pago Pago but she was mentioned in a letter to Samoan Affairs for running a house of prostitution that catered to U.S. sailors. It is said she called her place of business, our Sadie's restaurant, the Sadie Thompson Inn.

"Sadie possibly returned to Honolulu aboard the steamship Ventura when her romance with a Samoan man was discouraged. No records of Sadie have been found after her departure, but she left her legacy in American Samoa and we kept the name when we bought and upgraded the original building to include modern rooms and the new bar and restaurant."

In any event, you should definitely visit the establishment if you ever go to Pago Pago. We were treated to a wonderful dinner there by our cruising friend Mac (Honu) one evening. Jim had a Seafood Alfredo dish and I had fresh grilled fish, both of which were very good. Mac had a steak and Dan (Leeway) had the prime rib, and both said the meat was excellent. Sadie Thompson is THE place for "fine dining" on the island, so if your pocketbook can stand it, go for it. (Dinners are actually moderately priced, and the freshly cooked vegetables were delicious.)

(NOTE: Rotary Club meets at Sadie Thompson Inn each Friday for lunch. We were architect Joe's invited guests one Friday. Very nice.)


GENERATOR TROUBLES NEARING END?

After biting the bullet and installing a new generator some months previously, our problems still were not solved. We had the generator engine worked on by professionals as well as by Jim and some of our cruising cronies, but finally bit the other bullet and ordered a new engine for the generator at a cost of about $4,000. Ouch!

March 30 we took a taxi to the airport and picked up the engine. Soon it was installed, and... the system STILL did not generate electricity!!!

In the end it turned out to be an electrical problem after all. We FINALLY got it fixed, and so far so good - except for the inevitable minor problems, of course. Live and learn.


SAME FACE, DIFFERENT PLACE

One of my favorite aspects of the cruising community is that you get to meet up with old friends in new ports. While we were in Pago Pago Harbor, Hugo and his 3-year-old son, Mateo, arrived on Hasta Mañana. We first met them in Hiva Oa and had last seen them in Tahiti. (NOTE: When we first met Hugo I thought he said his name was Hugel and that he was originally from Denmark; instead his name is Hugo and he is from Norway. My apologies!)

Then Dan, whom we had met in Ensenada, Mexico, and not seen since, arrived on Leeway. Dan was a great help to us in assisting Jim with fixing things on the boat, and Jim helped him as well.

It is always good to see friends.

Meanwhile, others headed out for new horizons. Fred (Sunshine) left for the Philippines; Anatoli & Natasha (Puppy) headed on over to (Western) Samoa, and later on Don & Judy (Windryder) left for Tonga.

We miss them all but hope to see them again soon.


A TRIP TO TMO & A BOTTLE OF TONIC

Soon after we arrived in Pago Pago and discovered that the entire island seemed to have run out of red wine, Candy at Tisa's told us about TMO Beverage Co, which was located in Ottoville near CostULess. He suggested we try there for the wine and rum no longer available at CostULess and even marked TMO on a map for us.

The next time we went to CostULess (CUL) we decided to try to walk to TMO first before finishing up our shopping at CUL. And so we walked up the road into Ottoville, turned right just after the Tradewinds hotel and walked for awhile. We passed the church Candy had mentioned, but we did not see TMO. Meanwhile, I had forgotten to bring along the map, so we really weren't sure where it was supposed to be. We walked back to a little store we had passed across from Tradewinds, and they told us that we had been going in the right direction - just not far enough - but TMO would be closed now by the time we got there, so we just returned to CUL and said, "Next time."

"Next time" occurred about six weeks later when we were spending the latter part of the afternoon with Rudi, who had use of a car. He had never been to TMO either, and so we all decided we should go there. The only problem was that, being Pago Pago, it had rained heavily earlier in the day. Now the big dip in Ottoville where the street goes down into a valley was seriously awash. We could not discern the depth of the water over the road, but it seemed to be substantial. So we pulled over to the side of the road and waited a bit to see if other cars could make it through. A pickup truck did, but it had a lot of clearance, which Rudi's little car did not. A couple of other cars came up to the water, looked at it, then turned around and went back out of the valley. Rudi wanted to go for it, but we talked him out of it for fear it would damage the vehicle, and so another opportunity was missed.

A couple of months later I happened to be on a bus that actually went to TMO. Now I knew where it was and that it was too far to be considered a reasonable walk from CUL. I could have gotten off the bus there, but then I probably wouldn't have been able to catch a bus back, so I remained on the bus wistfully gazing at the TMO Beverage sign as another passenger disembarked and the bus moved on. Another day gone, another dollar saved.

