AUGUST 2000 Tuesday August 1st, 2000 PAGO PAGO, AMERICAN SOMA Latitude = 14 degrees, 16 minutes 49 seconds South Longitude = 170 degrees, 41 minutes West Well today is the day I have been dreading for quite awhile. For the last few days I’ve felt like a time bomb waiting to go off launching me into middle age. But when I awoke today I didn’t feel any different and I didn’t look and different, so I guess 40 won’t be so bad. Just hard to believe that I’m actually this old. I still think of my parents as 40 and I thought they were old. So, goodbye to the thirty something and hello 40 something! Its hard to mark such a momentous occasion without family and friends around, not even any of our new boat friends are here, but I have David and Dewey and we are all healthy and safe and that’s all a gal needs. Thanks to all my friends who sent me email greetings. That is really appreciated. Well the boat is a wreck from the last two passages and we are even low on provisions. Didn’t even have anything to fix for breakfast today. So we set to work on boat chores. There is tale of a real laundry mat in town so we are gathering up everything for real washing. Our first Laundromat since we left the United States. Who ever thought I would be so excited to do laundry. Around noon we were getting pretty hungry, so thought we would head into town to find a snack and check a few places out and find the post office to pick up our mail. We found a pizza place for lunch, wow what a treat. While we were waiting they even had a New York Mets game on the TV. Our first TV since we left California. It was so funny, we were trying to remember the names of our favorite Mariners while we sat there and it was hard to come up with any names. Guess we’ve been out of it for too long. The mail was a huge package from David’s sister and one from my mom. The box weighed in at 52 pounds. The gal asked if we came by car and of course we didn’t, so they loaned us their hand truck to get it back to the boat. We must have looked funny walking through town pushing that big box around. Both boxes were filled with supplies, parts and wonderful treats from the United States, newspapers, magazines and movies! You would be surprised at the things you miss, and we’ve only been gone 4 months. After sifting though all our presents we dinghied back into town for a birthday dinner celebration. We asked around for a good place and found what is apparently the only good restaurant on the island. Funny that their beautiful view of the harbor looks right out to the giant tuna factories. We were treated like royalty there. When the waiters heard we had traveled there by boat from Seattle their eyes grew as big as silver dollars. They asked us all kinds of questions and were very polite.  Later on they delivered a huge piece of German chocolate cake to me with a birthday candle in it. They sang a delightful version of happy birthday and wished us well. What a pleasant evening we had. Then it was back to the boat to enjoy all the new reading material we received today. Not you’re typical way to spend your 40th birthday, but I had a fun day! Wednesday August 2nd, 2000 PAGO PAGO, AMERICAN SOMA Latitude = 14 degrees, 16 minutes 49 seconds South Longitude = 170 degrees, 41 minutes West Wednesday morning we were up early and into town to try a place called “Don’t Drink the Water” for breakfast. It is also one of the Internet cafes in town. We had a fairly good experience there and then noticed that the national park visitor center was next door, so thought we should check it out. The national park on American Samoa is the newest national park in the United States. It is the only park that contains a rare tropical rainforest and all the species of living things that intales. The park is long ways from the harbor and we would have to rent a car to get there, so not sure if we will make it there or not.  We watched a video about the park and had a nice visit with one of the rangers. When he heard we had traveled there from America by sailboat he said, “oh, you are one of the hero’s of the sea!” A few more blocks down the road we found a fairly good grocery store with things we hadn’t seen for a long time, so we filled up our bags and headed back to the boat.  Next I loaded up a ton of laundry into the dinghy and made my way to the decrepit dinghy dock with all the laundry. I actually had enough laundry for 8 washers full! But I was washing everything I could get my hands on, sheets, clothes, towels, etc., all the things that haven’t had good washing since we left the United States. Who knows when we will see a washing machine again? While I was spending my morning doing laundry, David stayed behind on the boat to install our new autopilot that we had received in the mail yesterday. When I arrived back down at the dock I could not contact him to come get me. Well this was because he was at the phone calling his sister with the bad news that defender, who we ordered the autopilot from, had sent us the wrong parts! Arg! We have waited 2 and half months for this thing to finally arrive and now this. Needless to say David was not happy! What a mess. We are not very happy with defender right now. They totally screwed up our order. The packing list said we had the right parts, but that was not what was inside the box! Wow I hope we don’t have to wait another 2 and half month for the right parts.  Well we spent the rest of the day cleaning the boat like crazy! Taking all the cushions and mattresses out to dry in the sun. What a day we had. Thursday August 3rd, 2000 PAGO PAGO, AMERICAN SOMA Latitude = 14 degrees, 16 minutes 49 seconds South Longitude = 170 degrees, 41 minutes West Today we have decided that we should check out this thing called cost-u-less. It is suppose to be very similar to Costco and is even run out of Bellevue, Washington. The only problem is that it is on the other side of the island, several miles away. We decided that we would try one of these strange looking busses on this island to get there. We took along a sail bag to carry all of purchases. We walked over to what I would guess would be the transit center and found the right bus to the cost-u-less. The busses here are not your typical bus system. I get the feeling that each one is independently owned and decorated! The busses come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colors! Some are painted bright colors with beautiful airbrush designs on the outside and some have colored plastic windows of rose and green. Once we got in, it was like entering the den of sixties hippie van. Some had carpet on the walls, loud music blaring and all kinds of psychedelic trinkets hanging from the ceiling. Some had wooden panels that ran along the top of the window with little cut outs of hearts, stars and moons with colored glass behind them. The seats were about half the size of what we would consider a regular bus seat and since the bus was so crowded David and I had to share one of those. Wow, what a cultural experience that was. After a few stops it became apparent that the way you got this bus to stop was to bang on the ceiling of the bus with your fist. Well we finally made it to the cost-u-less about 45 minutes later. It wasn’t exactly like a Costco but it did have many things we hadn’t seen for awhile and we were very happy to load up on coke, 7-up and Starbucks frappuccinos! It soon became apparent that we were getting way more than we could possibly carry, so David inquired about delivery. For 10 dollars they would deliver us and the stuff back to the dinghy. Wow, what a deal we thought so we pilled the cart high with things that we have missed. We were even able to find Dewey his favorite cat food. This expedition ate up most of the day. So we lay around enjoying our new treats and watching a little TV.  