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
