Apia,
We have dropped the hook and as usual have impeccable timing. It took us 18 days to get here from Taiohae and we have managed to arrive on the first day of a 2 day holiday. Apparently it is Independence Day here in Western Samoa. That being said and despite all the warnings about not arriving on weekends or after hours because of overtime rates for the officials it seems that they haven't been sitting around just waiting to sting us the extra dollar. No it just means that they won't come out at all until after the holidays. We are not official in Samoa till then and supposed to stay on the boat. We did sneak ashore the first night to check in with Emails though. Alan had asked the Port captain and while said no he also said Ok but not really. We took that as don't be seen.
Despite looking forward to sleeping in as long as I wanted to this morning I was up before 6. Apia was up even earlier. First impression when we came in yesterday was of a beautiful busy looking place. From the water we can see lots of construction and also building renovations going on around the harbour which by the way is actually. A bit smaller than both Alan and I were expecting. The harbour itself is roomy but the actual anchorage is smaller by the time you take in the exclusion zones, shoaling and reef.
I came on deck with a coffee this morning around 6 , to the sounds of laughter from the beach. There was quite a number of people out early. Some running, some walking, some fishing and some even swimming. Most of the laughter however was coming from the volleyball court. Not sure from here how much of a court it is really but I can see that the net is held aloft by a person at each end who is probably hoping that the point doesn't go to long. Net up, rally, point, net down and so the cycle goes accompanied by a lot of laughter.
Along with those activities there were also a couple of groups of 5 or 6 people who were practicing back flips on the dark sand. They looked pretty organised, in circles. One person in the middle flipping. In the one circle the fella( I only saw 1 girl) was in the middle and flipping on his own with just the occasional grab of his shirt by one of the watchers. He might go 8 or 10 times then they'd swap. In the other group were the less accomplished, who would run forward 3 steps then leap backwards with the assistance of someone either side holding their arms. A lot of laughs here also. They had plenty of energy cos the kept it up for 2 hours. All looked to be teenagers. There was another little group formed up in knee deep water for a while also. They looked to be the younger ones.
Once all this was winding down a couple of kids decide to kick the volleyball back and forth over the bridge. It didn't seem to make any difference whether there were cars coming or not. Most went over but I did see the ball land on the road a couple of times and smack into the handrail several times. Of course there was plenty of laughter down there too, and only one horn toot, not bad really. hahaha
Today we'll stay on Sara and do a few jobs. Then hopefullyTomorrow we can get legal.
Fifth morning here now and still only 75% cleared into Samoa, we are still waiting on immigration to arrive. We have been ashore several times though and will probably have to go to the office and chase them up as we did with Customs. That's not how it's supposed to work here but seems to be the only way of getting anything done.
Backflip seems to be the national sport on the beach though the numbers are diminishing as the days have gone by.
Onshore, Apia is a tidy town with friendly people.
More to come when actually get a good look around.