We were actually so starved for American TV that we watched the republican convention. Although I must say it was pretty interesting to see what’s happening in the world of politics. After we tired of that we went to shore for our first real hot pressurized water shower since April 12th, 2000. For one dollar I could stand under hot running water for as long as I wanted! I think it’s the first time I’ve actually got all the shampoo out of my hair. What a luxury! Hard to believe the little things you miss. I guess we will certainly have a new appreciation for things whenever we get back home. While we had the TV on we heard news that the energy crisis seems to be back in swing in the U.S.A., at least in California and Washington. The big talk was how could they possibly build enough power plants to keep up with the demand. We thought, wow, what energy hogs we used to be. Now we have to watch every amp we use, because we always have to generate our own electricity. I thought what if instead of building more power plants that cause more pollution and use more natural resources, why not teach people how to conserve energy! If we can do it anyone can. Just hook up you solar panels and there you go! Friday August 4th, 2000 PAGO PAGO, AMERICAN SOMA Latitude = 14 degrees, 16 minutes 49 seconds South Longitude = 170 degrees, 41 minutes West Well we have decided to take out the autopilot that broke down after only 30 hours and send it back with the wrong one they sent us 2 days ago. While David worked on this, I went into town to get packing material and make copies of receipts etc…. When I got back we boxed everything up and now we had another 50-pound box to carry back to the post office, this time with out the cart. Well, with that big chore over with we can now leave Pago Pago, so we proceeded to the port to get clearance out of the county. There isn’t much American about this place except for the typical American govt. red tape and bureaucracy.  What an ugly day this would be running form office to office, paying a fee here and there and getting this persons signature and this and that. After we were all done there they said we still had to go to immigration, which was several more blocks down the street. When we got there of course they were on break! So we waited until the return. Now it appears, even though we have all our clearance papers and passports stamped, immigration wants us to bring the boat back to the customs dock tomorrow for their inspection, and since it is a Saturday they want to charge us over time for the inspection. Wow and we're American! Maybe that’s why. So we shall see what this is all about. If you don’t hear from us again send Bob Peck to our rescue. Well this has just summed up our total American Soma experience. Of all the places we have been so far, this is by far the worst. I have tried to tone it down up until now, but its time people knew what is going on here. Apparently every year the chiefs on this island go to Washington D.C. in their traditional clothing and receive their big fat check from the American govt., what is this money being used for I wonder. This is by far the most polluted place I’ve ever seen in my life. The Star-Kist tuna factory makes it almost unbearable to breath the air and there is an oily film and slick on the water of the harbor, not to mention all the cans, bottles and garbage floating by in a constant stream. There are signs up all over town stating the fines for polluting and throwing garbage around, yet every sidewalk, ditch and stream is full of boxes, garbage and cans! These people obviously have no pride in their island, and this law obviously is not enforced. Its too bad because many other boats visiting this harbor are form other countries and this is the only impression they will ever have of the United States, and this is not a good one! We met one couple from Germany who has been sailing around the world for 13 years and they even said this is by far the worst place they have ever seen, and they have visited many 3rd world countries. The only place in town that we saw a large crowd gathered was at the food stamp building. There must have been hundreds of people sitting out there and in front of the WIC building. For the most part the people have been rude and unfriendly and would just as soon run you over with their cars as to look at you. They have crosswalks painted on the road, but I have yet to see anyone stop for a pedestrian, not even the police! Wow! We are so ready to leave this place. I’m afraid to lift the anchors tomorrow for fear of what I might catch from this water! Should be interesting. Hopefully if all goes well we will head to Western Samoa tomorrow. It is NOT an American territory and so hopefully will be a nicer place. The Shiriri's are there waiting for us, but tell us we can not check in to the county until Tuesday, Monday is a holiday there. This means that we will have to stay on the boat for two days, but right now that sounds better than staying here!  Saturday August 5th, 2000 PAGO PAGO, AMERICAN SOMA Latitude = 14 degrees, 16 minutes 49 seconds South Longitude = 170 degrees, 41 minutes West This morning we were up early and in town by 7:30 am. We were told that you could use the telephone at the Seafarers building and just pay him when you were done.  We had some important phone calls to make so thought we would take the long hike over there. We made it there by 8:00 am only to discover that they didn’t open until 9:30. The places we wanted to call in the United States would be closed by then, so we went on the search for a pay phone, we wandered down many streets and finally at 9:00 am we were able to find a phone. We have been trying to reach our mail guy, because we were suppose to have our mail forwarded to us here, yet everyday when we go to the post office and ask them to check, they take a quick look around and say nope. Well, we tried all our phone calls and got a hold of no one. So we decided to take one last trip to the post office. This time a new person was at the door and I went inside and grabbed the postal bag that our mail usually comes in.  This time when we asked them to look I showed them the bag and pointed to a pile of them that we had seen every day when we were there. Sure enough the two bags of mail were for us and had been there since the first time we asked. Then they proceeded to ask for I.D. which we thought was funny, since we were in 4 days ago and picked up a box that was insured for $4000.00 and nobody even asked who we were. Yet they wanted I.D. for a package of mail. Go figure, you have no idea how infuriated I was. How I love the post office! But at least we were able to get our mail. We rushed back to the boat to see what we had gotten. We hadn’t received mail for over 2 months. Well there were a lot of things that needed immediate attention so we got our letters ready to go and back to the post office again, this time I hope will be the last time.  