9 to 17 Aug

Pago Pago

Well, after the excitement of arriving in Pago Pago and then our walking trips we thought we had had a quiet week. Our Blog is a bit disjointed, but from our notes maybe we haven’t had such a quiet time after all.

Blue Sky comms
Our data seemed to be going fast. After the last recharge, Paul set the Huawei modem to monitor and reset the usage. Sure enough, when Blue Sky said our 1500Mb were used up, the modem only said we had used some 384Mb. First we phoned customer service who said they would get onto it. The next day, when they hadn’t we went to the kiosk in Pago Toga (the local village next to the small boat marina). The woman there said it was beyond her, and to go to the main office in Tafuna. Oh well, at least it was a trip to the shopping centre! So the next day off we went. The weather has been very hot and humid, so it was a bit of a relief to be in the air conditioned offices of Blue Sky. We talked to the helpful receptionist; he went to see the technicians in the back. We waited. After a while, it was clear this was going to take some time, so we went and looked around the shops. Lunchtime passed and the receptionist came back. Very friendly, but we had used the data. How the recharge works is that loads your account, and you then need to buy the correct data plan, or you get put on the, expensive, casual usage. So that was that. Oh no, says us. We had clearly shown the woman in the kiosk where we had bought the data that we wanted the data plan. She had taken our money and said OK. Therefore it was the company’s fault. The discussion ensued, going to the manager. Eventually the deal was that we would pay for the data we had used, at the data plan rate, top up the $7 and get a new data plan (full cost $29). We agreed, and all were happy; well, it was a nice air-conditioned office to sit in for a few hours! And for those coming to American Samoa. Blue Sky is the cheapest data package, but you have to recharge your account, and then buy the package (by texting) – or cool down in the office!

Social
We had a nice meal on board Novae, with Stephano and Helen, and about a dozen others. Novae is a big cat; 48 feet. Looking around, each hull was almost as big as Tai Mo Shan so inside the cat was nearly twice the size of us. And then there is the saloon and deck; huge, at least 20 feet across. We all sat comfortably eating on the aft deck, eating, drinking and chatting. There was some folk singing but it was not really our style of music; the calls for Iron Maiden or Black Sabbath songs from a few of us was politely ignored by the guitar wielder!
And we had a single handed meal aboard Tai Mo Shan. Well we had decided we wanted a roast dinner, we just missed having one for some time. So when we saw Eric of Sidetrack we invited him. Then we saw Dustin, off Talus, who we had met on Novae and we invited him. And then he asked if his friend Dan off the delightfully named Whiskey Nancy could come along. Suffice to say we had a great evening, chatting and eating. Dustin deserves a mention. He is single handed – literally as he lost an arm and a leg in a motor cycle accident a while ago. Still, he managed to sail his little (about 35 foot) boat from Hawaii to American Samoa, and is going on from here. He just gets on with life, having been a commercial diver and commercial fisherman before sailing. Indeed, that afternoon he had clambered over reefs to go snorkeling. A real inspiration.

Hospital
We also had a trip to A&E at the Lindon B Johnson Hospital for Tropical Medicines, a $1 bus ride away. The hospital is clean and mostly air-conditioned (again hot and humid weather means air-conditioning is welcome). Indeed, the smell in the toilets was chlorine form bleach; that means clean! The doctor was also great, talking through the symptoms sympathetically, concluding the case, and prescribing suitable medicine. The pharmacy was on site and we just got in before they closed. Cost, well a reasonable $65. All good? Well, the admin had a little bit to go in the customer service area. You arrive, see the front clerk (eventually as the desk is usually unmanned), go to the registration window (unmanned for a few minutes), complete a lot of forms, often duplicating information (well, Pacific bureaucracy!), go to the payment window, pay, get receipt and return to the front desk. You are now in the queue. An hour or so, get to see the triage nurse, weighed etc. 5 hours later get to see a doctor. Umm. Still, the waiting room was air-conditioned and the TV had CNN news (total, up to the nano second coverage of the trouble in Florida – not much happening, but the news was up to the second), and Pacific singing/dancing (OK for 10 minutes, but then …). Still Paul remembered rule one for hospitals, bring a book!

Drifting boat
Saturday saw an incident. Upon the Wind, a monohull anchored next to us started drifting as her anchor came loose in some moderate gusts. Helen was the first to notice as she was sitting in the cockpit. The owners were not on board but we knew they were close to the people on Sundance, so we called up Sundance. Erin there, said they had gone shopping and so were out of contact, and she did not know when they would be back. By now Upon the Wind had drifted some 100m and was getting close to Sidetrack with our friend Eric on board, after Sidetrack it was another 200m to the rocky shore. Helen called Eric and Paul hopped into our dingy. Initially Paul tried to push Into the Wind forward to allow the anchor a chance to dig in. However, the anchor remained resolutely free. Sidetrack is on a mooring (one of the few) and Eric was confident it would hold both boats, so Paul took lines from Eric to pull Upon the Wind next to Sidetrack. A few minutes later and with a load of fenders down the side of both boats, they were securely tied together. A few hours later the owners of Upon the Wind (Mike and Therese) returned to find their boat in a different place from where they had left it. By then Eric had left to go into town for the evening, so the Mike and Therese untied Upon the Wind and re-anchored her safely. Later on Mike came around to apologise. He thought the boat was secure, but upon lifting the anchor had found it fouled with a large amount of rubbish. This time he set the anchor with 2000 rpm of reverse on the motor; that should hold. The apology came with a couple of bottles of beer. Cruisers tend to look out for each other, but the beer really helps!

Rain
By Sunday we were down to our last tank of water (i.e. about 50%) and looking to catch rain in the occasional showers. However, Sunday morning saw a good fall of rain starting at about 0500 and lasting a good 5 hours. The result was full water tanks, buckets and containers. The sun then shone for the rest of the day; of course it was a perfect Wash Day!

Fish
As the water cleared we noticed the fish in the water more and more. In particular the shoals of mackerel. These swim in coordination and feed by scooping particles off the surface. We therefore saw the ripples as a hundred or so fish opened their mouths and scooped the surface. In the sunlight the silver heads sparkle whilst the black and green bodies are still camouflaged. Moving as one the patch of ripples tracks across the surface until something alarms the fish when they all dive down together with a noticeable splash. It is quite entertaining to watch, especially with a cold beer in hand.

Mynah Birds
Well we know Mynah birds have attitude; just look at how they strut around. However, we have found they are also very sociable birds. There is tree on the North side of the harbour where the birds roost. Each evening we see Mynah birds in twos, threes and fours low flying over the water, across the harbour, to swoop up into the branches of this tree. There are plenty of other trees around the harbour, and indeed up the hill slopes, but this is obviously the most desirable tree in Pago Pago. Indeed, clearly in Mynah terms this is the only real estate worth mentioning in town. And once in the tree, well they obviously discuss the day with their friends. The noise is incredible, with the chatter of the birds reaching across the harbour into dusk. Of course, it could be the presence of cruising yachts that excites the animals; fruit bats in Neiafu and now Mynah birds in Pago Pago …