SV Panta Rhei Retirement Trip

We decided to tour the largest island of Western Samoa, Savaii, by land since we had a marina to leave our boat in which hopefully makes it safe and secure while we travel on land. We get to Savaii by taking an inter-island ferry. Don't think of any of the ferries that Washington State operates in the puget sound. This ferry was a floating derelict (operated by an apparently skillful crew). The approaches to both islands were daylight only passages through the reefs. The trip takes about an hour. Samoans fill every seat. They fight seasickness by laying down or by putting their heads on the back of the seat in front of them and closing their eyes.

On the trip, Karen spoke at length to a lady seated next to her and learned a lot about how they live. They have the ultimate "privitization" for their social security. Each child over about 20 sends 500 tala every two weeks to their parents no matter where they work or what their own family is doing. The woman Karen talked to still sent money to her mother. Her children weren't well off. They worked in New Zealand at a Kentucky Fried Chicken in New Zealand, and at a warehouse, and one child works in Apia Western Samoa in a small office (with a reduced remittance).

The island of Savaii is not a developed island. It's only business is agricultural and churches. There is a little small plot agriculture and a whole lot of very big churches. Living is done in "fales" which are small huts that separate functions for a household. There are fales for sleeping, eating, living, or meeting. Most tourist accommodations have a centralized small bathroom with an outdoor shower. Sleeping fales are open around the sides with a roof over the top. The mattress varies but usually is as little as a thatched mat or maybe 2 inches of light foam (TOO LIGHT, you could hardly tell it was there). Karen and I opted for a real bed with a real bathroom in the only first world resort on the island. That was money well spent.

While there we drove up to the volcano that covered most of the east side of the island in lava in 1905 or 1911. It was a challenging drive in our rented 2wd subaru. We got to within a few hundred yards of the parking lot before rain and slick grass stopped us. We hoofed the rest and it was worth the effort. The volcano crater is now a very large and very deep hole in the ground with trees growing in its interior. The jungle setting was gorgeous. Think of Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones Temple of Doom to envision the jungle and the path to the volcano crater. After the volcano we went to the dwarf cave. That was dangerous. Dwarf Cave is a lava tube that has a flat area inside where short people used to live. Our guide had a modest flashlight to show the way. Moving through caves with inadequate light is dangerous. We finally stopped when we came to about a 40 foot hole in the floor leading to an underground lake. You could easily slide into it but you would never climb out. I kept thinking about how we had only one flashlight and we desperately needed that to get out safely. So we turned around when we got to the lake. I had a spare flashlight (a penlight) in my pocket but it was not enough redundancy for safely finding my way out if the guide's flashlight failed. On the south side of the island we went to some blow holes. At the best one, ocean waves would jet upward like watching old faithful in Yellowstone Park. A local person threw coconuts into the blow hole and they were carried about 200 feet into the air. It was amazing to watch. Then she told us stories of tourists who had fallen into the blow holes. Those were harrowing, though apparently on the cases she related all lived. We looked (carefully) and with respect for the sea.

Now we are back aboard Panta Rhei and planning our trip to Vava'u group in Tonga. Hopefully we can leave on Tuesday. It's a two day passage.

I should mention that Bob's boat (SV C'est la Vie) now has the holes fiberglased over with tabbing inside to provide strength. It is floating upright in its slip and is dry inside. It still has the rudder to fix and the engine cleaning and oiling to complete. The picture shows the broken rudder that Bob has to fix before he can go anywhere.