We ran into some other cruisers at the post office and went off to have a birthday lunch with one of them. Boy there is a lot Leo’s floating around out here. Then it was back to the boat to get jerry jugs for fuel and off to the fuel dock. The guy wouldn’t come down to the fuel dock so he made David and I carry the jugs across the street to the gas station, which wasn’t too bad on the way there, but sucked on the way back to the dinghy when they were full. Some guy actually hit us up for some kind of pickathone, we asked him what it was for and his reply was to pick up garbage along the streets, we couldn’t believe it, so we gave him a few dollars, only to watch him put in his pocket and head to the nearest restaurant.  Oh-well, I guess it was too good to be true.  We hung around the customs dock to see if the immigration guy was ever going to show, what a surprise, no one ever came by. So it was back to the boat to finish up chores and prepare to leave. Looks like it will be tomorrow afternoon now. Sunday August 6th- Monday August 7th, 2000 PAGO PAGO, AMERICAN SOMA Latitude = 14 degrees, 16 minutes 49 seconds South Longitude = 170 degrees, 41 minutes West Sunday and Monday were spent working on boat projects, preparing to leave Pago Pago. I don’t know if I’ve ever felt so discouraged about the state of the planet as I do sitting here in this harbor. The ironic thing is that while we are here, there happens to be a coral reef task force meeting at the Rain maker Hotel. They were broadcasting it on T.V. so we watched a little bit. It seemed to be the same ol same ol bureaucracy. How could all these people come from all over the world to talk about saving the coral reefs and not be out raged about the pollution that it is going right in front of their faces. If this island is an American territory they certainly don’t have to abide by the same laws as American cities do! The clean air act and the clean water act are totally unknown to these people. The pollution in the streams and the surrounding hillsides is by far the worst I’ve ever seen. Although we have heard from other boaters that the Caribbean and Mexico are bad also, which doesn’t make me feel any better. I can’t imagine what it would take for these people to get mad enough at these tuna factories spewing out all the pollution. I’m sure this why they have chosen American Samoa for their processing as well as the 2 dollar and hour wage they pay the locals for working there. Well enough of that, just thought you all should know what it is really like here and if you ever see your congress man or woman ask them what the hell is going on here! We were planning on leaving on Monday, but the weather has been horrible, so we’ve been sitting inside listening to the rain and watching a little T.V. Hopefully Tuesday we will get out this stinking town. Tuesday August 8th, 2000 APIA, UPOLU ISLAND, WESTERN SOMA Latitude = 13 degrees, 49 minutes 7 seconds South Longitude = 171 degrees, 45 minutes 7 seconds West Miles Traveled ? Up at 4:00 am to prepare the boat for departure. We had the anchor up and were motoring out of the anchorage by 5:00 am. We thought for some reason that it would start to get light by now, but it was so dark when we got close to the harbor entrance that we decided to turn around and motor around the harbor a bit until we could see where we were going. Shortly after we turned around we saw a large tuna boat heading out so we thought we could just follow them out of the harbor. The vessel had many lights on so he was easy to see and follow.  We made our way out of the harbor and out into the ocean. By the time we started around the northwest end of the island the sun was coming up and we could see where we were going. We weren’t quite sure how many miles it was going to be to Western Samoa, but knew it was going to be close to make it there by sun down. We had calculated around 80 miles. One of the first things we noticed was that our speedo wasn’t working, this is the instrument that tells us how fast we are going and how many miles we have traveled. After all the sails were up and we were comfortably moving along, David went below to rescue the speedo. It was so clogged up with gross gunk from that polluted bay that it took an hour of soaking in bleach to clear the matter up. So we cant tell you exactly how many miles we went.  We were sailing along quite nicely at 7-8 knots; David was below resting while I stayed up on watch. I saw a large flock of birds ahead diving in the water and flying around. I told David he better get up here, there were birds fishing and he might be able to catch a fish. Just as he came up the stairs of the companionway I heard his fishing line singe. We caught another fish. He threw on his life jacket, grabbed his tether and ran back to the pole. When he reeled in the line, low and behold another tuna! So he quickly butchered it and got it the fridge. Guess we can have more fresh tuna when we get to Apia. Soon I spotted the island of Upolu, the island of the Western Soma group that we are going to. It was a large island and as soon as we got near the island the wind died! Knowing that we had a limited window of daylight we turned on the engine and motored for the next 3 hours to make it there by sun down. At last we spied the harbor. We called port control and they instructed us to anchor and then come by the dock in the morning for clearance. So we found a nice spot to anchor by Shiriri. I dropped the anchor and David pulled back on it just like we always do, but this time we drifted back and back and back. It was obvious that the anchor didn’t set, so he instructed me to go forward and bring it back in for another attempt. While I was bring in the chain, some how my right hand got tangled in the chain and stuck between the chain and the winless, my little finger leading the way. Once it was in the groove there was no way of pulling it out so my poor little hand had to go all the way through the winless with the chain. I don’t think anything has hurt this much since the cow stepped on my bare toe! David ran forward not knowing I was hurt, and finished pulling up the chain, when he got to the end of the chain, there was no anchor! He looked at me and said, “ maybe this is why we were dragging! Then he noticed that I was hurt. He quickly rigged up the spare anchor to the chain and we still had to anchor. By the time we were settled in my hand and arm were in severe PAIN! We went below, pried off my sailing gloves to survey the damage.  My little finger seems to have taken the brunt of all the damage, all my knuckles were sore, but the little finger had broken skin and was severely swollen.  So we got the ice pack out of the freezer and applied ice and then I took a painkiller.  