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Photo Log

Apia Part 1 Photo Log

April 21-28, 2016

Two years ago, when we were dragging anchor all around Pago Pago (American Samoa) our friends in Apia were having a great time. So, we are glad we have gotten the chance to stop here for a while on our way down to Tonga. The “city” of Apia is one of the nicest in the Pacific, and the people here rival Fiji for their friendliness. We could have done without the cyclone thing though…

Logbook – April 21, 2016 (Apia)

Daily Notes

  • Move to marina, 2 other boats there, lots of help with dock lines
  • Cleared in – had to go to customs office for interview b/c Tarawa was listed as next port on Ebeye outbound clearance docs.
  • Taxi to immigration with smooth salesman Taula
  • Edge cafe for snacks, waitress Lupe
  • D/Boys taxi to grocery store
  • Dinner at Edge

Email to Family and Friends Dated April 21, 2016

Subject: Exodus – Arrived at Apia

We arrived at Apia, Samoa last night, and we kinda pulled a Lady Carolina in that we arrived just after dark, but instead of following LC’s cautious (smart?) ways we went ahead and entered the harbor and dropped anchor at night. I was livid because it was beyond my risk tolerance considering that we’ve never been here and we didn’t even know where we should go once inside the harbor. It helped that Port Control answered the radio and advised where we could anchor for the night. Later, once safely at anchor, I thanked Tim for being bold and confident enough to come in at night because sitting there drinking the last of my Zaya was a whole lot nicer than standing another night watch. His response was, “well, luck favors the bold…” Didn’t exactly bolster my confidence in our decision making, but the rum still tasted good. So, instead of pulling a Lady Carolina I guess we pulled a Skabenga (“We’re not staying the night out here, we’re comin in….”) although in fairness to us, Apia is a much safer place to enter at night than Raroia.
I didn’t write much during the passage, but once we decided to bypass Funafuti we had plenty of wind and had a pretty fast, squally, downwind run all the way here. We caught another tuna, were visited by dolphins, and sadly Exodus became a hospice care facility for small sea birds that got blown too far from home. Five total made their way to rest on Exodus, 3 died on board and 2 flew away after being startled (fate unknown). Tim tried to nurse them back, trying to get them to eat and drink, but I think by the time they got to us they were already spent. Needless to say, I am not the one who had to clean up all the poop. That’s Brenden’s job.
Apia looks like a big city and we are looking forward to getting to shore, but it’s still early and we are waiting for instructions from port control regarding clearance. There is a marina here, and we are actually looking forward to being at the dock for a little while.
Love and miss you all,
-D.

P.S. I don’t know if I’ve ever written about Skabenga, but they are our friends who entered Raroia, an atoll in The Tuamotus, after dark, and they are pretty much the poster child for “luck favors the bold.”
P.P.S. In case you missed the hint above, I am out of Zaya. So, someone needs to come visit.

Logbook – April 22, 2016 (Apia)

Daily Notes

  • D/T – taxi for propane then walk downtown to top off fresh veg
  • T/Alex – adjust lines, prep Exodus for TC Amos
  • Impromptu happy hour w/ neighbors on Exodus
Getting the dock lines set just right. We positioned Exodus in the middle of the slip with lines on both sides.

Logbook – April 23, 2016 (Apia)

Log Highlights

  • 0830 Heavy rain
  • 1020 Rain stopped
  • 1300 Med rain
  • 1630 Light rain
  • 1908 Med rain
  • 2145 Heavy rain, no swell

Daily Notes

  • TC Amos
It poured rain all day in advance of the cyclone

Logbook – April 24, 2016 (Apia)

Log Highlights

  • 0000 Rain + lightning
  • 0105 Light rain
  • 0604 No rain, choppy harbor

Daily Notes

  • Back to school, boat cleaning
  • TC survival celebration at pizza place (name?) with Emelie and Fred (sv Nefertiti)
  • Drinks after on Nefertiti
And then it was over. All three boats in the marina were amazed and so, so glad.
Walking to town along the harbor waterfront. This is an excellent place to run, also.
Italiano’s is neither an internet cafe nor a coffee bar, but the pizza and beer were good.
Cheers to the cyclone slayers!
Joined by our new friends from our neighbor boat S/V Nefertiti. It was nice to have them to discuss weather and boat preps as the stom approached and to celebrate with after.

Email to Family and Friends Dated April 24, 2016

Subject: Exodus – All is well after TC Amos

We have traveled thousands of miles to get out of cyclone regions during cyclone seasons. It’s kind of been a policy, and surprisingly one that Tim and I agree on. The risk of a major hurricane/cyclone just isn’t worth it to us. So, it’s kind of ironic that we’ve now experienced 2 cyclones: TC Pam last year in New Zealand and TC Amos last night. Pam was never much of a concern since it had lost a lot of energy in the cooler water approaching New Zealand, but Amos was a bit of nail biter. It turns out we came back to the southern hemisphere just a wee bit early. We were enticed by the NW winds of a weak low over Fiji to have a downwind run all the way here to Samoa, but then that nice little low which helped us get here turned on us and from Fiji went NE then W then made bee line straight for Samoa all the while intensifying. We were braced for the worst, since all the forecasts for the last two days had it passing just south of here. This meant the north wind and waves would come straight into the harbor, and we were most concerned about storm surge into the marina. Then, at the last minute, it decided to stay north. It passed as close as 20 nmi north of here as a “severe” tropical cyclone, but since all the wind/waves were then from the south, we hardly felt it here in the Apia harbor. We had mostly SE wind all evening, then about midnight we had a brief calm, then the wind came back from the west, which is when I went to sleep. The strongest wind speed we clocked here in the marina was 35 kt. I don’t know how the other side of the island faired or how American Samoa is doing now.
We were lucky.
So, now it’s time to really enjoy Samoa. Apia is a really nice place, probably the nicest “city” we’ve been to in the Pacific. And the Samoans are definitely the friendliest Polynesians we’ve met… I seriously think they rival Fiji in this respect.
Love and miss you all,
-D.