Two more months went by, and then a friend lent us his car for a couple of hours. We had to go to CUL anyway, so we drove to TMO first only to discover that, on that particular one-and-only day, they were CLOSED FOR INVENTORY. Sadly, we figured: "Three strikes and one foul; that pretty much puts TMO out of the running for us."

But wait! A rather unlikely serendipitous event in March (see above) results in Harvey's wife Via actually DRIVING ME to TMO Hardware, which is right next door to TMO Beverage. What luck! Luck, yes, but not entirely good luck: It was pouring rain that day and I didn't want to impose on Via any more than was necessary, so I left TMO Hardware directly with her, casting longing glances out the rear window as we pulled out of the parking lot. Goodbye, TMO Beverage. Au revoir, au revoir!

Fortunately, red wine (which had disappeared from the island at the beginning of White Sunday weekend in October) returned to the shelves around Thanksgiving. Now it was early June, and tonic water had followed the same path as red wine had taken in October. The reason this time was Graduation Weekend which, like White Sunday, is a really big deal in American Samoa. All the high school students graduated near the end of May, and parties and family celebrations were held all over the island. And then there was Memorial Day Weekend ! (Apparently SOME people think that tonic, or quinine, water is good for SOMETHING besides keeping malaria at bay. What COULD it be?) And so, of course, we ran out of tonic water. So did Sadie's-by-the-Sea and the Metro store by the post office and K & S Mart, and none of the other stores we had ever visited, including CostULess, even carried it. The only other possibility we knew of was - you guessed it - TMO Beverage.

By now Mike (Honu) had bought a little car and graciously offered to take me out there. So away we went. And they were OPEN! And there was NO WATER ON THE ROAD! And there was also no Coke (we don't carry it) and NO TONIC WATER (we're out of stock) in the warehouse. As for liquor and wine prices, they were MORE expensive than CUL and KS Mart.

"WHY AM I HERE???" I wanted to shout. But of course, being the properly brought up Southern gal that I am, I merely asked when they expected to get in more tonic - "maybe in three days" - and then demurely said thank you and turned to leave.

And that's when I saw it. Sitting atop a column of boxes against the wall just inside the office doorway. A clear plastic one-liter bottle, filled with a clear liquid, boasting a yellow label with black writing and the brand name Canada Dry.

No way, my mind tried to tell me as my heart quickened. The lady just told you that they don't have any, and this is sitting right out in plain view. It must be a different product with a similar looking label. But then I moved in closer, and...

"What's this?" I asked the woman behind the desk as I held up a dented bottle of tonic water (that's right, I said TONIC WATER!) in front of me. "Oh, that's damaged," she said. "I'll take it," I said.

And so for a mere $2.75 I walked triumphantly out of TMO Beverage cradling a precious though slightly damaged bottle of tonic water, noting that for a mere two hours' time and about $4 worth of Mike's gas I had saved all of 25 to 50 cents, depending on where else I might have purchased the same. What a deal!

And so Jim managed to evade malaria for another three days until the next shipment came in, and I was duly promoted from being an agent in the Small Parts Purchasing Department to being the manager of the Beverage Department for the Cactus Wren, which I consider an honor and a privilege and, I have to admit, one heck of an easier job. Thank you, Captain! (And thank you, TMO!)


SMALL WORLD

One day in May the sailboat Windwalker came in to Pago Pago Harbor and docked next to us. She was crewed by a man and his wife and another woman, all near our age. They were delivering the boat from Florida to Fiji if I recall correctly.

Anyway, they kindly invited us aboard for a glass of wine that evening, and while talking we discovered that the captain's wife, Bobbie, had attended the same high school that Jim had attended for one year in Pennsylvania and that they had lived only a few blocks apart and attended the same school at the same time even though they never knew each other. Cool.

Then we learned that the woman, Jean, who was accompanying them on the voyage is the widow of the cruising sailor who drowned right there by the dock during the tsunami of 29 September 2009. We first arrived in Pago Pago Harbor on the one-year anniversary of that horrendous event and had been told then that over 30 people had died due to the tsunami, and one had been a sailor on one of the yachts that was here at the time. He had been trying to do something with the lines when he fell in the water between the boat and the dock and was killed. Jean had been here with him at the time of the accident.

Now, only a year and a half later, this brave lady had come back to Pago Pago to find closure and to reconnect with her cousin Evelyn, an American woman now married to a matai on Tutuila. The next evening we had our first barbecue (see below), and our friend, architect Joe, met Jean there, and guess what? Jean's cousin Evelyn is Joe's ex-wife! Small, small world.


