Day 346: Getting Ready to Leave Apia
Day and Time: Friday, September 29, 2006
Weather: Moderating Weather

We have made the decision to leave here tomorrow mid-day for Tonga. Or at least that is our most current thinking, I worked on pictures all day today and Mark made multiple trips to shore for water, fuel, checking out, and to help other boats. I stayed onboard and worked all day on organizing pictures and finally went in to shore for cruiser evening at the dock. Actually we went in a little early with Long Tall Sally to the local Seafood Gourmet Grill and had sashimi before returning to the dock. This little restaurant had sashimi for the first couple of days that we were here and have not had it since-until today. For the equivalent of $5US, they sell a huge plate of fresh tuna, probably 30 pieces.. Other places in town give you 4-5 pieces of sashimi for the same price. We think the Seafood Grill sashimi might be the best price in all of the South Pacific.

Tomorrow morning we will do our final food shopping before leaving here sometime in the early afternoon. Splashes will be leaving around noon, so we will have company on our way to Tonga. We had hoped that Windcastle would be leaving with us, but they need a day of rest and will follow on Sunday. We have had a fabulous time in the Samoas, but it is time to move on.

Day 345: Fia Fia Night at the Hotel Kitano
Day and Time: Thursday, September 28, 2006
Weather: Beautiful Weather Returns

See Pictures Here

Note to all our friends and family: We are so very behind on sending e-mails. If you have written us in the past week, please forgive us if we haven’t answered. We’re trying hard to catch up.

We have been in the Samoas for almost two months but as we get ready to leave there are just so many things we still want to do. We have set Saturday as our departure day if we can possibly be ready to go by then. Today Mark worked on filling the fuel and water tanks, but we still need to do grocery shopping and last minute souvenir shopping. I also need to finish labeling pictures and get them sent to the website. I am almost finished with American Samoa, but I haven’t even begun to organize the photos from here. We probably won’t have internet access in Tonga, so if I don’t get things sent from here, it could be quite a while before pictures are posted. I’ll just have to do the best that I can.

I did work on pictures all day today while Mark ran in and out with fuel and water. We then went into town to the duty-free liquor store to put in our order. Here you can buy duty-free and have it delivered the day before you are leaving. We stopped by the Flea Market to pick up a few odds and ends, and then took a taxi out to the Kitano Hotel to make reservations for dinner for tonight’s Fia Fia and traditional buffet. They were toally booked, but they made room for Penny, Greg, Mark, and myself. It was then back to the boat to get ready and then back to shore. We arrived a little early and were almost the first people in line to get dinner. This was great as there was wonderful sashimi, oka, roasted pig, roasted fish, palusami, and on and on. And we were almost the first in line, so we certainly got our pick of foods. The show was after dinner and it was also spectacular. I love watching the Samoan women dance. It is really all about hand movements and subtle foot movements and it is delightful to watch.

We have decided to leave here and go to Tonga. If we love it, we will stay and leave from there for New Zealand. If we don’t love it, we will head on to Fiji. In either case, I’m sure we will have a wonderful time.

Day 344: Shop ‘Til You Drop
Day and Time: Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Weather: Rainy with Intermittent Sunshine

After being here for more than two weeks, we finally got ourselves up early enough to get into town to see the Police Band. Doug and Sylvie from Windcastle went with us. Every weekday morning at 7:50, the full marching band dressed in their blue police uniforms, play music as they march down the main street to the Government Center. There they play for the raising of the flag, and then they march and play their way back through town. This is a leftover from the days of British occupation and is quite impressive. I love watching the police men and women, all in their blue dress lava lavas, as they direct traffic in town wearing their white gloves. They are very formal, and they do their jobs with obvious pride. They march with the same pride and it was fun to watch.

Yesterday I had made arrangements to go shopping today with Sylvie. So after our trip to watch the band, we returned to the boat to get the laundry and our computer. We dropped the laundry off to have it done and Mark went to the internet café to try and send some of the pictures from American Samoa to the website. Sylvie and I went to the Flea Market and told Mark we would meet him back at the internet café at 12:30. We made it back, but we still had more shopping to do. After having lunch at the Seafood Grill near the wharf, Sylvie and I went back to town. We were looking for gifts and for some souvenirs for ourselves. Somehow we always seem to leave port without buying the special things that will remind us of our voyage years from now. But we took care of that today. We are all out of money, but we have souvenirs!

