Asau, (Western) Samoa

11-17 JULY 2011


THROUGH THE MIST

Once again we made an overnight trip to the next island. This time our little voyage took only 17 hours. We could see the island of Savaii clearly in the early morning light, but as we neared the entrance to Asau Bay on the north shore of the island, a torrent of rain swept in and totally obscured the land from view. (The exact same thing had happened to us as we approached Apia on Upolu.) Visibility dropped to zero, and we were afraid that we'd be stuck hanging around out there at sea for hours, but luckily the rain passed through in good time and we were able to make our approach.

And a hazardous approach it is. Not something I would want to try at night (even though the channel markers, as of some time earlier this year, are now lighted). The channel is narrow with breakers very close in to the port marker and rocks shoaling up the channel to starboard. Also, it is important to line up with the range markers, which seem small and not overly easy to locate.

In sad testimony to the treacherousness of this harbor entrance, a sailboat lies broken upon the rocks on the port shore, having met her end there last year while on the last legs of a long ocean voyage. (A moment of silence, please.)

Once inside the harbor, it is open and beautiful. We were the only sailboat there for the entire week. The only other boats in the harbor were a charter fishing boat on a mooring and a couple of small, open motorboats. We were anchored by 8:30 a.m. and simply spent the rest of the day on the boat relaxing. The wind came up right strong just after we had finished squaring everything away, and so we were quite glad that we had made it in when we did, missing both the earlier rain and the later strong winds.

The next day we re-anchored closer in to shore, right in front of a lovely and quaint little resort called Va-i-Moana Seaside Lodge (vaimoana@ipasifika.net). Sali (sp?), the manager there, was very kind to us and welcomed us to walk through the restaurant and lobby as needed and to put our trash in their trash bins. (Trash disposal is a problem on these sparsely populated islands, and you should ask rather than abuse a privilege such as this.)

We had drinks there at the bar that evening and found our bartender, a lovely Samoan woman, to be very friendly. The restaurant is all open air but partially under roof. The weather was quite nice: warm and tropical like the décor. This was a Tuesday, and at 7:00 p.m. four guitarists from the island tuned up and began to play and sing in Samoan with great heart if not altogether in great harmony. After a few songs we slipped out and returned to the boat for dinner and a quiet evening under the stars.

We never actually went to the town of Asau, only venturing 50 to 100 yards down the road from the resort to the Star Trader grocery/general store where we purchased a few groceries, ice, and beer as needed. There is another office of some sort sharing the building with Star Trader, and just before the Star Trader building is a tiny bank building. (That's all, foks!) And indeed, other than a few houses, that is all we saw ashore of Asau and the island of Savaii.

Unlike Pago Pago, we didn't see a single dog running amok in Asau, but we did hear a rooster crow and saw a rather large pig running willy nilly down the road. And at night, when we sat out in the cockpit at our anchorage, we could hear the chittering of fruit bats in the trees ashore. All in all, a very welcome bucolic setting coming on the heels of the more citified Apia.

By midweek we noticed that these high winds, about 20-25 mph, blew every day from around 9:30 or 10:00 in the morning till sundown (around 6:00 p.m.), and the longer the winds blew each day, the more chop they produced on the bay, making dinghying ashore a rather iffy proposition (or at least, dinghying back anyway), and so we mostly stayed on the boat, which would have been really pleasant if the wind hadn't been blowing so hard and I hadn't had this lingering, miserable chest cold.

Thursday of that week was my birthday, and so we waited for the winds to calm down at sunset and then went in to Va-i-Moana for dinner. When we first went there on Tuesday and met Sali, he told us we were welcome to have dinner there but should make a reservation. And so we made one right then on the spot for Thursday night, adding that it would be my birthday celebration.

And so when we arrived Thursday evening, all the serving personnel kept wishing me "Happy Birthday" and asking me how old I was. (WHAT??? Obviously this was NOT a French island where they might be expected to know that one refers to age only when speaking of good wine or cheese, NEVER a WOMAN!) Regardless, they were all very sweet and did help make the evening very special. (And no, believe it or not, I did not lie about my age.)

We ordered the "set" dinner plate, one each, for about $12 US per plate. This is what they mostly serve for dinner, and it differs somewhat from night to night, but you may also order off the regular (but brief) menu if you so desire. The set plate turned out to be quite a plateful of food with fresh (?) fish, which they normally sauté in a bit of butter and breadcrumbs but grilled for us upon request; chicken in some kind of sauce; rice, and salad. Pretty good overall, but not really excellent.

