APIA, BUSTLING CAPITOL OF INDEPENDENT SAMOA, to NIUATOPUTAPU, BACKWATER OF TONGA

Apia, the proud hosts of 2007 South Pacific Games, was a beehive of activity. The city was freshly painted and decked out in the flags of the competing nations.



Marcy herself was part of the decoration, with signal flags hoisted. We were informed by the harbormaster that we would be among the first boats to tie up in the brand new marina. Actually, we were told, there was no choice in the matter! On the appointed day, all of the anchored yachts were summoned one by one on the VHF radio to enter. Marcy, the second boat in, promptly ran hard aground in front of the appointed slip. It seems that the promised controlling depth had not yet been achieved. No matter, after it was fully understood why we were not proceeding, an alternate slip was quickly assigned and Marcy was tied to a dock in a marina for the first time since a short stay in Mexico in January. Much to Ginger’s disappointment SPA, which was all over the marina paperwork, stands for Samoa Port Authority so there was only a SPA day for Marcy. The marina is in a beautiful location, convenient to Internet, restaurants and cafes, grocery stores, laundry, and downtown shopping.





After dinner with friends Ron and Joanne from Miss Jody, a catamaran from Florida, we attended the opening ceremony in a packed stadium just a short walk from the marina.



Meanwhile, back at the marina, dredging resumed apace – fully one third of the boats in the marina had touched bottom one place or another on the way in.



Polynesians are at home on or in the water. We noticed this makeshift raft shuttling marina construction workers.



Polynesians also like to paddle – except for the competition longboats we never see a rowboat rowed. Instead it will be paddled with one oar, the other oar presumably lost or given away. Even the dredge was moved from site to site like a giant canoe, with the bucket skillfully worked as a giant paddle. No tug needed! We did enjoy watching the longboat crews assemble and practice. It must be quite a feat for a coach to persuade 50 Samoans paddlers to show up regularly and at the right time for a workout!



With the waterfront activity at a peak, we decided to escape inland and visit the last home and final resting place of Robert Louis Stevenson, a distant relative of Ginger’s. We took a taxi into the mountains and found a quiet beautiful mansion set in a park.



RLS’s study boasts a fireplace, probably the only one in the tropical South Pacific. Here a Scotsman could feel at home, and here he wrote his last books. He died downstairs at the age of 44.



We climbed the mountain behind the mansion to visit his last resting place. “Home is the sailor, home from the sea…” Remember all the fresh paint in town, in honor of the Games? Yes, as Ginger paused next to RLS’s grave for a photo, a nice neat white patch was left on her derriere.



Back at the marina, shouting at each other to be heard of the noise of the dredging, we realized that it was time to move on. We set sail for Niuatoputapu - a small island in northern Tonga. Two short fast sailing days later, we dropped the hook inside the protecting reef of a quiet island. We arrived in a setting as quiet and rural as Apia was bustling and urban.

In response to our Q flag and VHF radio request a truck full of officials arrived at the wharf and blared the horn for pickup by dinghy. After the formalities were attended to we were free to wander.



We exchanged money at the bank.





The island’s commerce is carried back and forth on the highway.











It became obvious that we had come to the right place to decompress after a month and a half in urban harbors. What we didn’t realize was that we were about to become swept up in a very social scene. One family in particular that lives near the wharf likes to adopt and welcome “yachties” with potlucks, feasts, and offers of help. Niko is an energetic fisherman, and his wife Sia is the indefatigable matriarch. Shortly after arriving they hosted a Sunday feast with yachties providing much coveted desserts and gave a tour of their compound.







When we expressed interest in climbing the island’s peak, Sia promptly organized a guiding party for us consisting of 10 of the younger members of the family! We set off in a noisy and cheerful band, singing, hooting, and calling to each other.



The views from the heights were spectacular.





Our worries about the lack of water carried by the guides turned out to be unfounded – the boys scurried up palm trees and kicked coconuts down, and with a few expert chops by 9 year old boys wielding machetes, drinks and snacks were served to all.







By the time we had descended and were trudging back to the wharf, our group was much quieter, but still in good spirits.









The standard island pose for a camera includes hand signs straight from music videos – pop culture is truly global. Another friend, Fehia, teaches Ginger how it’s done.



Fehia visited Marcy for some chocolate cake and admired the picture book of Washington State.



One sign of the power of the matriarch, Sia, is that she motivated the heathens Ginger and Peter to dress up and attended a Catholic service on Sunday. The singing was exquisite.