It doesn’t appear to be broken, and it definitely could have been a lot worse. Shiriri had invited us over for dinner, so we cleaned up a bit and headed over to the boat. We had a fun night of exchanging stories and catching up. It was a long day and we looked forward to hitting the sack! Wednesday August 9th, 2000 APIA, UPOLU ISLAND, WESTERN SOMA Latitude = 13 degrees, 49 minutes 7 seconds South Longitude = 171 degrees, 45 minutes 7 seconds West Wow, we slept so hard that we didn’t hear the port captain calling us this morning to come check in. Ann had to yell over at us to get on the radio and give them a call. They wanted us to immediately bring the boat over to the customs dock and check in. We straightened things up a bit and brought up the anchor again to head over to customs. My hand was still pretty swollen and sore so I let David take care of the anchor this time and I steered. Once over by the customs dock they instructed us to raft up next to the large 75-foot French sailboat that was already there. Once settled in all the officials began the formal check in to the county. First David had to go to port captain and show all our paper work. Then the customs official came down to the boat with some paperwork for us to fill out. This was a young Samoan man of 24 years. He told me he had never been off this island. Hard to imagine. He was so impressed by Dewey; he couldn’t believe how big Dewey was. He said, “thank you for bringing such a cat to my county for me to see. Now I will have something to tell my family about tonight.” We had a nice chat with him and then he left and we had to wait for immigration to arrive. Soon a very large man in the traditional Somoan skirt called the lava lava arrived on our boat with a man in uniform. They both took off their shoes before coming below. They were very polite, gave us more paperwork to fill out and then chatted about the United States. They had both been there before, in Utah, California and Washington. I got out my photo album to show them pictures of the golden gate bridge and the one young man wanted to keep my pictures of the golden gate, so I let him pick out a couple of the good ones. They stamped our passports and wanted us to make a copy of Dewey’s health papers for them.  Next we were told to wait for the health dept to come down, we waited and waited but no one arrived. Finally the port captain told us to take down our quarantine flag and go anchor. We went back out to the same spot and set the anchor again. The rest of the day was spent in town exploring our new surroundings. We couldn’t believe how clean and wonderful this place was. We didn’t see one piece of garbage and the streets were clean with crosswalks that cars stopped for! What a contrast from where we had just been. Hard to believe that these two islands originally had the same people on them at one time.  One is an American territory and Western Somoa being a German territory before they gained their own independence.  The kids here all where uniforms to school. The boys all where the traditional lava lava skirt with matching shirts with school patch on the pocket, the girls all have matching dresses with the patch on the pocket. There were many nice grocery stores and shops and even a Mac Donald’s (the international food). Everyone we met was so friendly and nice. We went to the bank to exchange our money over to tala. We get a three to one exchange rate here so our American dollar goes a long way here.  We bought a few supplies and headed back to the boat to prepare a feast of tuna. We invited the Shiriri boat and the German couple on the Matahari boat. David grilled the large tuna we captured the day before and I made my carrot cake I was saving for my birthday. I’m adapting the Polynesian attitude of Bastille Day for my birthday and creating a month long Hiva festival. So in the spirit of the Hiva festival I had a belated birthday party with my friends around. The German couple we met are so entertaining. They are in their late 50’s and have been sailing for 13 years. We had a nice night of eating, sharing stories and festivities. Thursday August 10th, 2000 APIA, UPOLU ISLAND, WESTERN SOMA Latitude = 13 degrees, 49 minutes 7 seconds South Longitude = 171 degrees, 45 minutes 7 seconds West Today we got up at 7:oo am to head into town early. We picked up Anne along the way. The Western Samoa Police have a marching band, which at 7:50 am EVERY morning march along the main street to the government building playing the national anthem as they go. Once in front of the government building they fall into formation and raise the national flag. Then they proceeded to march back to the police head quarters. We lined ourselves up along the street with a few other tourist to wait for the event, pretty soon we saw the band approaching, the police wear the traditional dark blue lava lava skirt which comes down to their knees (it’s kind of like a wrap around skirt). They also wear very sharply tailored blue short sleeve shirts. A hard white derby hat tops all this off. They looked very dapper and official as they marched down the street. The first part of the marching unit didn’t play any instruments and there were 30 to 40 of these men, then behind them was the band leader all decked out with his white gloves and long white pole used to conduct the marching band. Behind him was a band of 50-60 members, playing everything from tuba to clarinet. We followed them over to the government building and watched the flag raising ceremony. Then they all marched back to where they came from. What a site to see and hear every morning.  David, Anne and I then went to the famous Aggie Grey’s Hotel for breakfast and sat in a beautiful little veranda with wicker chairs and ceiling fans. What a lovely morning we had. Later in the afternoon David and I went back into town to do some more exploring, we found one of the public markets, which sold all sorts of local handy crafts, food, T-shirts and skirts. It’s such a friendly town, all the people are always smiling and saying hi as we pass them by on the street. Most of the Somoan people are dressed in finely tailored clothes; they are of traditional patterned material and always mid café length for the women and just below the knees for the men. They always look very sharp and dapper, and of course the school kids are always running around in their school uniforms. What a beautiful culture this. We had heard about an interesting show that one of the bars along the harbor puts on Thursday night. It is supposed to be some kind of all-male dance show. We weren’t quite sure what we getting into but David, Anne and I decided to see what it was all about. At 8:30 pm we headed over to David’s Italian bar. The cost of admittance into this event was 10 tala, which is about 3 dollars for us. Once inside I wasn’t quite sure what was Italian about this place. There was big stage with plastic chair seating in front; there were also several little grass huts along the side, which offered more intimate seating. We ordered up a few drinks and found our seating amongst the plastic chairs down front. It was very crowed this night for there were 64 Peace Corps workers here saying farewell to some of their fellow workers. Once the show began I wasn’t sure what to think. The show was advertised as the only Polynesian cabaret show preformed entirely by men, yet it appeared that there were women in the dance troop. I was truly confused. Apparently throughout the south pacific families will raise every 5th boy as a girl, which we had seen throughout French Polynesia, but never had seen it carried to quite the extreme as we did here in David’s Italian café. The female/male type dancers would always come out dressed in female outfits and perform everything from traditional Polynesian dancing to parodies of Tina Turner and Whitney Houston. The true male dancers would always perform traditional Polynesian dancing although sometimes it was done to rap music and the macarina! Needless to say it was a very interesting evening. Friday August 11th, 2000 APIA, UPOLU ISLAND, WESTERN SOMA Latitude = 13 degrees, 49 minutes 7 seconds South Longitude = 171 degrees, 45 minutes 7 seconds West Today we met the Shiriri’s at the dinghy dock at 7:30 am to grab a taxi and head to the Robert Louis Stevenson museum. We crammed 5 people in the taxi for the long ride up the mountain. 