Mark spent the afternoon arranging for duty-free purchases as we leave here. We are thinking that Saturday morning will be departure time and we will probably be headed to Tonga. But weather and whim might change those plans once again. Brian from Thistledown and Jill, his new crew member solicited through the internet, were hoping to leave this evening for Fiji. The weather out there is not so great, so they might go north to Wallis/Futuna, and then south to Fiji. Jill is new to sailing and is little worried about the passage, but I gave her a couple of Scopamine patches and hope that they will help.

Tonight we invited Penny and Greg from Long Tall Sally over to play Baja Rummy. Once again, Mark and Penny were the winners and Greg and I had pathetic scores. We must have a rematch.

Tomorrow I will continue to work on getting photos ready to send to the website and might do a little more shopping.

Day 343: Decision Time
Day and Time: Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Weather: Another Absolutely Beautiful Day Ending with Rain

Today was a gorgeous day, but I had to enjoy it from the cockpit of Windbird. I promised myself that as soon as Lynn and Justin left, I would get back to work on organizing and naming photos to send to the website. It is a long and arduous process, and even after I send them, someone in India has to retype the name for each photo. We have had many delays in the past couple of months, but hopefully before we leave here I will at least have all the photos sent and some of the past folders posted on the site. Of course, I think that before we leave every port, and somehow the job never gets done. We shall see if my determination wins this time.

As I sat in the cockpit naming pictures today, I had to look up some names of places in the Lonely Planet guide that I use. Lynn took my old one and left me with her new one that also includes Tonga. This 2006 version has some references that my 2003 guide did not have. One reference that thrilled me when I read it was about our friend Micah back in American Samoa. He told us about a film he had done about the art of tatau or tattoo, but we didn’t know that it is a film of some acclaim. In the Lonely Planet guide it says, “The intricate protocol and burning agony of Samoan tattooing is caught on two documentary films-Micah Van der Ryn’s excellent Tatau: What One Must Do and Skin Stories produced by PIC (Hawai’i) and KPBS (San Diego).” Way to go, Micah. I also forgot to mention in yesterday’s log that Micah’s wife, Fa’aiuga is here on Upolu visiting family. Micah e-mailed this and the fact that Fa’aiuga had seen us in our rental car last Wednesday in her sister’s village of Fusi. Mark called her yesterday and had a great conversation. Unfortunately, she was leaving today and would not be coming to Apia, so we didn’t get to see her. But just the contact made me realize just how small this world can be.

Today while I was working on photos, Mark was working on itinerary planning. We do have to make a decision about where we go next and just how many more stops we will make before heading south to New Zealand. There are all sorts of things to consider. Should we head to New Zealand in October when there is still a chance of southern winter storms? Or should we leave in November when the winter storms are over, but when there is chance of an early cyclone? And should we leave from Tonga or Fiji? And if we decide to leave from Fiji, should we visit Tonga first and be a little rushed, or should we head directly from here to Fiji? And wherever we are going, when should we leave here? We wrestled with this all day and invited Doug and Sylvie over in the late afternoon to discuss the possibilities with them. We know they are having to make the same decisions, so we thought maybe four heads would be better than our two. We had great discussions, but none of us made a final decision.

Lynn and Justin will arrive in Boston early tomorrow morning east coast time and sometime just after midnight our time. I will be anxious to hear from them and know they had a safe journey home. It’s a little lonely aboard Windbird without them, but the push to get ready to move one will keep us plenty busy for the next couple of days.

Sylvie, Doug, Mark, and I headed into shore for dinner after our itinerary discussions. We met up with Arnie, Cam, and crew from Jade and had dinner together. It is always good to get together with other cruisers, and we really enjoyed the evening.

We still have no set decision about where we will go when we leave here, but a decision should be made soon.

Day 342: Saying Goodbye to Justin and Lynn
Day and Time: Monday, September 25, 2006
Weather: Absolutely Beautiful Day

It is just about 10 pm and we just took Justin and Lynn ashore to catch a taxi to the airport. It feels incredibly lonely here on Windbird without them. We had a wonderful time with both Lynn and Justin and visited some of the most beautiful sights we have seen in the South Pacific. It was so special to be able to share our time here with family. We can only hope they had as good of a visit with us as we had with them.

