Day 321, Year 1: Getting Together With Friends
Date: Sunday, September 3, 2006
Weather: Rain All Night and All Day . . . until 4 pm
Location: Pago Pago Harbor, Tutuila Island, American Samoa

It has become apparent why Somerset Maugham wrote the novel “Rain”. When it rains here, it really rains, sometimes for days. The Convergence Zone has been sitting on top of the Samoas for a few days causing rain, rain, and more rain. I now know the real meaning of raining “cats and dogs”. It did clear this afternoon, just in time for us to go ashore and pick up guests, and it has not rained since. If it doesn’t rain during the night, then I think we can safely say that the Convergence Zone has moved north again-where it belongs! And I sure hope it stays there for the next couple of weeks.

There are four boats that are captained by single-handers at anchor here now. Two just arrived yesterday, and this morning one of those boats called all of the others to invite them over for sundowners (drinks at sun down) at 1 pm. When one of the others responded by saying that they didn’t think 1 pm was the right time for sundowners, the other boat replied that since the sun had not come up today, sundowners could be had at anytime! I don’t think we saw the sun yesterday at all, and did not see it again today. Hopefully tomorrow will bring a return of some sunshine. We had invited our friend Evelyn out for sundowners today, and at least we didn’t have rain. She brought a friend named Terri with her. Terri has been here for about 21 years and runs a travel agency. We also invited Penny and Greg from Long Tall Sally over. Evelyn and Terri brought oka (marinated raw fish) with them, so we had a pre-dinner feast. Before dark we headed into Evalina’s for a Sunday night Mexican dinner and a movie. It was great fun and a nice diversion from the rain. Let’s just hope the rain doesn’t return.

Tomorrow is Labor Day, so it will be another quiet day. Stores won’t be open and the busses will not run, so we will probably spend the day on the boat making plans for our departure from here and also coming up with a sailing plan once we leave Apia in independent Samoa. The rest of the week will be very busy. There are still so many things we want to see here and we have lots of shopping to do in order to reprovision for the rest of the cruising season. “So much time and so little to do . . .Strike that. Reverse it” – Willie Wonka of Chocolate Factory Fame.