10 tala was the charge for all this, 2 tala per person, not bad. The museum wasn’t open yet, so we decided to take the botanical hike up to Robert Louis Stevenson grave at the top of Vailima Mountain. It was a beautiful, but very warm hike through a lush tropical forest with several waterfalls along the way. It took about an hour to hike up to the gravesite, which offered us a spectacular view of the harbor below, and the other mountains of the island.  After a little rest and picture taking we hiked back down the mountain to the Villa Vailima.  There was a 15-tala charge for the tour of the estate, so we all paid it and proceeded on the tour.  For those of you who don’t know Robert Louis Stevenson was a very famous author. He wrote books such as Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide. Robert Louis only lived here 4 years before his death at age 44. He had lived with T.B. most of his life and this finally did him in. It was amazing all he accomplished while he was here in those 4 short years, he built this grand villa and wrote several books as well as befriended most of the locals. He also had time to become involved in the local politics of the time. The estate looked like an old plantation form the south, large outdoor porches with vistas of the ocean and harbor below. We toured through the house and were shown his library where he worked and sometimes slept. There was one room, the family room, in which the walls were entirely covered with tapa cloth. How beautiful it was. It was also decorated with all the things that the family had collected on their travels through the south pacific. It was a very interesting room. After the tour we sat on the front porch enjoying the pleasant breeze and the beautiful view while we waited for out taxi to arrive. This time it was only 6 tala to the town below. About 1 tala per person. An even better deal. The afternoon was spent resting, it very warm here, in the 90’s with high humidity, and so not many activities take place in the heat of the afternoon.  We invited the Shiriri's over for popcorn and movie after dinner. We had a nice pleasant evening. Saturday August 12th, 2000 APIA, UPOLU ISLAND, WESTERN SOMA Latitude = 13 degrees, 49 minutes 7 seconds South Longitude = 171 degrees, 45 minutes 7 seconds West This morning David and I walked into town to visit the large public market. Wow, I have never seen anything like this. There was a large covered area that spilled out into the streets of venders selling everything from coconuts, taro, bananas, pineapple, lettuce, eggplant, bokchoy, beans, and papaya. We were so happy to finally find some fresh veggies and fruit. After the grocery portion of our journey was over we explored the other venue offered at the market which was the handy craft section. We wandered in and out of the many booths. I found a nice little purse made form a coconut shell, with inlay turtles and basket weaving around the edges, what a find at 35 tala (12 American). David found a nice carved Somoan war club that he purchased for 70 tala, and we also found a nice piece of tapa cloth with turtle design for 10 tala. We felt pretty good about our purchases and started back towards the boat. We stopped for lunch at a little café and waited for the rain to subside a little bit. It was pouring like crazy and didn’t seem like it would end for a while so we flagged down a taxi for the ride back to the boat.  Later that day the rain subsided so ashore we went again. This time in search of the Outrigger Hotel to sign up for one of their adventure tours on Sunday. We eventually found it and got signed up. We were having a nice a walk until a dog decided to take a nip at the back of my leg! The rest of the night relaxing on the boat. Sunday August 13th, 2000 APIA, UPOLU ISLAND, WESTERN SOMA Latitude = 13 degrees, 49 minutes 7 seconds South Longitude = 171 degrees, 45 minutes 7 seconds West David woke up not feeling well today. We think the mutton stir-fry at lunch yesterday was the culprit. You never know about eating new things in some of these countries. So as a result we were not going to be able to take the trip we planed on today. I went to meet the van and tell them we couldn’t go. It was still a nice day and so Anne, Michael and I went to the only marine preserve on the island. We walked the short distance to the preserve and paid our 2-tala entrance fee and walked through the mini jungle to the beach. The beach consisted of black basalt sand mixed with large pieces of sharp coral. It made it not very comfortable to walk around on. We grabbed our snorkeling gear and started out towards the reef. It was low tide and the water was very shallow, so I had to walk backwards for about 100 yards trying not to step on coral and sea cucumbers. While I was walking out backwards something was biting me on the back of my leg! I screamed and looked to find a little Picasso trigger fish nipping at me. What a surprise. These fish are usually scared to death of human contact and swim away as fast as you see them, but here in Western Samoa for some reason are very territorial and will bite at you if you come into their little realm of existence. Finally I made it to deep water and could swim free of these little ankle biters. There was much beautiful coral and lots of the same fish we had been seeing through out the south pacific, I didn’t see anything new so I was disappointed. We soon began to get cold in the deep water so headed back in to shore, this time I tried to snorkel most of the way in, but it was too shallow and I finally had to walk. This time Anne was bitten by the trigger fish, 3 times and he actually drew blood! Well that’s a first. We lay around in the sun a bit and then headed back to our respective boats. I hung out with David the rest of the day and then we were invited over to the German boat Mata Harri for dinner. Helmet made us pizza Matta Harri style and it was delicious. For dessert he made us bananas flambé, now there’s something to do with all these bananas! After desert Ilka brought up the schnapps and we all had to have a little shot glass full. It was a fun night in our little German neighborhood. Monday August 14th, 2000 APIA, UPOLU ISLAND, WESTERN SOMA Latitude = 13 degrees, 49 minutes 7 seconds South Longitude = 171 degrees, 45 minutes 7 seconds West David and I went into town today and did some more exploring. We wanted to call Carolyn so we went down to the communications building. This building is the only spot in town that one can make a telephone call from. They don’t have telephone booths here. When we arrived in the building we were ushered to a line in front of a big glass window with 3 operators sitting behind. When it finally became our turn we were asked where we wanted to call and for how long. Not knowing how long we were going to talk, David just said 4or 5 minutes. Soon we were to talking to Carolyn in Seattle, when the 5 minutes were up they cut us off and then it was the next persons turn. What a system that is.  