Friday, September 7, 2007 - Anchor Aweigh
08 September 2007 | Enroute from Pago Pago, American Samoa to Niuatoputapu, Tonga
Don
With some trepidation I began the process today of attempting to free my anchor from the muck and junk at the bottom of Pago Pago Harbor. I truly thought the job would take hours or even days. Some derelict boats in the anchorage seem to have been stuck there for years by their appearance. Neptune himself must have been looking over me, on account of my clean living, for the anchor came home with little trouble. It was caked in two inches of crud but at least it was on deck and Sand Dollar was free to set sail for the Kingdom of Tonga.
The present passage to Niuatoputapu, cruisers call it "New Potatoes", is 205 miles on a broad reach. It will require two overnighters with a landfall early Sunday morning. However, the Tongans have decided to be the first ones in the would to wake up each morning so they moved the international dateline to the east of them. Who gave them permission to do this? As a result, Sand Dollar will actually arrive a day later, on Monday. The tourism ministry must have hired a Madison Ave. PR firm to come up with their slogan: "Tonga - Where Time Begins". Anything for a buck!
All else is well onboard and I am glad to have finally left Pago. I was getting used to the putrid smell of the canneries.