10/18/2009, In the Middle!
Hi there! We are now about half way between Samoa and Fanning Island. It's day 8 and everything has been great! :) We can certainly tell we are getting closer to the equator with the heat and all the rain squalls, but it has been fairly smooth so we can't complain. The rain feels so good and refreshing - we often sit out in it to cool down! The only negative we've encountered is having to reef sails as the squall gets close, then letting them right back out again as soon as it passes. It seemed like there was one every hour or so yesterday and last night. Glen's a sweetie and does most of the work - I just tail lines, hold the flashlight, and hang on!
We have continued to sail as much as we can, although we have had to turn the motor on occasionally when the wind has died completely. We haven't made our goal of 100 miles per day, so it will probably take us another 7-8 days to reach Fanning. It may even be longer if we hit the doldrums closer to the equator - we had many an hour of "bobbing" when we were heading south (hard to believe that was 19 months ago!). We're still thinking about our equatorial crossing ceremony heading north - not sure we could top our southbound fun. We do still have a bottle of almond champagne on board for the event, though - King Neptune does require a toll!
Surprisingly, our days seem to slip by quickly. After whatever projects need tending to (and thankfully there have been few this trip, KNOCK heavily on wood!), we take turns napping - feels like we are always a tad sleep deprived. To keep a good load on our wonderful newly rebuilt generator, we run the air in the back cabin while charging the batteries and running the freezer. That's the best napping time! We also read a ton (just finished a fun book by Dick Francis - a new author for us), keep an eye out in hopes of a whale or other visitor (I am still sooo hoping to see a blue whale before hitting home!), and play a lot of games. I am so sad to report I have lost my "Cribbage Queen" title, but am still the Rummy Tile champ! Our only real "obligation" of the day is our 03:30 UTC check-in on the HAM radio with the Pacific Seafarers Net. Since we're not buddy boating, it feels good to have someone keeping a watch for us each day. These volunteer men record position, course, speed, weather and sea conditions for lots of boats every day. We so appreciate them! They would know what to do if something happened and we quit checking in (we hope at least!). The check in finishes about 5:00PM for us, so that is when I decide if I can actually cook a real dinner, or have to use one of our precious few canned meals. We've only had one so far this trip - not too shabby!
We had a hitchhiker for about 36 hours over the past two day! A beautiful bird (no idea what kind, but we do have pictures!) kept trying to find a way to land on the boat. It took it about 45 minutes to finally find a place it felt comfortable landing (on top on one of the diesel jerry cans!!), but then settled in for a nice long snooze! Not sure of its gender, but we were calling it Isabel. She didn't seem to mind the rolling of the boat, the snapping of the sails, or us constantly checking to see if she was still there. She was a welcome visitor! Glen and I can chat and chat and chat, but let's face it... after 7 days of only each other's company, we were both happy to "chat up" the bird! She left a couple of times, but came back shortly and we were so sad when she gave up an attempt to land during one of the squalls last night. Always hard saying goodbye to yet another friend!
Glen has caught 3 fish, but unfortunately only landed one. A nice mahi mahi and some other type got away, but we did have fresh skipjack tuna for dinner last night. The tackle box came out today and some serious lure changes were taking place, so we're hoping for something even better soon! One of the hand lines got wrapped around the rudder, so getting it free will be one of our first tasks if we hit the doldrums. Glen tried to get it free by climbing down the back ladder, but no cigar! Luckily it isn't causing any trouble, so it can just hang for now.
We hope all is well with everyone back home. We can't even believe it is getting close to Halloween time - who's having a party this year?!!! Heartfelt condolences to Glen's nieces, Laurie and Leslie, on the loss of their father - we're sending you big hugs!
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10/13/2009, About 225 miles off Samoa
I feel like I'm a couple more entries behind - really want to share our wonderful time on Savai'i, but figured I should jump ahead to where we are now, then I'll catch up later!!!