Today we had breakfast aboard Windbird and then went to the market for last minute purchases. Mark, Justin, and I returned to Windbird for lunch and then went to the Palolo Deep Marine Preserve for an afternoon in the sun. Lynn went back to the Madd Art Gallery and then met us at the beach. The day ended way too soon. We made a last visit to the internet café and then had dinner at a local Chinese restaurant. We made it back from there just in time to get luggage ashore and hail an airport taxi. They fly out at 12:45 tonight, which is really very early tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow will be a day of rest and decision. We still are not sure whether or not we will leave here and go to Tonga or to Fiji, or to both. We hope to make our decision tomorrow. In the meantime, we will just hope that Lynn and Justin have a good trip home.

Day 341: A Climb to Mt. Vaea
Day and Time: Sunday, September 24, 2006
Weather: Overcast in Apia

See Pictures Here

Today we took our obligatory pilgrimage up Mount Vaea to the tomb of Robert Louis Stevenson. We took the steep climb up which was supposed to take 30-40 minutes. We made it in 25 minutes. But the trip down the longer, less steep path was a whole different story. It should have taken us 45-55 minutes, but it took us an hour and half. It was wet and slippery and rocky. We’ll never know if it would have been easier to go back down the way we came. In 1894 when Robert Louis Stevenson died here, the Samoans cut the path up the mountain to take his body to rest. From the tomb site, you can look down on the red roof of his home, Vailima, and you can also see all of Apia and the harbor area. The vegetation on the mountainside is beautiful, and even though it was a hard climb, I think all of us were glad we had done it. Here in Samoa, Stevenson had the name of Tusitala. This means storyteller, and that he was.

Early in the day, Mark, Lynn, and I went into town to try and find a church service with traditional singing to attend. We never found the church we were looking for, but we did hear singing in the churches. The most interesting thing we saw were all of the people dressed in while. This was not true at the Catholic Church, but it was at the other places of worship. Mark and I met Doug and Sylvie after church and walked back to the dock together. We then all went to Windbird to have a late breakfast and catch up on news of Windcastle’s explorations in the past couple of months. It was great to be together again and we look forward to spending more time together this week before we all leave Apia.

After we returned from our climb of Mount Vaea, Brian of Thistledown dropped by for a visit. He evidently arrived here yesterday although we didn’t see him. He had his new crew member, Jill, with him and we had a great visit. Brain was our neighbor in American Samoa and it was really good to see him again.

Lynn and Justin are planning what they would like to do on their last day before returning home. Their time here flew by and we look forward to spending quality time together tomorrow. We have really enjoyed our time together, but after they leave, we have to start seriously planning our final stops for this sailing season. We must get to New Zealand by November, but there are still so many, many places we want to visit here in the South Pacific. We’ll spend the remainder of our week making these plans

Day 340: Rainy Day in Apia
Day and Time: Saturday, September 23, 2006
Weather: Rainy and Cloudy All Day and Evening

It was an early rise this morning. We had to return the rental car by 10 am, and we had a few explorations to do before returning the car. We first went to the Fed Ex Office to see if the part for our boom had come in. It was not supposed to be here until Monday, but we were delighted that it was here today and that it was the right part. Hurray! After picking up the part, Mark and I drove around to check out a few places that I would still like to visit. We went to see just how accessible these sites will be without the rental car.
After we figured this out, we returned the rental car and met Justin as he was walking from one internet café to another. We all got online for a few minutes at the Green Turtle Traveler’s Lounge to check various things, and then we went to breakfast. Lynn had gone her own way early in the morning and we had made arrangements to meet her either at the vegetable market at 11 am, and if not there, back at the dock by 12 noon. Mark, Justin, and I took a cab to the Maketi Fou, the vegetable market, and observed the Saturday frenzy, but we didn’t find Lynn. It seemed like everyone in Apia was at the market. We did a bit of shopping and soon it was time to head back to the dock.

As the morning progressed into afternoon, the cloudy weather turned into constant rain. The rain continued way into the evening, but as I sit here writing this log, the rain has abated. Earlier in the afternoon, Justin invited Tom and Evi, Samoan fire knife dancers that he has met, to come aboard for a visit. Justin bought a fire knife from Tom and has really enjoyed meeting these guys. Tonight, Kathleen from Quantum Leap joined us for dinner and for music making. She and Justin have been sitting here for the past couple of hours playing their ukuleles. We really enjoy the company and music. After dinner, Justin took Kathleen back to Quantum Leap and he went into town to meet Tom and Evi at a local nightclub. Mark has actually head to bed, so just Lynn and I are still up.