YOU-NAME-IT ON THE BARBIE

We had lunch one Sunday in May with architect Joe and Eagle at Sadie's-by-the-Sea. Not surprisingly, the subject of barbecues came up, and Joe offered to bring one of his barbecues over to the dock the next Saturday and barbecue ribs for the cruisers. ALL RIGHT!!! And so he did.

We had a big party on the dock that afternoon and evening, with a number of cruisers in attendance as well as Joe & Eagle and Joe's friend Joey from Yazoo City, Mississippi, and his fiancée from American Samoa. Joey, who is still quite a young man, is manager of a radio and television station here in Pago Pago, and he is extremely nice. It was fun talking to him about "radio and TV in paradise" as Jim and I had both had experiences in those areas in the Caribbean.

Then, in an ultimate gesture of goodwill, Joe left his barbecue on the dock for all us cruisers to use at will. And did we ever! We had another barbecue the following Thursday night and then Sunday for Jim's birthday, and then... EVERY SINGLE NIGHT (except for one, when Mac & Mike and Jim & I went to Tisa's and then to a Chinese restaurant in town for dinner instead) until we were forced to return the barbecue to Joe due to the "water crisis" (see below) some weeks later.

That barbecue was magical. It really created a sense of community among us cruisers. Mac (Honu) would help buy the meat; Jim would do the barbecuing; I would supply dishes, utensils, condiments, etc. and wash the dishes. Most everyone would contribute some food or paper goods or a few dollars, and many brought their own drinks. When our friends Tim (the "new" restaurant manager at Sadie's-by-the-Sea) and Rachel and their two children, Asher and Kezzie, moved across the street to Sadie Thompson, they also joined the group and sometimes brought one or two of their friends along as well.
A couple of times we were presented with freshly caught wahoo or mahi mahi from one of the cruising boats. Any sailor passing by was always welcome, and we fed the marina security guards as well. We cooked everything from steak and ribs to lamb flaps and hot dogs on that grill. Even mixed vegetables!
I sometimes made a pasta salad or baked beans; Don & Judy (Windryder) brought a cake and a chocolate pie the one time they got to come before leaving, and Roger & Norma (Sea Fury) once brought kabobs and homemade baked beans. Tim once brought raw shrimp, which I sautéed in butter and garlic, and Rachel made a delicious pasta dish. There was always something different (applesauce, anyone?) and always some of the same (here, kid, have a hotdog). What fun!


MEMORIAL DAY FIREWORKS

So of course we were barbecuing Saturday evening on Memorial Day Weekend. And interestingly enough, an Australian warship had come into port a day or two before. Our allies, right?

Well, it was just before dark, and I was down below preparing something or other when I heard a loud BOOM! I popped my head up out of the companionway and asked the guys outside, "Was that THUNDER? Or have the Aussies decided to declare war on Pago Pago?

No one knew, but it didn't rain and there were no more loud BOOMS, so we sort of forgot about it till we were listening to the news on the radio a couple of days later and heard the story that went something like this:

A man was burning trash up the hill behind his home on Saturday evening when a WWII shell exploded and took out the back of his house. No one was in the house at the time and no one was hurt. The explosion took place on the hillside behind the post office in Fagatogo (about a mile from where we were docked).

And so sometimes our barbecues were not only fun and delicious, but also exciting. Let's sum it up this way:

Delicious food, beautiful weather (it only rained on us once or twice), good company, live entertainment (guitar playing; singing; story telling), AND occasional fireworks, compliments of the U.S. Navy.

A lot of work, but a lot of fun, too. Memories we shall always cherish. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end.


WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE...

But not a drop to dink. (At least, not if you live on a yacht.) And that is how our halcyon barbecue days came to such a sudden and dramatic end:

In early April, while preparing for the annual fishing tournament, Andy of Industrial Gases had fixed the broken water faucet that was plumbed to the grassy median strip adjacent to the shed in the middle of the pier. Also due to the fishing tournament, we sailboats had to move out of the marina basin and dock on the outside of the pier in the harbor, which was fine with us; in fact, we decided that we actually liked it better there. In any case, this put our boat within a hose-length of the faucet, allowing us to fill our water tanks directly without having to go to the far side of the marina, fill 20-liter jugs, cart them back to the boat, and then fill our two water tanks from the jugs. A great luxury, yes?

Yes, indeed, until one cruel day - it was a Friday; June 10, as I recall - a man came from Marine Wildlife Resources (MWR), which had control of Malaloa Marina, and moved the faucet inside the caged and locked area adjacent to the shed. When we protested, he said not to worry: someone would be there from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. daily so that we yachties could get access to the water.

