by Judy Handley | Sep 29, 2006 | Sailing Logs Year 1, Samoa |
Day 347, Year 1: Getting Ready to Leave Apia
Date: Friday, September 29, 2006
Weather: Moderating Weather
Location: Apia Harbor, Upolu Island, Samoa
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. After staying onboard all day organizing pictures, I 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.
by Judy Handley | Sep 28, 2006 | Sailing Logs Year 1, Samoa |
Day 346, Year 1: Fia Fia Night at the Hotel Kitano
Date: Thursday, September 28, 2006
Weather: Beautiful Weather Returns
Location: Apia Harbor, Upolu Island, Samoa
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 totally 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.
by Judy Handley | Sep 27, 2006 | Sailing Logs Year 1, Samoa |
Day 345, Year 1: Shop ‘til You Drop
Date: Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Weather: Rainy with Intermittent Sunshine
Location: Apia Harbor, Upolu Island, Samoa
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.
by Judy Handley | Sep 26, 2006 | Sailing Logs Year 1, Samoa |
Day 344, Year 1: Decision Time
Date: Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Weather: Another Absolutely Beautiful Day Ending with Rain
Location: Apia Harbor, Upolu Island, Samoa
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.
by Judy Handley | Sep 25, 2006 | Sailing Logs Year 1, Samoa |
Day 343, Year 1: Saying Goodbye to Justin and Lynn
Date: Monday, September 25, 2006
Weather: Absolutely Beautiful Day
Location: Apia Harbor, Upolu Island, Samoa
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.
by Judy Handley | Sep 24, 2006 | Sailing Logs Year 1, Samoa |
Day 342, Year 1: A Climb to Mt. Vaea
Date: Sunday, September 24, 2006
Weather: Overcast in Apia
Location: Apia Harbor, Upolu Island, Samoa
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