Later in the afternoon Michael and Anne came over for some digital camera information along with some computer software demonstrations. Then we were off to Aggie Grey’s for a drink by the pool of this beautiful hotel. Tuesday August 15th, 2000 APIA, UPOLU ISLAND, WESTERN SOMA Latitude = 13 degrees, 49 minutes 7 seconds South Longitude = 171 degrees, 45 minutes 7 seconds West David was up early and into town for a run along the wharf, while I watched the police band from the boat. All of the sudden I heard a big bang, a gun had gone off by the wharf signaling the start of the fishing tournament they are having this week.  When David came back I went to visit the boat “flying cloud” from Australia. Even though they are from Australia the owners and crew are German and Italian. I had a nice visit there for a while and then David and I went into town again to visit the New Zealand consulate and the Australian consulate. We want to start processing our visas for our arrival in a few months. We initially were told we could do this in Suva on the island of Fiji, but that does not appear to be a safe a place to go these days and you never know when they might pull their people out of the country. So thought it best to get the paper work started here. We hope to go to New Zealand, but if the weather looks bad in that direction we will head to Australia instead. So we will need to have visas ready for both countries. There is no fee for Americans going to New Zealand, but Australia wants $38.00 for each and we don’t know about Dewey yet. I’m sure he won’t be cheap. We made a stop at the Samoa traffic police so David could obtain his Samoan driver’s license. It basically consist of showing them your current license and they make you a nice paper one to have while you are here and then charge you 10 tala. We hope to rent a car later in the week and need to have this license before we can rent. With all our chores out of the way today we went back to the boat to relax and watch a movie. Wednesday August 16th, 2000 APIA, UPOLU ISLAND, WESTERN SOMA Latitude = 13 degrees, 49 minutes 7 seconds South Longitude = 171 degrees, 45 minutes 7 seconds West Up early today to head into town and get to the Internet café before it got crowded. We wanted to try to send everyone some digital pictures of the trip, plus see what we could find out about importing Dewey into Australia or New Zealand. The Internet café was full, but we found one computer open, but boy was it SLOW! So the picture thing didn’t happen, maybe from Fiji. We did find lots of information about getting Dewey into either county, looks like the poor guy is going to have to have shots, blood test, a microchip and some quarantine time. These countries have never had rabies and are terrified of getting them, so they have very strict rules for animal importation.  Tonight a bunch of us yachties are meeting at Aggie Grey’s for the traditional Samoan dance and feast. The dance show was first, with all the dancing; singing and drumming put on by the employees of the hotel. The tradition in Samoa has changed from the time of the missionaries for now the women wear long cotton skirts with nicely tailored blouses and the men wear their lava lava skirts. So the dancing wasn’t quit as visual as it was in Bora Bora. After the dancing the men preformed a fire-dancing portion out by the swimming pool that was quite stunning. When they were finished it was time for the feast to begin. Now I was finally able to taste all the things I had been hearing about since our arrival to the south pacific. I first added to my selection some breadfruit and taro root, then came the Poisson crue (raw fish, marinated in coconut milk and lime juice) they also had potato salad and roast turkey which I couldn’t resist. I also had some sweet and sour papaya, some cooked papaya with coconut milk on top (which tasted a bit like roasted acorn squash) also on the menu but not brave enough to try was sea cucumber and sea urchin. There was also a roasted pig, but I couldn’t eat anything that still had its legs, tail and head still attached! That looked pretty interesting. I think I gave most everything a try and found most things swallowable. After the first course they had a desert buffet set up, this had traditional fruits and untraditional vanilla ice cream, which was a real treat. It was a long night of festivities and we were tired when we got back to our little boat. Thursday August 17th, 2000 APIA, UPOLU ISLAND, WESTERN SOMA Latitude = 13 degrees, 49 minutes 7 seconds South Longitude = 171 degrees, 45 minutes 7 seconds West Today we picked up Anne and headed to the car rental place. We reserved a car two days ago for today and were planning a day of fun and adventure. When we arrived at the car rental shop they of course had no cars left and nothing to tell us about our reservation. I felt like I was in an episode of Sinfeld. Finally after many phone calls they said they found a car and to just a have a seat and wait. Well, our day of touring the island was now ticking away. Finally a little Suzuki Samurai pulled up and they began to clean and wash it out. David filled out the paperwork, when the car finally rolled up; I couldn’t believe my eyes. This car had to be at least 15 years old and not well kept. The back tires were bald and the last thing the guy said to us was “if you have a flat, the jack is under the bonnet.” It was obvious that this was someone’s personal vehicle.  The radio had been torn out, there were no seat belts and the dashboard was all rusty. The back seat where Anne sat was broken so she looked like she was reclining all day. Well we didn’t know what to do so we drove away in shock! We went to get gas, because there was barely any in the tank and then proceeded on the tour. We were bound and determined not to let the car dampen out spirit of adventure. We first went to the Bahi temple near the top of the mountain. This was a very modern looking building and seemed out of place on the island, but was a very peaceful and beautifully landscaped place. We visited many sites around the island, mostly observing the villages and the homes where people lived called fales. Most of the homes in the outer villages are fales, while the schools and churches are the only modern looking buildings. The fales consist of a concrete or dirt floor raised up about 1 foot off the ground.  Large poles, probably coconut trees are arranged vertically in an oval shape or rectangular shape. 6 to 8 poles make up one family size fale. There is a thatched roof over these poles. The fales are totally open and you can see clearly how these people live. Some had just a bed in them, others had a bit more, maybe a few chairs and a dresser, and some had nothing but woven mats. Quite the contrast from the modern looking homes around Apia. Very large pigs and dogs roamed freely around the county side and roads. We stopped at several waterfalls. Every piece of land on this island is owned by someone, so if the waterfall, cave, pool etc was on someone’s land they have the right to charge you to see it, and all of them did. The first waterfall was 3 tala each, after we walked to the waterfall and back the women greeted us with coconuts that she just cut open for us to drink, when we were done she said, “ 1 tala each please”. This family lived in a very run down looking home, which I’m sure to them didn’t seem that way at all. I felt very rich as I looked at how this family lived with what we would consider nothing. No TV, indoor plumbing, or furniture. Just mats on the floor. I took a picture of one of the little boys here; he was just wearing a T-shirt, when I went to snap the photo he lifted up his shirt to revile nothing underneath.  