October 16, 2004

Althea
Tue 16 Nov 2004 10:22
From Wallis Island 13 deg 20 min South, 176 deg 09 min West

 

Samoa was one of our favorite countries so far. The friendly people, the culture & the lush scenery took us in. We had not planned to visit (Independent) Samoa, but the winds took us there after we found that we could not anchor off the beautiful national park of American Samoa. We did not have a Samoan flag to raise, so I took the Tongan flag & overlaid parts of the Guatemalan flag & some cut-out paper stars & we were looking proper – from a distance anyway. En route, Bob caught a big wahoo that was what he was after for months as the taste of the fish is wonderful.

 

          

 

We spent a few days in the capital of Apia on Upolo where we enjoyed the fresh produce market, the crafts market, the Internet café, a real movie theater & supermarkets. While it was a town with nice amenities, it still had lots of local favor as evident in the lava lavas that all the men wore – sort of like a sarong. We then embarked on a circumnavigation of the island of Upolo. At our first anchorage off a tiny village, a young local guy (Tommy) came out in his dugout canoe. When we asked about nearby hiking (as there were lots of mountains), he offered to take us on a hiking tour of his family plantation. Tommy was very excited to share the fa’a Samoa or Samoan way of life. He told us that we were the first tourists who had hiked up the mountain from his village & he was eager to practice his English. He first took us to his family’s fale which is the traditional oval-shaped house of wooden posts & open walls to allow air flow (thatched blinds are pulled for rain). We met most of Tommy’s 8 (!) sisters & his niece & nephews.

 

                           

 

Tommy was very proud to show us off as the tourists to other villagers. We enjoyed our day with him as we hike through the village’s tropical plantations with ocean views, learned about traditional healing plants (e.g., a large green leaf that you soak in water & place on your forehead for a headache), tried different ripe fruits straight from the tree & learned to make a traditional palm basket. When Tommy offered fresh coconut water, he shimmied up a very tall tree with his lava lava tied around his ankles, threw down half a dozen coconuts & then whacked them open with his machete. It really is a refreshing drink especially during a very humid hike and somehow is is very cool. We had a nice lunch sitting on the edge of a small fale on top of the mountain with views of the bay & boat way below. Tommy shared fresh coconut meat with us & we reciprocated with salami which I am sure he had never tasted - and that he wasn’t too keen on.

 

                    

 

After our hike, we were offered a cup of delicious’ koko Samoa’ (a kin to hot chocolate with local cocoa). Things got interesting when Tommy’s quite large father arrived home for getting tataus (tattoos) that covered him from his thighs to his belly. The process had taken 5 days (about average) & he came home a little drunk (to forget the pain). He questioned us about our visiting papers & gave us a little bit of a hard time but all was well when we left for the boat.

 

We made some flyers with our computer and printer as a gift for “Tommy your personal tour guide”. Maybe he can make some talas (rhymes with dollars) from future yachties?

We next sailed around to the south side of Upolu which is seldom visited by yachts. You have to go to the government building and get a special permission from the Prime minister’s office to do so. We didn’t see another boat for nearly a week on the trip around Upolu, but we did see beautiful scenery and a really weird sky one day. There was a perfect ring around the sun maybe 3 miles in diameter directly over our head. Armageddon?

 

          

 

 After a couple of stops, we set anchor off the village of Satau one afternoon. The goal was to get the nearby resort for fiafia night –a big feast with Samoan dancing. We keep missing the Polynesian dancing and this was to be make-up time. Bob took the dinghy in to look for a good place to land. Instead he found a nice couple setting up nets for catching fish in the estuary. They said the resort was six miles away and no taxis or buses ran. Again we missed the dancing! The next morning a dugout canoe paddled out and Bob recognized the skipper as the \fisherman from the evening before. Malafanua invited us to have dinner with Tina and his family that evening. Later another canoe came out to invite us to dinner and give us a big basket of fruit. He was very sad we could not join his family for dinner.

 

    

 

He met us at the beach later and we hitched a lift to his plantation way back in the bush. It was a beautiful setting with taro, coconut, bananas, pawpaw (same as papaya as far as we can tell), cocoa, breadfruit, beans, eggplant, etc. Their fale was very traditional other than the tin roof. We sat on woven mats and they served the fish from the night before. The fish were very small about 5 inches long and they serve them cooked and uncleaned with the scales on - very strange. They served taro leaves cooked like spinach and topped with coconut cream that was fantastic. The baked taro and breadfruit keep the Samoan’s alive but we’d prefer to pass. They also served a very large pot of cocoa Samoa which they seem to drink instead of coffee or tea or anything else.

 

  

 

     

We headed back around the Island toward Apia the capital, but the wind was on our nose so we decided to head west to the island of Savaii (pronounced like Hawaii). After a few days we went to the port of Asau. The entrance was very tricky and rough. The depth meter registered 8 feet and we draw 6.5. We got in safely, but the s/v Music a few hours after us didn’t fare so well. They touched bottom in the channel and turned hard a starboard to get out. When they did, they went outside the channel and hard onto the reef. The next 36 hours was an ordeal with Bob managing the rescue and coordinating between the local fishermen, the two other sailboats there and the New Zealand and Samoan authorities. Our dinghy got beat up pretty badly and Bob went sleepless for awhile, but the good news is that Music came off the reef and is safely ties to the pier. It was great to see everyone from locals to yachts and officials teaming up and helping. The lesson is to enter foreign ports in good light with rising tide and don’t trust the charts. Better is to follow someone else in!

 

One of the fishermen invited us to share Whit Sunday festivities with them. Whit Sunday is a big deal for them and especially the children. They pronounce it “white” Sunday and they all wear white. Turns out they always wear white to church not just this day. Each child has a part in a skit of sorts. They sing and dance and each one speaks to the congregation. There were three groups of three different ages and the whole thing took two hours. After bob had been doing rescue duty for the two prior days, the hard bench was a pain…

 

    

    

 

The feast to follow was worth the pain of the pews even if the beautiful singing wasn’t enough. Back at Iko’s fale, the feasted started when the two men were served Vailimi beer. Then we were served a pig roasted whole, lamb chops, several varieties of fish including barracuda (surprisingly good in the Pacific). This was accompanied with the regular taro and breadfruit and yes, the taro greens with the coconut cream. They served us first which wasn’t a surprise, but it was when they expected us to finish our meal before they started theirs. We convinced them to join us and it was obvious that they were happy about that. The food looked really good.

 

    

 

After dinner, they told us that their store is the only place on Savaii with ice cream and only on Whit Sunday. They had received a truck load of the stuff from Apia earlier that day and distributed to the nearby villages so all the children could have ice cream on Whit Sunday. Given the lack of refrigeration, no small feat that. Wow! Forget cheeseburgers in paradise, mango ice cream is the ticket.

 

After tieing up loose ends with Music, we weighed anchor and headed for Wallis and Futuna, a very small French colony between Samoa and Fiji. It was only a two day passage, but we’ve found that it is hard to get into the groove with such a short passage and unlike a day sail, you can’t skip some of the longer term stuff (like sleeping, taking showers, and cooking, etc). It was good to drop anchor and take a long nap before getting some work done.

 

Today we’re headed into the town here on Wallis to do some shopping and then we’re off to Fiji when the weather is right by way of Futuna where we’ll stop only for the day.

 

Courtney and Bob