Logbook – April 25, 2016 (Apia)

Daily Notes

  • Clean the dinghy
  • T/Boys to McDs
Finally, some sunshine
A lifesaving clinic in the harbor. So far, Samoa seems to be the most safety conscious place we’ve been to in the Pacific.
This dramatic cathedral overlooks the harbor
Taking advantage of being at the dock to scrub the dinghy bottom.

Logbook – April 26, 2016 (Apia)

Daily Notes

Edit: We went on an all day tour to see some of the sites around the island of Upolu (the island we are on, where Apia is). This was classic tourist stuff, but it was a very fun day. Any of you who tend to vacation in Hawaii, I’d encourage you to check out Samoa as a potential alternative. It has a lot of the same beauty but the added adventure of leaving the states.

These guys look ready for a road trip, right?
Villa Vailima – The Robert Louis Stevenson Museum. With this stop we could count the day as a school outing, since Brenden has been reading RLS poetry and is about to start a non-fiction book about his travels across America on an immigrant train.
This sculpture is a tribute to the legend of the end of cannibalism in Samoa. Here is a link to a blog that tells about it better than I could: http://www.samoadiaries.com/history/cannibalism/
There are two fireplaces in RLS’s house, and these are the only two in all of Samoa. Of course they are, it’s freaking hot here! But it turnes out these are just facades anyway to give them the feel of home. There aren’t even chimneys.
This is Austin’s room, the step-grandson of RLS. He moved here when he was 8 and he was homeschooled and then he returned back to the U.S. when he was 12. So, I suspect he and Brenden would relate about a few things.
A Bahai’i temple, one of only 8 in the world. To me Bahai’i seems to be an interesting alternative to the other monotheistic faiths, but it still has all the trappings of a religious organization.
Checking out Papapapatai (That’s two papa’s) Waterfall
Papapapatai Waterfall in the fog
Coconut Beach Club. This is beautiful resort, if you’re into that sort of thing. We told our tour guide we were more interested in seeing villages than resorts, but he took us to resorts anyway.
OK, is it just me or does this look like a giant Kava bowl.
Togitogiga Waterfall. Brenden was the first in the water.
Double jump from the “high dive.” Tim and Brenden.
Alex finally joins them
And yes, even Deanne splashed down
We had lunch at Saletoga Sands Resort.
No that’s not a drug deal going down. That’s the coffee distributor and Tim’s trying to score some samples of the Samoan grown coffee beans.
Tim and Brenden make their way down into To Sua Ocean Trench. I went down too, but chose to swim around the area you see in this photo while Tim and Brenden went through the underwater tunnel leading out to the ocean. Of course they did.
Brenden had a lot of fun, but more than once he wished out loud that his boat kid friends were with us. “Then it would be really fun!”
Relaxing kitty…
Relaxing boys. Kind of.
A view from the cliff at To Sua
Random bridge that makes Brenden look like a giant

Logbook – April 27, 2016 (Apia)

Daily Notes

  • Rainy day, Alex sick

Logbook – April 28, 2016 (Apia)

Daily Notes

  • D/Boys – Cultural show, library
  • D – evening run, beers on Nefertiti

Edit: I made the boys be tourists with me and we went to a cultural show put on by the Samoa Tourism Office. It turned out to be quite fun and informative even though we had seen/done most of these things many times before. The best part was when the guy was talking about “Samoa Time” and that if you have an appointment with a Samoan they will most likely be late and Brenden pipes up that, “it’s like that in all the islands.” I thought the guy was going to give B a hard time about what makes him such an expert, but he let it slide. Not featured in the photos is that we got to see someone getting a tatoo the old school way (where they tap tap tap the cutting tool) and that we got to eat the food from the umu. For just regular tourists coming here for their one or two week vacation this was a most impressive overview of Samoan culture. But it was good for us too, and we learned a few things.

The boys were so happy to be there! They taught us how to make the plates out of palm fronds, but of course we knew how to do that already. Brenden told me, “Victoria taught me that a long time ago…” Miss that girl!
The men traditionally do the cooking because it is very labor intensive
Arranging the food on the umu
Tapa making… here she is using water and a shell to thin and flatten the bark (of a paper mulberry tree).
Laying it flat with stones to dry. They dry it in the shade so it dries slowly and doesn’t become brittle from the sun
Beka was very patient with all of our tourist photo snapping
Carving some kava bowls
Getting ready to demonstrate the Samoan “Ava ceremony” The purpose of the ritual is similar as to Fiji, to formally welcome visitors, but many of the details are different.
Still so happy to be there (especially Alex)

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