Needless to say, this did not happen. No one came for almost a week. Then, on Thursday, June 16, a guy showed up, and Jim asked about the water. The man said the water was not for us. A debate ensued, and eventually the fellow got hold of his superior via cell phone, and the superior said: "NO WATER FOR YACHTS!"

Now, folks, this is water we need for washing dishes, bathing, etc., even if we don't actually drink it. (Oh, yes. That's a whole 'nother story; see below.) We also need it for washing the boat and, in some cases, for washing clothes. And for cooking and cleaning. In other words, we really NEED to have access to water. As Hugo told the reporter, he now had to take his 3-year-old son to the restroom in McDonald's just to brush his teeth. Ridiculous.

We cruisers at the dock who knew what was going on called the local newspaper, the Samoa News, and they sent out a reporter right away. He interviewed Mac & Mike (Honu) and Dan (Leeway) and Hugo (Hasta Mañana) and Jim and me. He also took some photos, and the next day a big article came out in the paper about how the MWR was denying water to people on the sailboats and motor yachts there. Included with the article, which quoted Jim and others, was a photo of Jim, Hugo, and little Mateo standing next to the locked cage in which the water faucet was now tantalizingly ensconced.

That article appeared Friday morning, June 17. At about 10:00 a.m. that same day, two - not one, but TWO - large, black SUV's with MRW emblems drive onto the pier and park by our boat. Then six - not one or two but SIX - large Samoan men in uniform get out of the vehicles and inform Jim (I am down below, not quite sure what is going on) that if we - Cactus Wren and Honu, in particular, they seem to be saying, but ostensibly all sailboats tied to the dock - are not gone by 4:00 p.m. that day, then they will CUT OUR LINES.

Needless to say, Jim was irate and informed them that if they cut our lines, they would go to jail. They then threatened HIM with jail and left. We called architect Joe right away, and he sent Eagle to pick up the barbecue since we had to get all our stuff off the dock before 4:00 p.m. in case MWR made good on their threat. We called the Coast Guard, too, who said this was really an American Samoan Government (ASG) affair, but they assured us that the MWR had absolutely no right to cut our lines, and the Coast Guard would stand behind us if they did. We also called the paper, and the reporter returned and did another story, which appeared in the next morning's (Saturday) paper.

Well, it was an interesting Friday. Not quite how we had planned to spend our day, but Jim and Dan (Leeway) and Kimball (Altaira in the anchorage) and others were working frantically all day trying to get hold of authorities and influential people in the community to see what could be done. Kimball is a retired lawyer from Phoenix who has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, so of course he was anxious to take up the cause, especially since the lack of available water affected boats in the anchorage as well as those at the dock. Meanwhile, the Samoa News online web site was filling up with people who seemed almost as upset as we were that we were being unjustly denied water.

Phone calls were made, words flew here and there, and later in the day we were told by a representative of the MWR that we had until Monday to leave the dock and that they would bring by an official letter stating same. Meanwhile Kimball had found out that the fee we pay for staying in the harbor - whether in the marina or anchored - officially pays for the use of water as well as other facilities, such as restrooms, that are no longer available. Furthermore, a number of us had offered more than once to pay an extra fee specifically for the use of water, but the authorities still would not let us use it.

Architect Joe later came by to see how it was going. We explained the situation as we understood it and our case to him, including the fact that the Malaloa Marina had been built specifically for PLEASURE CRAFT with U.S. GRANT MONEY, and no commercial boats are allowed. (So how come there are sometimes 15 long-liners tied up or rafted off to this dock?) Joe just shook his head and said in his soft, southern voice: "Jim, I love ya, but you're trying to use reason, and reason just don't work here."

Apparently Joe was right about that: As of June 26, when we sailed away, no one's lines had been cut, no official letter of eviction had been presented, and the water was still unavailable to yachts.

(NOTE: To see the newspaper articles, which include a photo of Jim on Friday and one of the Cactus Wren on Saturday, go to www.samoanews.com and look under Friday, June 17 and Saturday, June 18 in the local news section.)

And that brings us to the other water problem on Tutuila: CONTAMINATED DRINKING WATER.

Sometime in January of this year the American Samoan Government learned that the drinking water for much of the island of Tutuila, which includes Pago Pago, was tainted with e coli and coliforms. The public was duly warned on the radio daily not to drink the water unless it was first boiled for at least five minutes. Nor should you use it to wash dishes or brush your teeth, we were told. And so began the months of boiling water.

The public announcement claimed that the matter was being "looked into" and that if it appeared that the problem were ongoing rather than temporary, super chlorination of the water supply would be attempted.

