Pago Pago, American Samoa

Pago Pago Harbour

We made two loaves of bread before we left Suwarrow. When we were ready to leave a squall came over with rain and wind on it, so we waited until it had passed. The engine started and Jeremy went forward to start weighing anchor. I thought the gears were stuck in neutral as I could not shift the control handle. Jeremy came back and soon realised we were stuck in forward gear and moving slowly over our anchor. After squirts of WD40 and physical disengaging of gears in the engine compartment, the problem was sorted. Unfortunately, the anchor chain had tangled itself round some bomies (coral heads). It took us a while to free the chain, but we eventually motored out of the pass and into the ocean.

One of the many Religious sites on Tutuili

The wind was light at first from the NE and ENE. Jeremy put two poles out and we sailed with the genoa poled out to starboard and the no.2 jib poled out to port. Squall clouds passed frequently bringing many wind shifts and course changes. The worst squalls seemed to start at midnight at the beginning of my 3 hour watch. Sometimes, we had to motor for a while afterwards if the squall took the wind away completely.

A rather large bruise - Ouch!

It was after one of these squalls that I had my fall. I started the engine and went over the stern roof to shut down our Hydrovane. Without warning, I was flung over the roof, which had our liferaft on it and a solar panel and was deposited on the opposite side deck, still holding on to the mainsheet, which was strapped down with a block and tackle, known as the handy Billy. Jeremy shouted from his bunk below and came out to help. I finished shutting down Heidi and went below to check on the damage: swellings on both shins, one bleeding a little; one grazed knee; one bashed forearm and discomfort from inside one leg. I cleaned myself up, applied an ice pack on the worst of the swellings and thanked my lucky stars (or guardian angel) that nothing was broken and I was still on board and not swimming in the Pacific Ocean. I finished my watch to let Jeremy get some sleep. Then I took two paracetamol tablets and went to bed.

Two days later, on Saturday 15^th June, we anchored in Pago Pago Harbour, Tutuila Island, American Samoa, said to be the best harbour in the South Pacific. It is impressive with high sided mountains rising up on both sides. There was no response from the Harbourmaster on VHF 16, as it was the weekend. We flew our yellow Quarantine flag and had to stay on board until Monday. Jeremy used the time on Sunday to put the original gearbox coupling back on as the replacement, bought in NZ and repaired in Tahiti, had started to vibrate dangerously again. We hope to buy a new one in Australia.

The disintegrating gearbox coupling

Checking in was rather confused. Some locals told us to take the dinghy ashore and visit the various offices. Others said we should take Sal Darago to the wharf. A dinghy came out to us with the instruction from Customs to go ashore at once. The Danish catamaran from Suwarrow, had arrived on the Sunday and they had to go ashore as well. Both boats weighed anchor but ours was stuck fast. Local guys offered to help but we could do nothing until we’d checked in. Jeremy put a buoy on the end of the anchor chain and dropped it overboard. We went to the wharf, tied up and officers from five agencies gave us forms to fill in. The K9 team came aboard and inspected Sal Darago. Nothing was removed. We had to walk to the Harbourmaster’s Office, where Jeremy filled in another form and indicated on it where we were anchored.

SD on anchor from the small boat wharf, Pago Pago

After stopping at the bank and a shop for provisions, we returned to our anchoring spot, retrieved the anchor chain and secured Sal Darago to it. Jeremy dived the anchor and put a trip line on it. The chain was not stuck on anything but the anchor was lodged in a crevice in bommie. Jeremy moved it away from the crevice.

Some of the very many colourful local buses - one $ a ride

We have been here for a week. The people are friendly and helpful. There’s a laundromat and supermarkets about 10 minutes’ walk away from the wharf. The buses are plentiful and each ride costs a US dollar. Big stores like Cost U Less and KS Mart are a bus ride away in Tafuna. Hardware stores and beverage stores like TMO and ACE are also in Tafuna. There are very few tourists. On the opposite side of the harbour there is Aua Gas Origin, where most cooking gas bottles can be filled. Not ours, though, because the man believed the valve on our bottle was beyond its 10 year use by date. It wasn’t if you use British dating i.e. 08/15, but here they use US dating i.e.15/08.

The road to Tafuna

Checking out was straightforward and expensive. The harbour fees were 52USD, Customs cost 100USD and Immigration charged us 20USD each as we had foreign passports. Our US visas were not valid outside the US, we were told. We learnt that we had not been seen by Immigration when we checked in, but the officer was pleasant and stamped our passports for entry.

A church at Leone

We have spent about two days trying to fill in various “required” forms online for our entries into: Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and Australia. The more frustrating aspects are a) going off line because the signal is poor, b) pressing send only to be told that some data is missing when we are unable to fill it in and c) the names of family members who were not visiting Australia with us (Does Nina count?).

Not quite Diamond Rock (Martinique), but impressive

We are hoping to leave here tomorrow, Monday 24^th June, for Samoa, about 85 miles away.