13:43.58S 171:50.57W Leaving Samoa
Farr Gone Blog
Stuart Cannon
Tue 5 Jul 2011 02:16
Jack and I attended church yesterday. Neither of us understood a word and it was strange to hear the repititions so commonly used in church in a language unfamiliar to us. The outstanding feature was the singing. Four part harmonies sung with such gusto that the roof shook even though there were only 2 dozen singers. Powerful bass sounds mingled beautifully with the sopranos and tenors to that delightful polynesian lilt and tune. Very impressive and memorable.
Several Samoans wanted Jack to promise he would return as they were calling him brother. When you have children you must do what your father did and bring them here. A very warm send off indeed.
To provision we went to the most wonderful fruit market imaginable and for around $6Aust we bought enough bananas, mangoes, papaya and star fruit to feed a large crowd. If you buy 4 you seem to get 8. Its reverse bartering where you have to say no more please.
Now Jack and I are at sea and sadly he is a little queasy. We are doing 5 knots downwind in a rolly sea so I worry about his state of mind but he will be fine after he adjusts I'm sure. Well fingers crossed anyway. We are approaching Apolima Island which means we have around 550 nautical miles to go to Savu Savu and we want to push it a bit to try and get there by Friday for the officials (customs etc) who have a fearsome reputation in Fiji. So its back to work for me.