As sailors do, we started of thinking of our exit strategy. We started looking at charts of Fiji, and wondering how to say goodbye……. Monday is a good day to check out of the country and leave, but wait, Don from Sand Dollar just pulled in and we’re happy to return the favor of a dinner he provided in Fakarava when we were low on food and cooking fuel!



Tuesday morning, dishes done, fuel transferred, and we’re ready for Fiji. Now, Niko and Sia have taken us up on a dinner invitation!



It’s Wednesday now and Sia has organized a pig roast! The carnivorous skipper of a boat with a vegetarian cook is not able to turn this down.







We’ve washed every dish on the boat several times over in the last week , we repaired the broken slides on the mainsail and storing all the items that have to be put away for sea, but wait again - we hear on the radio that Adelia, with friends Kip and Denise is about to arrive with mail for us!



Adelia , who we first met in La Paz, Mexico, had not only brought to us from Pago Pago a couple of small boxes of late arriving books, but had loaded aboard several dinghy loads of various boxes sent by island relatives that live and work in Pago. After another nice dinner with them on Marcy, we told ourselves that tomorrow was the day to leave. That night, as the wind whistled in the rigging and rain torrents swept the bay, we wondered if we were destined to stay forever. So you understand why the next morning we double reefed the mainsail, hoisted anchor, and sailed out into a half a gale.

Apia, stars and South Pacific Games

We've been anchored for just over a week in Apia harbour, Independent Samoa. It's very nice here. The mud bottom is great holding and the grocery stores are not too far away. Ginger cleaned the prop and bottom as the bay is clean enough to swim here. We had a lot of growth from Pago Pago and our trip south from here should be much faster with a smooth bottom again.
We're visiting all the close tourist sites. We spent an afternoon at the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum. Still trying to figure out how he's related to my family but it's fun to hear about the interesting life of a relative however they're related. His house is majestic and the view from the top of the hill where he and his wife Fannie were buried is beautiful. I even brought home an unexpected souvenir. Everything, including the rocks on the side of the road, is being spruced up for the South
Pacific Games. I leaned on his grave and got white paint all over my rear. I took this as a message from beyond that he thought my pants were not flattering.
We attended a dance show at the local, and apparently famous, Aggie Grey's Hotel. It was a fun mix of folksy and very talented dancers. The finale before moving poolside to watch the fire dancers was a dance by the daughter of Aggie, beehive and all, who is still involved with the hotel.
There were almost 20 boats in the bay when the brand new marina was opened and ready for customers. As we'll be paying the same daily fee (as opposed to the free anchorage before Saturday) whether we're in the marina or not most boats moved into the marina. We were the 3rd boat in and the first to come to a complete stop as we hit the bottom in the channel. A couple of minutes of reverse brought us out of the mud and we had to scramble to move lines and fenders to the other side to tie at the
end of the dock. The mean low water depth for the marina is supposed to be about 8 inches lower than our keel but even small boats were encountering very shallow depths on their way into slips. The dredging for the marina was done by back hoe off a barge. We had watched them move the barge (by paddling around with the back hoe bucket) several times back into the marina to get high spots. Apparently there are still a few spots to settle out. Anyway, all settled and it turns out we have to move
as this is the one float that's not completely attached. So, by Monday morning we'll need to be re-settled in a new slip.
As far as stars, we had a beer on the boat of Captain Fatty Goodlander and his wife Caroline. He's currently writing for Cruising World, has written for Sail, author of several books and will soon have a show on NPR. We haven't seen much of him as he's been working away on writing and getting his NPR shows ready. They're here "covering" the games and it was fun to meet them and hear their stories. He's been out for 45+ years and when they lost their boat in a hurricane in the Caribbean they salvaged
another from the same storm and have been cruising on the "new" boat ever since. They're gracious hosts.
Speaking of the games, we attended the opening ceremonies of the South Pacific Games last night. There was much fanfare as dancers, choir, and athletes entertained for over 3 hours. There were even vendors selling food out of large laundry baskets. Our favorite "Tasty Treats" appeared to be bags of Pringle type potato chips. Really, with a name like that who could resist a bag or two? Of course, no island in the South Pacific is immune to shipping woes. The biggest firework show ever planned
in the Pacific and donated by China for the opening ceremonies were delayed when their ship had trouble and was diverted to New Zealand for repairs. Always flexible as islanders they will have the fireworks for the closing ceremonies. We already saw fireworks here when the marina opened on Friday night. They shot off 3 distress flares. One of the flares was shot into the middle of the anchored fleet of sailboats and landed in the water right in between the 2 anchored boats next to us. We're
glad to not be in the stadium as the fireworks are lit as we'd prefer to take our chances at sea with water rather than on land (or sea) with fire. On the subject of fire, or at least exiting the stadium, the fire chief at home would have had hissy fits over the exits for the stadium here, even though all was well with the seats and the stadium is cement and the stairways seemed wide enough. The problem is that everyone and his brother, cousin, friend seemed to have permission to take their cars
through the gate and there were wall to wall parked cars blocking the pedestrian exits from the stadium. We left way past our bed time in the middle of the speeches at 9PM. By the time we left many of the athletes had headed off the field and the bleachers were quickly emptying. Luckily we didn't have to deal with large crowds and cars at the end of the night as threading our way away from the stadium was crowded already.
Our first night in a marina since January in Mexico and we're ready to head back out to anchor ASAP. It's still and hot when you're bow doesn't face into the wind and worse, there were a few mosquitoes at anchor but they're quick and stealthy and much thicker here in the marina.