This announcement was still being broadcast over the radio when we left in late June. However, by then the area concerned no longer included Malaloa, so we only had to contend with the inconvenience - and expense of buying a lot more drinking water - for several months.

Who would have thought that a place like Pago Pago, with 300 inches of rainfall a year, would have such problems with water?


SAILING AWAY FROM THE MOON

When not busy boiling water, prepping food for barbecues, or racing around the island looking for obscure bits of hardware, I finally - with Jim's great help - managed to get one of my novels - SAILING AWAY FROM THE MOON - uploaded for sale on Amazon. So far, only the digital version is available (more on that below). It can be downloaded to a Kindle or to a PC if you download the free Kindle for PC program available on Amazon. (However, we are not sure whether you have to own a Kindle in order to use that program.) Price for the e-book should be $2.99 US. It is also available in the UK and in Germany.

Once that seemingly Herculean feat was finished, we turned our efforts toward preparing the book for print publication. This, amazingly enough, can be done for free - IF you don't value your time (as it will take you hundreds of frustrating, infuriating hours to accomplish - if you're lucky). Or you can pay Create Space $300 to format it for you. We chose the more difficult and time-consuming route of doing it ourselves, but I could never have done it without Jim, who is terribly computer savvy while I, alas, am virtually computer illiterate.

Anyway, we eventually thought we had ironed out all the wrinkles and gotten it in tip-top shape so that it could go straight to production. Jim even designed a very nice, simple cover for it, and I wrote the blurb for the back of the book. Great. So we emailed it to Create Space, who does the book production in conjunction with Amazon, and they emailed us back a couple of days later and said that the right-hand pages (title page; dedication; first page of story, etc.) were showing up on the left-hand side of the print version. Perhaps we would like to add a page in front to correct that situation.

Well, looking at our program, it was already set up correctly and to alter it would make it come out wrong, so we weren't sure what to do. Therefore Jim called Create Space, and the gal who answered the phone said it looked right to her, and so we said go ahead then and print the proof the way it was and send it to me the quickest (and most expensive) way possible at GENERAL DELIVERY, PAGO PAGO, AMERICAN SAMOA 96799.

They did not give us any choice about HOW they should send it, and so they charged us $32 shipping and sent it via UPS one-day service. We got it about 18 days later, and surely enough, the formatting was all wrong: right-hand pages on the left-hand side. So now we needed to correct it and send it to them again and have them print out a new proof, which we did. Only this time we thought we would MAKE SURE that they would know that it had to be sent to a U.S. POST OFFICE and NOT by UPS or FedEx or anything else. We changed the address to read that it was going to me at GENERAL DELIVERY, U.S. POST OFFICE, PAGO PAGO, etc. And AGAIN they sent it via UPS. Only this time, once it got to Alaska, someone at UPS must have noticed that it had a post office address (and we ALL know that UPS does NOT deliver to a post office address), and so they halted the shipping and requested a new address. By then we were ready to leave Pago Pago and had to tell them to forget it; it was too late and we would never receive it now.

And so, I regret to inform those of you who have been most kindly, and possibly even anxiously, awaiting the printed version, that it is not yet to be. Not even "soon come." More like "maybe someday come." But once we get somewhere a little less remote, say New Zealand or even back to the States, we shall try to get this worked out. If this proof turns out to be okay, then they can be ready to print orders within a couple of days or so.

So STAY STUNNED! And many thanks to those of you who have already ordered or read the book. It is my hope that whoever reads it will enjoy it and gain something beneficial from having done so. Fa'afetai (Thank you)!


PAGO PAGO, BYE BYE

We left the dock in Pago Pago Harbor at around 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 26. We had spent the weekend saying goodbye to friends, which had included the inaugural barbecue at the little house that Mac & Mike (Honu) had rented up the hill in Pago Pago. (For their new abode, Mike bought a big TV and Mac bought a big barbecue. Thank goodness for CostULess!) Dan (Leeway) was there along with the Shaffett family: Tim, Rachel, Asher & Kezzie. Mike had recently purchased a car as well, so between him and Tim we were able to get everyone to and from the marina.

Mike (Honu) very graciously took us shopping for provisions the last week we were there, and then on Sunday, before leaving, he drove Mac and us to Sadie's-by-the-Sea for a farewell lunch. Then it was back to the marina, final hugs to Mac & Mike and Beatriz & Beat (Dan wasn't there and Hugo had already sailed for Tonga), and then they cast off our lines and away we went on our overnight cruise to Apia.

Fa, Pago Pago!