Ironie's Pacific Adventures

hello all from beautiful Samoa!!it's a great feeling to be back here after 8 years and on my own boat.the 90 nm passage
was pretty un eventful.we left pago harbor around 4:30 local time followed closely behind by larry and trinda on the "katy lee".we had light winds from the south east most of the way.the sails set wing and wing
for the dead downwind angle,doing an avarage of 3.5 knots.but,whats the rush anyway.it was just a great feeling to be breaking the malstrom that had become pago pago and to be heading west once again with"fresh"crew..
westward ho!!we arrived at the eastern end of upulu island around mid morning and followed the coast to the entrance to apia
harbor.after alerting harbor control of our arrival and lineing up our leading marks we entered the harbor where we were guided to
the brand new, spiffy apia marina.when i was here 8 years ago the marina was just a glimmer in some developers eye.now it was a reality and we
were not given the option to anchor.the official reason is that the cruise and container ships
need the room in the harbor to turn.it seems more like way to make revenue and to have total control of the yachts passing through.
i personally felt like a prisoner in the fenced in complex waiting to clear with the bevy of officals.it took almost 24 hours in "the cage"to
clear and art the end i still had to go to immigration myself via taxi (they were suppose to come to the boat)while may,my crew, was
stuck at the marina....after finally clearing we were then assulted by the customs K9 unit
who sniffed the hell out of ironie for about an hour making a mess of our reletively organised
boa and leaving lots of dog slobber and hair for us to clean up afterwards,after not finding any
illicit materials...my judgement on the marina would have to be a hearty thumbs down.alot of cruisers
appreciate the convenience of dockside power and running water but ironie is not of that ilk and
always given the choice will ay happily at anchor in the breeze and the chop.thanks but no thanks to the apia marina...on the good side we did get to hang out with charlie and suni on "cosmos".may even got to do a little work for them cleaning and buffing thier hull and we also had a great night hanging out on "fifth season"with david and gail and cosmos and were entertained by charlies stories from his carribean days and gails lovely harp playing....yes,there are some good social benifit to marinas i guess...lol just get rid of those damn drug dogs and at least give us the option to anchor and ill forgive ya...lol

the marina aside it was very nice to visit samoa again.we spent a night in the taufua
fales at lalomanu beach.i used to stay here when i was a common backpacker in the 90's.i was
suprised (and impressed!)to see the changes to the place that friends Tai and husband Sili have
brought.instead of the 10 fales they had before they are how catering to 60 and more travelers a night
and serving breakfast lunch and dinner(really, really good food!!) to all!!they even have a samoan fia fia (dance)on saturday night and a complimentarty umu(samoan feast)on sunday afternoon...
a big change from the rustic beach fale i stayed
in playing guitar having a local smoke and drinking vailima with dennis back when.the beautiful beach
is still there and the water is just as lovely as ever.may and i enjoyed 2 days and nights
of tourist bliss here and recomend taufua fales to anyone passing this way.
most of the rest of our time was spent around apia taking in some movies,the great local market
and having some yummy pizza at italiano pizza. the stay here was short but sweet,but now we gotta boogie
west then north to get out of the cyclone belt by november/december.first stop wallis island,
a french territory about 250 nm west of samoa.wallis promises to be lovely with an enclosed lagoon
surrounding a lush island in the middle ribboned by motu on the edge...looking forward...a big shout out to aussie friends
jamie,viv and anita(thanks for the great dinner!!)and hi to matts and sia from seipepa/virgin cove
sorry we could'nt stay longer....and hi to family and friends i miss you all!!!till next time....captain stevie