When we were finished with the meal, we asked our very sweet and pretty young waitress, who had a VERY soft voice, what they had on offer for dessert -- I mean, it WAS my birthday, right? -- and we BOTH thought she answered, in her very quiet voice, "Ice cream, fruit, and vegetables." Assuming that we hadn't quite heard her correctly, we asked once again and once again heard her answer, "Ice cream, fruit, and vegetables."

Oh, wow. What a dilemma. What did we want for dessert? Ice cream? Or vegetables? Ice cream, or vegetables? Decisions, decisions. (I mean, what would YOU choose?) But before we could get around to asking what kind of ice cream they had, out came another server who set a lovely little chocolate cake, surrounded with frangipani flowers and with "Happy Birthday" written on top, in front of me. Wow. I was impressed. And then one of the very nice, handsome young waiters (the same one who had had the impertinence to ask me my age, I think - but now, of course, was totally forgiven) placed a long necklace of large seeds (I thought they were wooden beads at first) around my neck, and then the musicians - only two this time, and they were quite good - sang Happy Birthday for me, and all the other diners clapped and cheered.

The cake was not large, but it was way more than enough for the two of us, and so we asked the waitress to cut it into smaller pieces and pass it out to the other diners, which she most graciously did. Jim and I each had a small piece as well, and it was quite good, in spite of the fact that we never got around to the ice cream. (I asked Jim later if he had told them to make the cake, and he said no. They charged us for it anyway, but it only came to about $7 US, so I am not complaining as it was all very charming and even quite tasty.)

The next day (beware the ides of July; remember last year when we were in Manihi and had gone in to the Pearl Beach Resort a day late to celebrate my birthday?) we motored in to shore in the dinghy early in the day in order to get a much desired bag of ice from Star Trader before the winds picked up. Alas, they did not have any ice, but the very nice lady there said they should have ice up at the gas station, which was too far away to walk to, and so she was trying to get us a taxi, but her cell phone was dead. Time rolled by, and we kept saying we really needed to go, and she kept saying to just wait a few more minutes, and so it went until finally we felt the wind come up and said we REALLY had to go. She agreed to try to get us two bags of ice from the gas station during the day, which we could then pick up that evening at Star Trader as they were open till 7:00 p.m.

We hurried back to the dinghy (it is now after 10:00 a.m.), jumped in and tried to start the engine, but no go. So Jim had to row. Now that we had anchored closer in, Cactus Wren was not all that far away, but the wind, tide, current and whatever were against us, and as soon as we got out from the protection of the dinghy dock area, we realized we were in trouble and tried to turn around to go back in, but alas, one of our oars broke in half.

We were immediately buffeted about and sent downwind right onto the rocks at the edge of the shore in front of the restaurant. I was trying to fend us off the rocks with the broken paddle while Jim was trying to steer us clear with the other, but it was to no avail. Fortunately, one of the fishermen (an Aussie, I think) saw what was happening, waded out to a motorboat, jumped in and came out to rescue us.

He towed us out to our boat and bid us "G'day," saying that this was by no means the first time he had had to make such a rescue (and seemed blessedly glad to do so, refusing any compensation for his efforts - bar a free beer if we should happen to run into him later at the restaurant). Thank you, kind sir! And as for these crazy winds, he told us they blow "like clockwork from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. every day for a couple of months."

We have now made it a strict policy that we will never again attempt to go anywhere in a dinghy on the day after my birthday.

That night, after the winds died down, we went back into the resort and had dinner there one last time. This time the set dinner included lobster (or crayfish), fried fish (not very good), a beef dish (mostly gristle), baked potato, salad, and bread (but no butter). We asked for butter, as did the customers at the table next to us, and eventually they brought it, but by then the potato was getting a bit cold. Jim and I shared one plate, and it was plenty for the two of us. Again, the food was neither bad (except for the gristly beef) nor great. But overall, for $12 US for the two of us, it was fine.

Meanwhile, when we first arrived on shore at about 5:30 p.m. that day , I walked up to Star Trader and bought the one bag of ice that they had on hand. The lady there said they had tried to get two bags for us, but the gas station only had one. Still, some ice is better than none, right? And the restaurant was kind enough to keep it in their freezer for us while we ate dinner there.

The next day, Saturday, we stayed on the boat, and the following day we left Asau Harbor and Samoa, heading out for Tonga.

As for that letter of permission we had to get in Apia in order to stop on Savaii? No one ever asked for it.