His mother rolled and laughed with embarrassment. The second waterfall was 3 tala for the whole carload, the cave pool was 2 tala each. We stopped in one of the villages where small children wanting lollies swarmed us, so we gave them a bag of skittles to share. The day concluded with a stop at the sliding rock water fall, 2 tala each. This was a waterfall that was so smooth with algae and had a gentle enough slope that you could slide down the waterfall into a large pool of water below. David was the only one brave enough to slide around. After his cool off in the fresh water, it was off to the hotel for a nice drink and then return the rental car. When we returned we told them how disappointed we were in the car, especially when we saw the nice new cars that other people were returning. I told them that the car they sent us out in was dangerous and that we shouldn’t have to pay the same price as the people who had nice safe cars. They agreed and gave us half our money back. Although the car was half of the adventure. It was a long day, we stopped nowhere to eat all day and didn’t have any breakfast before we left, so we were tired and hungry. So it was back to the boat for some food and rest. Friday August 18th, 2000 APIA, UPOLU ISLAND, WESTERN SOMA Latitude = 13 degrees, 49 minutes 7 seconds South Longitude = 171 degrees, 45 minutes 7 seconds West We decided to prepare the boat for departure today. We need to get to Fiji by August 25th so we can get checked into the country and then travel to Nadi where the WorldMark resort is at by August 27th.  We think it is about 500 miles to Fiji, which will take us about 4 to 5 days. After listening to the weather report on the radio net it sounded like the weather was not going to corporate with our plans and so we would not be able to leave today, which means we will be stuck here until at least Monday. The officials here will not check you out of the country on the weekend and you have to leave within 24 hours after check out. So we set to work on a few boat projects and then decided that we should go to the Australian embassy to get our visa for Australia. We went to a one-hour photo place to get our pictures taken for the visa application and then took the finished paperwork to the embassy.  She said we could pick the visas up Monday morning. We asked for a multiple entry visa to arrive between October and November.  When we got back to the boat we noticed that Dan and Sandy on Arahina had arrived at the wharf and were waiting to check in. I went to see if they wanted me to exchange some money for them since the banks would be closed by the time they were done checking in. The customs official let Sandy go with me. After we changed money I gave Sandy a quick tour of the city and then we bought a case of coke-a-cola for Dan, who was in severe coke-a-cola with drawl. After all this running around David and I finished off the day with a nice dinner at Aggie Grey’s hotel. Saturday August 19th, 2000 APIA, UPOLU ISLAND, WESTERN SOMA Latitude = 13 degrees, 49 minutes 7 seconds South Longitude = 171 degrees, 45 minutes 7 seconds West I told Sandy that I would take her to the large craft and food market today, so off we went with backpacks and tala. On Saturday’s all the villages come to sell their produce and local arts and crafts. It’s in a huge building, which spills out into the street. We were able to purchase bananas, papaya, pineapple, cabbage and one foot long green beans. We visited just about every craft booth and were full of the sights and smells from the market so we decided to go to Mac Donald’s for lunch.  We finally made our way back to the boat with all our purchases. Later tonight David, Dan, Sandy and I went to a restaurant on the other side of town that came highly recommend by one of the other cruisers.  We arrived only to find out that it was a buffet night and they didn’t start serving for another 40 minutes. We decided to wait it out and have a drink while we were waiting. Once the buffet opened we couldn’t believe our eyes. It was the biggest seafood buffet that I had ever seen. I thought I would try a little bit of everything except for the octopus and sea urchin. They even had lobster on this buffet. I took something I thought I was onion rings but they didn’t taste like onion rings, when I went back to ask what they were I was told it squid! We could believe how wonderful this buffet was, which included cheesecake and chocolate cake for dessert. We were all thinking that this was going to cost us a fortune, but it would be worth it. When we received the bill it 50 tala each, which is about 17 American dollars each. What a great deal this was. Well we were totally satisfied with our great day and finds so it was back to the boat for an early night’s sleep. Sunday August 20th, 2000 APIA, UPOLU ISLAND, WESTERN SOMA Latitude = 13 degrees, 49 minutes 7 seconds South Longitude = 171 degrees, 45 minutes 7 seconds West It was pouring rain when we awoke today so David decided to relax and read, while I worked on a birthday card for Bill on Shiriri.  Around 3:00 in the afternoon Helmet and Ilka had David and I over for afternoon coffee and rolls and showed us pictures from Germany. We had a good time with them and if we leave tomorrow we probably won’t see them again this season for they are heading to Tonga from Samoa.  This evening Dan and Sandy had the Shiriri’s and us over to celebrate Bill’s Birthday with a German chocolate cake. It was a fun night of cake eating and story swapping. Monday August 21st, 2000 APIA, UPOLU ISLAND, WESTERN SOMA Latitude = 13 degrees, 49 minutes 7 seconds South Longitude = 171 degrees, 45 minutes 7 seconds West Well today the weather is looking up so we hope to get checked out and out of here. We had to get to the Australian embassy to pick up visas and get our passports back so we could check out. When we went to pick up the visas they weren’t ready yet so we went to the Internet café and ran a few more errands. We stopped back at the embassy around 11:00 am to get our visas, when she presented them to us I looked at what they said and all the information was wrong. She had us entering Australia by September 15th and it was not a multiply entry. She quickly realized her mistake and said she would take them back and fix them. So we sat down to wait, it was noon by the time she was through working on them and this time she had everything right and our visas are good until 2004! That gives us some time to get there I guess. Well, by now all the officials for checking out were at lunch so David and I had lunch and waited for their offices to reopen. It was looking like we weren’t going to make it out of here today. First we had to go to the port captain and pay our fees for anchoring, then we had to go to health and customs which was back over on the other side of town. When we were finished there we had to go back to immigration which was back on the other side of town. By the time we were done running around and filling out paperwork it was 3:00pm and too late to leave today. So we went to the grocery store to finish up spending the rest of our tala.  