4) Pago Pago, American Samoa Pt 2

July 2008: South Pacific

Pago Pago, American Samoa (S 14.17-W 170.41) 

Part 2

                                                                                          

                While in Rarotonga we decided to depart in time to make the last days of the Pacific Arts Festival in American Samoa.  This event is held every 4 years each time on a different island.  There is minimal publicity which in turn does not cater to the tourism element in that it is really done for them.  There are no words that can best describe this event.  Many and most of the South Pacific countries participate and send delegates, dancers and craftsman.  This is like no other street fair.  The dancers are the real thing; the crafts are the real things.  It seems this event is so far under the radar that the only tourists here were the cruisers and a few others.  Most of the crowd was the locals from Samoa and the other island participants.  It was nice to see a much localized event and we were not the only one’s buying stuff; everybody had their hands full.  The artwork and craftsmanship were outstanding.

 

                This event was scattered on the island but most of it was concentrated in one specific beach area of the newer section of Pago Pago.  By the airport was the outdoor stadium but on the beach were the indoor auditorium, the outdoor beach stage, outdoor pavilion stage, food vendors, live-band venue and craft vendors from the participating countries and authentic tattoo artists.  Not to mention the Pago Pago Yacht Club was in close proximity to all the action.  Breathing all that tropical air and hearing all that music makes one hunger for refreshment.  The other Dave sums it up well, “…the first is for the thirst and the second is for the taste”.  Is the cat out of the bag on why I am on board?  Yes, a discerning beer drinking crew.

The Samoan’s welcomed everyone with warmth but I think the bar kitty was having

trouble with all the new faces.

 

           

                Come all this way and not try the exotic local drink?  I have always thought it was called Kava but here it is called Ava.

            After Bob was sized-up on “the street” we were brought under the tent to the guy sitting with the Ava.  Scoop with the coconut cup, a pre-drink ritual of spilling a little from the cup, a chant to god and earth and bottoms up!  I don’t have any wine comments to make as, uhm, it is not wine.  It is made from a specific root of which I forget which and it tastes like room temperature bamboo tea or root tea or, yes, dirt tea.  But, this dirt tea is magical.  There is no effect like alcohol but my tongue and lips went slightly numb.  Is it any coincidence that this tent was next to the PPYC?

Bob Briggs, Dave Smith, me in the circle of craft vendors.

             The most outstanding elements of this entire festival are the dancers.  These are nothing like anything I have ever seen.  These are highly trained and skilled dancers and musicians representing and perpetuating their own unique cultural aspects with costumes and storytelling accompanied with music and dance.  We have seen them on the grass and beach stage in the daytime, the indoor and outdoor pavilions at night under the lights and every time was thoroughly impressed.  The experience having witnessed all this is priceless and impossible to convey with words.
   

      

      

      

        The next time this event will be held is 2012 in The Solomon Islands.  If the stars align…I hope to be there again.

      

3) Pago Pago, American Samoa Pt 1

July 2008: South Pacific

Pago Pago, American Samoa (S 14.17 W 170.41) 

Part 1

                One and a half hours short of five days at sea on the passage from Rarotonga to American Samoa ended with a sunrise approach.  In the wee hours of the morning, very much after the sun had gone down the previous night, we were able to see the glow of Pago Pago over the horizon off the bow.  It is a strange sight to see the glow of lights on land after being mesmerized for days on end by the Milky Way and the stars.  It is at this time in a passage that I steal more looks at the clock.

                Passages and life in port or on the hook are lived in relative comfort.  Some comforts of home are here and some specific to cruising, too.  Present Moment has a watermaker, propane galley, comfy chairs and salon, stereo, lots of electronic navigation gear, forward and aft heads, rigid ocean kayak, dinghy with outboard engines, fishing gear, etc. 

The other Dave’s forward “levitation chamber that results in age reversal".

Bob’s aft cabin.

 

 

 

My shelf

                   

Upon arrival in a port with an authority there is a fairly standard protocol to follow.  And without going into much detail the rules vary from the smallest of details to degrees of enforcement.  Generally, the yellow quarantine flag goes up, the boat with crew on board remains in a designated area and the captain/skipper takes the paperwork in for clearance.  It is at this time that I become slightly unnerved.  Rule number one of lots of rule number one’s; never part with your passport. 

            

                We should have seen this coming.  We were told to side tie to this blue boat.  Here we are in the tropics hog-tied 3-deep to working fishing vessels in a major fishing/processing port.  That feeling of landing in paradise is slowly slipping away as in this bay are many large and small fishing boats, a power plant and a 24-hour fish processing factory on the shoreline.  All is not lost, though.  

                                                              

2) Rarotonga To Pago Pago

July 2008: South Pacific

Offshore passage from:  Avatiu Harbour, Rarotonga, Cook Islands (S 21.12-W 159.14)

To: Pago Pago, Tutuila, American Samoa (S 14.17-W 170.41)

       

Just to put this in perspective; we willingly put food, water and fuel on board and left this place.

The morning of the departure we figured it couldn’t hurt to get a local coffee and some breakfast food.  Plus, I needed to get in some last minute trinket shopping.  Everything closes at 4 and I seemed to have taken too long drinking my NZ beers yesterday and time got away from me.  Come on, it doesn’t look like much but the Whatever Bar & Grill has a great view!

        

  Life offshore on passages settles down pretty quickly into a routine.  There are only three of us on board and we were only going to have one person on each watch with 5 hours on in the day and 3 hours on at night.  I chose the 3am to 6am slot as I was still on California time and with a 3 hour time difference this 3am was my 6am according to my body clock.  After that watch I would not have to be back on again until 4pm to 9pm.  I was able to see sunsets and stars every day.  The stars offshore are impossible to put in words.  The Milky Way is so well defined that it looks like a thin cloud.  The Southern Cross in the southern hemisphere….  It’s nice to lie down, yes we lie down on the job, and stargaze at night and usually there are several shooting stars to spice it up.  A couple times I saw the moon rise in the sliver below the clouds on the horizon and on first impression it looked like another vessel.  The clue is that it has an orange tint.  And sunsets, since there in no pollution to speak of out here the colors are generally gold and yellow and not much else.  Another spectacular site is the opposite end of the sky with its soft pink and blue during a sunset.

We did not have consistent wind on this passage and ended up motor-sailing quite a bit.  As we got farther north the air and water noticeably warmed up and it was quite nice around the clock.  The other Dave put out a fishing line and trolled for a while and caught a Dorado.  Yes, we had Dorado that night.  And, uhm, the food on board is uhm, it’s a floating restaurant!  Dave is a great cook and the meals are fantastic!

          

A little bit of excitement for the natives.