Day 335, Year 1: Care Package Arrived Today
Date: Sunday, September 17, 2006
Weather: Beautiful Day with One Rain Shower
Location: Apia Harbor, Upolu Island, Samoa
What we had anticipated would be a quiet Sunday just didn’t turn out that way. Late yesterday evening Justin was going to go into town to hear a local music group but the dinghy motor wouldn’t start. So Mark and Justin started their day today working on the dinghy motor. While they were working on this problem, we heard on the radio that a boat named Fluid Motion and our friends aboard Jade had their dinghies stolen during the night. To a cruiser, your dinghy is like your car or truck. It is your only method of traveling from boat to shore and having one stolen out here is a huge problem. There is no place to go to buy a new one. Both Fluid Motion and Jade started advertising a $250 reward for anyone helping them recover their dinghy. So far, they have heard nothing. All of us in the anchorage can only hope that tomorrow will bring better news.
Sometime mid-morning, I saw the catamaran Bamboo coming into the anchorage. I had heard from Penny on Long Tall Sally just last night that Herbert on Bamboo would be bringing me the “care package” I had been waiting for in American Samoa. Shortly after Bamboo anchored, Aqua Magic stopped by to pick up the package and bring it to us. They had been into shore for a church service and had heard on their mobile VHF that we were looking from someone to pick up the package and bring it to us. Channel 16 on our VHF radio is a cruiser’s news station and it works really well. Just like the old party-line telephone system, everyone knows what everyone else is doing and needing. It’s great. And opening the package was even greater. It had the aircast and splint I had been waiting for but finally received when Justin arrived. It had lost of special food treats from the Stuarts who had send the package, and a few special surprises from people I had worked with at the Concord School District. It was great fun unpacking it. Thank you to the Stuarts for sending this to me.
It took about three hours, but Mark and Justin finally got our dinghy motor going. At that point, Mark went to Splashes to help them install the boom attachment to their mainmast. Splashes is the boat that has the same broken boom attachment as us, so it was good practice for Mark to help them with their installation. Hopefully our part will be in mid-week. Splashes will be gone by then, but we will have had the experience of helping them. That should make our installment easier. Justin and Lynn dropped Mark off at Splashes and then headed into the internet café at the Green Turtle. Most things are closed on Sunday, but the Green Turtle is a traveler friendly place that stays open. I stayed on the boat to finish the laundry that Lynn and I had been working on during the morning. Laundry for four takes a little longer than laundry for two!
I had just finished getting all of the laundry hung when I saw Lynn , Justin, and Kathleen from Quantum Leap being towed home. They couldn’t get the dinghy motor started and with headwinds were having a tough row home, so another cruiser gave them a lift. We had lunch, and then Kathleen and Justin played their ukulele’s most of the afternoon. Lynn joined in for a bit, and when Mark returned home, he played harmonica. I worked on the computer transferring pictures from one computer to another and really enjoyed the music. Mark had to make one more “house call”. Margaret on Aqua Magic called for some computer help in the late afternoon and Mark went over to help.
We had dinner aboard Windbird tonight, listened to music, and just enjoyed the evening. We have no set plans for tomorrow, so we will just see how the day evolves.
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| 060917 Day 335 Samoa–To Market, To Market in Apia |