We learned today that Justin and Lynn will be leaving late on Monday night, not on Tuesday, so they have only tomorrow and Monday with us. We’re not sure yet how we will spend the next couple of days, but we will begin by trying to attend a Samaon church service tomorrow morning. The singing is fantastic and we want to hear that if we can. Quantum Leap is probably leaving tomorrow for Tonga, so we might try to get together with Windcastle and Long Tall Sally tomorrow evening after a hike up to Robert Louis Stevenson’s grave site tomorrow afternoon. We read Stevenson’s Treasure Island aloud to Heather and Justin when they were only five and three, and Justin has always credited the reading of that book with his love of words. He loved Long John Silver and his “shiver me timbers”. Heather’s favorite poem when she was little was Stevenson’s “Up in the Swing”. So I think visiting his grave is a most appropriate way to thank him for his wonderful writing.

Day 338 and 339: Beautiful Savai’i
Day and Time: Friday, September 22, 2006
Weather: Mostly Sunny Days with Intermittent Downpours

See Pictures of Savaii Tour, Day One

See Pictures of Savaii Tour, Day Two

We’ve just returned to Windbird (10 pm on Friday evening) after two wonderful days on the island of Savai’i. This is the largest island in Polynesia other than New Zealand and Hawai’I, but much of it remains uninhabited. There is a road that goes all around the island dotted with pristine villages where people still live Fa’a Samoa-the traditional Samoan Way. Savai’i is also known as the “cradle of Polynesia”. The prevalent theory is that all Polynesians came from Southeast Asia to Samoa, Fiji, and Tonga. Sometime around 300 AD, Samoans from Savai’i sailed to what is now known as Raiatea in French Polynesia. It was named Havai’i by people from Savai’i. These same people went on to settle what we know as today as Hawai’i, and in the Southern Cook Islands, Avaiki, now known as Aitutaki. Over hundreds of years, these settlers of Polynesia carried with them their homeland name of Savai’i which was changed slightly by different dialects.

Our two days in Savai’i were just fantastic. We arrived and drove uphill through what was once the largest plantation on Savai’i. All of us (including me with my air splint, climbed to the top of a 12 meter star mound (volcanic rock structure) with a view from the top of the world. We then drove through a huge pasture to a waterfall. Only Mark and Justin attempted the climb straight down to the pool at the bottom of the falls, but just the view was great. Our next stop was at the blowholes on the southwest corner of the island. The whole coast is black lava rock and when the waves come in, they hit the lava rock with incredible force, and the water shoots straight up into the sky. It was very hard to pull ourselves away from here, but we knew we had to keep going in order to get to our beach fale in time for dinner. We drove up the west coast of Savai’i and then out a peninsula on the northwest corner to a rainforest. Here they have built a rainforest canopy walkway from one huge tree to another. The walkway is a swing-bridge that is nine meters high, and once you cross, you climb another five stories to see an incredible view of the ocean and surrounding rainforest. Again, I was able to do this thanks to the air splint I am wearing.

We ended our day on the northeastern side of the island at Jane’s Beach Fales. This was our stop for the night and we made it in time for dinner. It was quite a day, and it was amazing. Staying in a beach fale was also an amazing experience. Fale is the word for the traditional open-sided Samoan home. The beach fales are basically a wooden platform with a roof, traditional woven shades that can be lowered for privacy or to keep out the rain, and a mosquito net hung over a bed. The beds are a wooden base with a thin layer of foam. I must admit that the comfort level was not great, but the ocean waves lapping near your front doorstep makes up for the less than perfectly comfortable bed. We woke up to sunshine and headed to the beach to read before breakfast. After breakfast, Mark, Justin, and I snorkeled. Once we got out to coral, we saw many different types of little fish. Nothing fantastic, but always fascinating. We had a bit of time to lounge on the beach, but then it was time to move on. We all left reluctantly wishing we had more time to spend on this beautiful island, but we were booked on the 4pm ferry back to Upolu. We knew we had two more stops, so we moved on. We visited the lava fields and ended our day by climbing to the rim of a no longer active volcano.

We knew we had to make the 4pm ferry, so ready or not, we had leave Savai’i. When we got back to the dinghy dock here in Apia, we saw that there was a party at the dock. The local fisherman’s club was having a hot dog barbeque for the cruisers in port. Hot dogs are not are favorite food, but friends that we haven’t seen for many months had come into port while we were gone and we had a great reunion with Doug and Sylvie on Windcastle. Penny and Greg from Long Tall Sally that we met in American Samoa had also come in while we were gone, so we had a great time socializing.

