Preparing to depart Apia
29 July 2010 | Aggie Grey's Poolside
Eric
I am writing this from the pool side at Aggie Grey's. Even after several visits here I still find it amusing that the women exclusively serve drinks, and the men exclusively serve the food. In the dining room I get two bills, but at least I don't have to tip. As our drinks arrived today I asked the waitress for some french fries, and she replied that she would send a waiter. It seems that the waitress can't even pass along a simple order. (When the waiter took my order for fries, I couldn't resist trying to order another drink. He told me he would send over the waitress.) Maybe Sabrina could take both orders?
It is Thursday afternoon, and we plan to leave for Savai'i tomorrow evening. This is likely my last bit of relaxing for the next few days. Tomorrow will be busy with final preparations. I spent this morning clearing out and refueling. We are surprisingly busy and everything takes more time here.
I brought Sophie with me today to clear out, which required stops at Customs, Immigration, Customs again, and the Port Authority. (Previously I had to go to the office of the Prime Minister to request permission to sail to Savai'i.) It was eye opening for Sophie that our travel required permission and had restrictions. The officials were very competent and friendly, but it was a time consuming process.
In the States to refuel the boat, we would motor up to a fuel dock and pump away. The fuel dock in Apia has around a 200 gallon minimum, which doesn't work well for my 90 gallon tank. Instead, I am taking two 5.3 gallon (20 liter) jerry cans in a taxi to a gas station, a $6 round trip. It took me 5 trips. Interesting though. The stations are full service, and the Samoa attendant was very careful to read the exact capacity of my cans. I received exactly 20.00 liters in each can, despite asking them to fill 'em up on the first couple runs. The other interesting part was that the bill was 97.2 Tala each time, and each time I paid with a 100 Tala note I had to ask for may change or chase the attendant down for it. Five times? Maybe some other yacthies are careless with their change.
It has been a significant adjustment for us to be without cell phones. (There is cell service here, we just will not buy phones or service in each country.) Coordinating the re-supply and store runs is more challenging without being able to quickly communicate and coordinate, as some of our supplying involves searching through several stores.
Even just re-stowing everything on board takes several hours. It is a small boat, and many things sit in front of, or underneath other items we need.
We are very much enjoying the trip and the cultural experience, although there are times I would like to hit the easy button, have a cell phone, the Internet, a car, and super stores.
P.S. I have gotten some inquiries about the transformer I started on fire. I did find a new one. The only ones on island are rated to 220 volts, but it seems to be working fine. I no longer think that setting the voltage 10% low was the problem. My batteries were pretty drained when I hooked up the old one, I think my battery charger just over taxed it and it somehow got too hot here in the tropics. Now I run it 10 minutes on, ten minutes off, until the charging current drops below 60% of the transformer maximum. I searched the island for a shore power plug, being referred store to store with certainty that the next place definately has them only to hear they had never seen anything like, but they did know exactly where I could buy one. I had heard that in the Polynesian culture they hate to tell someone no or fail to answer a question. I believe I witnessed this first hand. After seeing the marina staff just stick wires into the outlet for a neighbor, I made my own connector with heavy wire and solder. I can only image the call I would have gotten in Elliot Bay pulling that trick. No more fires though.