We left the beautiful island of Savai'i in Samoa on Sunday morning and are now on our third day crossing to a little island in the Kiribati called Fanning. The trip is 1,295 miles and we are now 225 miles into it. Day one was great! Good winds of 15K pushing us in the right direction. We have actually been able to head east of our rhumb-line, which is a positive (heading east is usually against the winds). The more easting we can do now will make it easier later, if the winds do turn against us - then we can head more directly north. The Dorothy Marie has been under sail only since leaving our anchorage on Savai'i and we hope to continue conserving the fuel we have. Diesel is not available on Fanning Island, but "may" be available on Christmas Island - where we will head after Fanning. We're trying to pretend we have to make it to Hawaii, another 1,200 miles past Christmas, without taking on more fuel, just in case that turns out to be the truth! It may make the trip a little longer time wise, but we wouldn't want to have to try to make it into Hawaii without some motoring capability. We've hit a few rain squalls (that mean the sails have to be furled in because of the stronger winds, then let right back out after they pass), but so far, it has been a pleasant trip. Finding our sea legs and getting into a sleep pattern of just a couple of hours at a time is always a challenge on a crossing, but we're almost there. This trip is a little more difficult for Glen because he sprained his ankle the day before we left trying to jump through the back hatch! He missed the bed and hit the floor - ouch!!! We've had it iced down and wrapped and it is already changing from deep black to reddish purple - gotta be a good sign, right?!!! I'm not even going to get into why he felt the need to go down the back hatch instead of the ladder, let's just use my all too used explanation... boys!!! :)
Our plans have changed slightly since we are no longer stopping at American Samoa. We had made that decision even before the tsunami struck, hearing from so many other cruisers how awful the anchorage is in PagoPago - the capital and main anchorage. Even in the best of conditions, it sounds like boats drag there constantly because the bottom of the harbor is lined with over a foot of plastic bags and disposable diapers. Hard to believe with all the conservation messages out there, a harbor would be allowed to get in such condition. Also, the anchorage has constant rain because of the "Rain Maker Mountain" nearby - not our favorite thing! Now, we usually take the negative we hear about an anchorage with a grain of salt - some of favorite places have been "nay-sayed" by others, but when you hear about the same condition over and over from several different groups of cruisers, you start believing it. PagoPago was also hit extremely hard by the tsunami, so it is now even less inviting. We were beginning to feel the need to get north of cyclone waters anyhow, so it was good timing to hit the open waters again. We should mention that the actual island of American Samoa is supposed to be lovely and very much like Samoa, so if you are flying in, it would probably be a good place to visit (once they get their water system straightened back out!).
As I was working on our 'Upolu entry this morning, I accidentally sent it without an important part! Without internet, I can't get back and fix our entries, so will just have to use this as a P.S.!
The best part of our adventures in any new country has been to meet and try to get to know the locals. We were very lucky in Samoa in meeting several wonderful new friends. There is a restaurant right across the street from the marina called "The Wildfire." One evening, we heard some wonderful music coming from that direction and decided to head over. A man named Afa was playing guitar and singing beautifully. It was amazing the variety of music and songs he could do. Another cruiser, Steve, got up and played flute with him and it was even better. Glen asked if it was okay for him to go get his sax, and the rest is history! Afa and Glen should really be hitting the road playing all the best places in the So. Pacific. Their chemistry was electric and they just kept getting better and better the more times they played together. The owner of the restaurant, Colin, was originally from Papau New Guinea, but has been in Samoa for some time. He became another wonderful new friend and was the best host ever - extremely generous with the beer and wine while Glen played! His smile showed it all - he was truly loving the music being played in his little corner of Samoa. We also became friends with a lady named Tammy, who helps run a family business in Apia. She was a lot of fun and a big help with local information. Her grandma has the best limes around! It was hard to say goodbye to all of them, but breaking up the Afa and Glen act was the hardest. Afa is the nicest man. In addition to being a wonderful musician, he is also a farmer (or plantation owner as they say here!). Our last evening together he brought us a huge stalk of bananas from his orchard. Yum! He called Glen twice while we were in Savai'i trying to talk him into coming back for a little more music. We told him he should come to San Diego and they can play there!
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10/08/2009, Apia, Samoa
Okay, let's go back a few days before all the earthquake and tsunami hoopla! We were really enjoying the island of 'Upolu. It's covered with beautiful beaches, waterfalls, and greenery.
A little info about Samoa first - there are two main islands, 'Upolu, the most populated, and Savai'i, the largest in land size. There are a few tiny islands in Samoa as well, but they are not as frequently visited. Apia is the capital city and is on the north side of 'Upolu about half way from east to west. It is the only place for a yacht to check into the country. To get to Apia, we sailed north between the two larger islands through the beautiful, turquoise waters of the Apolima Straight, then hung a right hand turn to head east. The islands are a beautiful, dark green with many mountains and peaks. There is quite a bit of reef along the north side of 'Upolu, so we had to skirt out far enough to stay clear of it. The entrance to the Apia Harbor has breaking waves on both sides of it and there was a large, unfortunate motor vessel sitting high and dry up on the reef just to the right - oops! Samoa was called Western Samoa or Independent Samoa (to differentiate themselves from American Samoa) just up until 1997 when they dropped all prefixes. Their rule was first "taken over" by Germany and then passed to New Zealand during WWI. Western Samoa finally achieved independence in 1962. There is still quite a German and NZ influence remaining in Samoa - the most obvious (to us at least!) is the local beer, brewed in the 'ol German fashion, Vailima. Okay, there's a lot of obvious architecture remaining from those reigns, as well as people. While in Samoa, we used our eighth type of currency for the trip called tala. One US dollar bought us about 2.45 tala.