Justin and Lynn have four more days with us. We hope to spend some time just relaxing, but there are still things we hope to do. We have had a great visit with them in a part of the South Pacific that we think is the best of what we have seen.

Tomorrow early we return the rental car and go to the Saturday market. So I’d better turn in so I’ll have the energy for new explorations tomorrow.

Day 337: Touring the West Side of Upolu
Day and Time: Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Weather: Mostly Sunny Day with a Few Sprinkles Here and There

See Pictures Here

Late last evening we decided that we would rent a car for today, Thursday, and Friday, and drive that car to Savai’i via the car ferry. Mark checked with Samoa Shipping to make sure we could book the car in tomorrow with a return on Friday. That was a thumbs up, so he then went to rent the car. As soon as he returned to the boat, we were off for a day tour of the west side of this island. We drove west along the north coast, south down the west coast, and then started working our way back east along the south coast. We forded a stream at one point and drove through some pristine villages where people still live very traditionally. Our first destination was the Return to Paradise Beach where the film by that name starring Gary Cooper was shot in 1951-52. It was a beautiful beach but the coral was very close to shore so swimming was not possible. But Justin found a perfect little pool in the lava rock where we could sit and swim. There were beautiful little blue fish, not many, but it was quite enjoyable. We had the whole beach to ourselves which was great. Our stomachs told us it was time to move on to find some lunch. I had read about a surfer’s resort not far away that served lunch. We found the resort and had our lunch on a delightful deck just off the beach. After lunch, we found a spot to swim and snorkel, but only Justin and I went in the water. We were nearing high tide and the waves were crashing through the reef and making the inner waters a little turbulent. On this beach there were natural black lava rock piers that jutted out into the water. Justin and I entered the water on the left side of one of these piers and then decided to go out and around the pier. Bad move. As soon as I was out of the protection of the natural pier, the current started sweeping me down the beach. Justin was able to help me reach the next black lava rock pier and hold on for dear life. Once I was on the inside of the pier, I was then able to swim to shore. It was a challenging swim/snorkel, but it was fun and the coral I did get to see was beautiful.

We headed for home by going across the Cross Island Road. Once we got back to Windbird we started making preparations for our trip to Savai’i tomorrow. Kathleen from Quantum Leap is going to look after Windbird while we are gone. We made our fale reservations for tomorrow night, and I have worked out a challenging two-day agenda. Savai’i is a big island and there is so much to see and do in just two days. We are booked on the 4 pm ferry back to Upolu on Friday, so we will just do as much as we can in the time we have. It costs $55 Samoan Tala per person to spend the night in a beach fale, but that includes dinner and breakfast. We decided that we could only afford one night, but I have a feeling that once we are there we are going to wish we could longer. We shall see.

There will be no long for Thursday, September 21, as we won’t have internet access, but I will let you know all about our trip when we return on Friday.

Day 336: The web site is back up and running!
Day and Time: Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Weather: Improving-Sunshine with Short Periods of Rain

The Convergence Zone which was sitting on top of us yesterday has already moved south. This is a good thing. So now you see it, now you don’t. And I hope we don’t see it again for quite a while.

We started our day by going into The Green Turtle Traveler’s Lounge. First we did some work on the website, which should be back up and running again. Yeah! Mark went into town to get our permit to sail to Asau on the island of Savai’ once we leave here. While he was doing that we were talking to the people at the Green Turtle about traveling options on Savaii. But Mark came back without a cruising permit because the Prime Minister’s office (and in fact the entire six-story government building) was without electricity so they couldn’t photocopy our passports. So we will have to pursue this another day.

We then headed back to Windbird for a little lunch and went to the Palolo Reserve which is right around the corner to swim and snorkel. Once we did this, it was time to head back to the dock. Justin and Lynn went into town to participate in fire dancing lessons (Justin to participate and Lynn to video tape the presentations) and Mark and I headed back to the Green Turtle to make final reservations for our two day trip to Savai’i.. We kept hitting a brick wall in terms of making our reservations for Savai’i, and because of the delays we have decided not to go to Savai’i until early Thursday morning.

So we came back to the boat and cooked up a great curry while Justin went back to town to watch a show by the fire dancers he had met earlier. Tomorrow we have to get serious about getting reservations in order for our trip to Savai’i.

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