Apia, Independant Samoa

The preparations for the South Pacific Games here in Independant Samoa are at a frenzied pace.  The opening ceremonies are Saturday night and the bay is filling up with boats from all over arrived for the games.  A large ship brought about 400 people (7 busloads) from Tuvalu and we read that the Tokelau team is all here for the games.  This is probably the closest we'll come to being near an Olympic Games and it's fun to see all the fanfare.
The radio wiring is all fixed and we're up and running again.  The tin can of a generator we got in Pago Pago has now revealed some of it's secrets to Peter and our batteries are charged up.  We've done some tourist trips around town here and are looking forward to heading to Niuatoputapu, Tonga on Monday.
Today is Toni's birthday (Peter's Mom) and we're thinking of her today and celebrating her birthday from afar.

Samoa: two governments, one people

Our long stay in Pago Pago, American Samoa was interesting, to say the least. The longer we stayed, the lower our spirits sank. Our primary reason for visiting Pago was to receive mail, most of which never arrived. The weather was an endless procession of vicious windy, rainy squalls alternating with hot muggy days. On the hot still days the smell from the tuna canneries that line the bay could bring tears to your eyes. The litter on the water and on shore was overwhelming. Underfed and unhealthy looking dogs lurk in the streets. This small island, with both McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken, does not seem to thrive with close association to the United States. The people are friendly, and we were told many times, Apia is nice, we are one people with two governments.





There were a couple of major boat dragging incidents, partly because of the wind but also because the bottom didn’t provide good anchor holding – some say because of all of the plastic bags littering the harbor bottom. We felt we could not stray far from Marcy because of danger from dragging, or being dragged upon. Also demoralizing was a mayday call early one morning that ended in a cruiser sailboat sinking just three hours later off the east end of the island. It was unclear what caused the boat to sink but definitely a shocker to all of us in the bay.

The island around the harbor resembled one long strip mall, with some unique Samoan twists.



Of course, this being the South Pacific, land of the missionary, there are many churches.

Unique to American Samoa are hundreds and hundreds of front yard graves, some simple like this one:



Some elaborate like this one:



It was explained to us that this is a recent phenomena, arising out of land disputes. If you plant mom and dad in the front yard, it makes a serious ownership statement!


Open air, communal structures called “fales” are dotted along the road.







One evening many of the cruisers in the anchorage got together for a Samoan traditional dinner on a nice beach north of Pago.



Peter says, yummy, meat! Ginger says, is there anything I can eat here?



After waiting fruitlessly for mail for a month, we decided enough was enough and hoisted anchor for the overnight hop to Apia, the next island over and capital of the independent nation of Samoa. We are fortunate to have met Zero, Southern Star’s paddling coach as he agreed to check our mail and forward anything that comes in the next few weeks. Hopefully our mail will come while there are still cruisers heading our way from Pago.




The anchor chain had grown a sticky sludge during the long stay, so we broke out the pressure washer that we had bought in Mexico.




It worked well, but it was still a three hour job to blast all of the muck off.




Apia, in contrast to Pago, turns out to be a clean and scenic little city. It may be spiffed up more than usual because this year Apia is the host of the South Pacific Games, due to start in a week. Our anchorage gives a front row view of practicing long boats called Va’a. Each boat has it’s own drummer in the bow to try to keep the stroke well timed for all 40 oarsmen. Sometimes they use a whistle too - it’s a bit like Carnival in Rio.





We also have a good view of the working port. These two well kept tugs maneuver a constant procession of big and small ships onto the quay.



We went to the Saturday market and picked up delicious fruit and vegetables. It was a very busy place in the market and on the street. It appears that everyone comes to this market on Saturday.





This being the capitol, there are many government offices. Some of them we just aren’t sure what purpose they serve…..



With our spirits rising again we look forward to a week in Apia before we head south to Tonga.