There are very few anchorages on Samoa, so to visit 'Upolu, the best thing to do is stay in a slip at their government run marina. We hated spending the money on a slip, but you are not allowed to anchor in the harbor unless told to (waiting for check in), so we made the best of it. The weather here is VERY hot and HUMID, so we enjoyed being able to turn the AC on in the evenings to cool the boat down for more comfortable sleeping. In the daytime, however, we were out and about sweating through our clothes! We met new friends, Steve and Carolyn, on Light Heart as soon as we pulled into the marina. They were very nice and gave us the "scoop" on how best to get around and what to see. We walked into the downtown part of Apia several times and found the supermarkets and the vegetable market. Wednesday night, we went to a wonderful show at the Aggie Grey Hotel and got to meet the granddaughter of the famous "Aggie." I was able to add all the 'Upolu photos to the gallery before we left Apia and I told quite a bit of our story through those captions. Another boat came into the marina a couple days after us and became our next door neighbors - George and Kathleen from Kalalau. Light Heart had organized a sight seeing trip on a little bus, so 10 of us went off to enjoy the island. (I do have to mention that the man with the bus said 12-15 could easily fit, but when it arrived and 12 of us tried to get on, it became obvious our idea of "fitting" and his didn't quite match! Thankfully one of the couples had already done the trip and didn't mind staying behind.)
There is a main beach road that runs around the entire coast of 'Upolu, then there are three cross island roads that allow travel up and over the island. Our first stop was just off one of the cross island roads at the Baha'i House of Worship. It is a lovely nine-sided structure on beautifully landscaped grounds. We didn't know that much about the religion, but found their doctrine pretty interesting. There are only eight of their Houses of Worship throughout the world - the big nine-sided ones, that is (see gallery!). Our next few stops were to gorgeous waterfalls dropping from high cliffs down into deep gorges. The vegetation in the inner part of the island was so deep green and lush - again pictures in the gallery! It was at one of the waterfall stops that Glen and George (Kalalau) got to chatting about their time spent in the Formosa Straights while in the Navy. There was a big stand of giant bamboo and they were chatting about the rafts that the people in Formosa made from bamboo to come out by the navy boats. They would then dive into apparently disgusting water for the coins sailors would throw in the water for them. They obviously shared the same memories. That led to discussing what type of ship they had been on - both on destroyers. That led to which one - both on the USS Hamner! That led to when - both during the same deployment in the early '60s! There were only 212 men aboard the Hamner, but neither clearly remembered the other - Glen was a boiler tender and George had been a quarter master, so their paths didn't really cross, but what an amazingly small world that shipmates from the early '60s should both be out sailing the So. Pacific on their own boats some 40-50 years later and become neighbors at a tiny, little marina in Samoa! What are the odds?!!! The two were inseparable for the rest of the trip, sharing stories about their adventures and friends they both remembered. Glen had spent four years on the ship and George two.
On the south side of the island we got to enjoy the beautiful beaches - both white and black sand stretches. It was very interesting to see the fales the people live in - open structures with high roofs made from either palm fronds or corrugated tin. Most are round, or oval, with wooden poles holding up the roof. We were fascinated to see all of the peoples' belongings - big TV sets, refrigerators, chairs, and sometimes western style beds (although most still sleep on woven mats!), clearly displayed. No doors, so no locks! They do have woven mats that can be hung down to cover the sides during heavy winds and rain. When we asked about theft, it was explained to us that there isn't any. The fales are grouped into family villages and no one would even think about taking something from a family member. The entire family watches out for the village, so no one from another village would be able to get away with taking something either. It sounds like theft just really isn't a part of their culture! Of course, that is in the outlaying areas - in the cities they have more modern homes and issues. As we circled the island on the south side going east, we got to see many of the resorts and fale rentals placed right on the beach. Thankfully, we were able to see them while they were still there. So much of what we saw is now completely washed away. It's still hard for us to believe it.
Our last stop was to the Piula Cave Pools, just east of Apia, where we swam in fresh water pools. There is a three meter underwater passage between the two pools and Glen was the only one in our group to swim it. Of course I was left deep inside the cave (too chicken to take the plunge) waiting, thinking he would come right back. Silly me! He swam in the other pool then left a different way! It made for an interesting "discussion" of how long should one wait when not sure if a person may be stuck in an underwater passage - boys!!! :)
On another trip, we took a taxi up to the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum and Mt. Vaea Scenic Reserve. The famous author is beloved in Samoa for not only his storytelling abilities, but also for how wonderfully he treated the people. Unfortunately, Stevenson only lived 4 1/2 years after building his beautiful home in Samoa, but he is still revered and his tomb is high atop Mt. Vaea (see photos in gallery!). I should mention that RLS's estate was named Vailima - just like the beer! It was built in 1890.
After the tsunami upset, we didn't do much more sightseeing on 'Upolu. We had really wanted to get to the Papasee'a Sliding Rocks, where you can slide down waterfalls into the pools below (you know, just like in all the tropical movies!), but somehow it didn't feel right to go have fun while so many people were dealing with the destruction. Instead, we finished provisioning and headed to Savai'i. We have decided to skip going to American Samoa, and have received our clearance to leave from Savai'i to head to Fanning Island in the Kiribati (for some odd reason pronounced Kiri-bas!). Will write more later about our wonderful stay on Savai'i!
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