Back at the boat again and working on a few chores before we leave. David snorkeled below the boat to change the zincs and scrub off the last of the gunk from American Samoa. He then offered to check the propeller on the Shiriri boat as well.  It was an early night to get a good rest before the long passage ahead of us. Tuesday, August 22nd, 2000 APIA, UPOLU ISLAND, WESTERN SOMA Latitude = 13 degrees, 49 minutes 7 seconds South Longitude = 171 degrees, 45 minutes 7 seconds West Today we left Apia to head towards Fiji. The weather sounded like there was at least a little bit of wind, so we thought even if we have to motor for a few hours to get to the wind that would be ok. We had to get going to make it to Fiji in time to make it to the condo.  We exited the harbor at 10:00 am and rounded the west end of the island to head southwest.  By 4:00 in the afternoon we had passed by the island of Savaii, the other island of Western Samoa.  Now it was the wide-open ocean again until we get to Fiji. By 6:00 pm it was getting dark and we were surrounded by squalls, but at least we had wind and were moving along at a good speed into the night. There are only 4 places to check into Fiji with officials, we are heading to port of Savusavu on Vanua Levu the second biggest island of Fiji.  If things go ok we should arrive there Thursday or Friday, get checked in and then head to Nadi on the island of Viti Levu. Wednesday, August 23rd, 2000 End of Day One at 10:00 am Latitude 14 degrees 33 minutes 2 seconds South Longitude: 173 degrees 59 minutes 4 seconds West Nautical miles traveled - 146 We were having a good night of sailing until around 2:oo am when the wind totally died. So we pulled down the main, rolled in the genoa and started up the motor. We motored through the rest of night and into the day. The motoring was calm of course but it was extremely hot and not a breath of wind to cool us down, so we kept ploughing through the water towards Fiji.  By 3:00 in the afternoon the wind came back with vengeance. We put up all the sails and were quickly sailing along at 7 and half knots. We had steady winds through the night and clear sky except for all the stars. There is no moon yet. It’s close to anew moon so it doesn’t show up until dawn and is just a small sliver.  Thursday, August 24th, 2000 End of Day Two at 10:00 am Latitude 15 degrees 07 minutes South Longitude: 176 degrees 40 minutes West Nautical miles traveled – 164 / 310 total for trip As we sailed through the night the wind became stronger building up to around 25 knots. This also caused the seas to get larger and the ride towards Fiji very lumpy! Its still extremely hot, and we cant have any hatches open because of the huge waves that crash over the boat from time to time. Every once in awhile one will come crashing into the cockpit and get me totally soaked. I noticed that David wrote in the logbook today, “Nail everything down!” That was an understatement. Everything was flying around; it was impossible to cook anything. We have been eating peanut butter sandwiches and string cheese for the last few meals. Dewey has gone into his catatonic state and has wedged himself in for the ride on the top step. Poor little guy, I wonder what he thinks. At least we were traveling towards our destination quickly between 7.5 and 8.2 knots! Friday, August 25th/ Saturday August 26th, 2000 End of Day Three at 10:00 am Latitude 16 degrees 39 minutes South Longitude: 179 degrees 05 minutes West Nautical miles traveled – 178 / 488 total for trip Today is a big day, for it was one year ago today that we left the dock of the Elliot Bay Marina in Seattle, Washington and started on our big adventure.  Since this day we have traveled 7,528.5 nautical miles, traveled through 3 states of the United States, crossed the pacific ocean, crossed the equator, traveled through 5 countries, visited 11 islands and crossed 5 Time Zones! We have been as far north as 48 degrees 24 minutes N and as far south as 17 degrees 34 minutes S. We started at 122 degrees 27 minutes west and today we crossed the next big invisible line of the International Date Line, putting us at 179 degrees 59 minutes EAST!  And with that we loose one day of our lives for while. That’s a total of 65 degrees 58 minutes of latitude and 57 degrees 33 minutes of longitude that we have crossed over! Wow, that’s a lot of ocean we’ve crossed. After reviewing our accomplishment for awhile, we still had to keep going towards Fiji. We are still in big seas and big winds. One wave splashed in and spilled over the companionway getting poor little top step Dewey all wet. He didn’t even bother to move. I think he’s just over it all! At 10:00 am this morning David spotted the first of the Fijian islands that we will pass by. We are passing by what is known as the Northern Lau group of the Fiji islands. Of course we can’t stop until we are checked into the county. If you are caught there with out checking in it can lead to a severe penalty and fine. And with all the other stuff going on in Fiji we are not going to test it. We are now entering what is known as the Nanuka passage between a few islands and then we will be spit out into the Koro Sea. We are hoping that once inside this passage and in the lee of the islands that the wind and the swell will let down a bit and give us some relief from this bumpy ride. It is still very sunny and very hot! This morning on the net I asked if anyone was in Savusavu could tell me about checking in on Saturday. The bad news is that they don’t do any check-ins on the weekend and we would be stuck there until Monday or Tuesday in the check-in process. Then it would still be a one to two day sail to Nadi from there. Well this wouldn’t do. We would totally miss out on staying at the condo. So as a result we decided to be brave and despite all the warning and hysteria of the media, go to Suva on the big island of Viti Levu. This would put us with in 20 hours of Nadi and hopefully a quicker check-in process. So we kept going past Savusavu and by 4:00 in the afternoon it had finally calmed down enough that David thought he could make a pizza, that was a big treat after the last few days. We are now well into the Koro Sea, it is getting cloudy and is much calmer which is just fine by me. At 7:30 pm we were glued to the GPS as we watched the international date line get closer and closer. We watched the GPS like hawks with camera ready to take a picture of it turning to 180.00.00 but it never did, it went straight form 179 degrees 59 minutes 9999 seconds W to 179 degrees 59minutes 99 seconds E, so that was interesting.  In an instant we went from 7:40 pm Friday night August 25th to 7:40 pm Saturday night August 26th. So until we cross back over we will have lost a day in our lives for awhile.  Well it was a big day and we are sailing a lot smoother into the starry night. Sunday, August 27, 2000 Day Four Land fall in Suva Fiji Latitude 18 degrees 07 minutes 04 seconds South Longitude: 178 degrees 25 minutes 3 seconds East Nautical miles traveled – 187 / 675 total for trip Once we crossed the magical 180-degree longitude we started counting down back towards zero in degrees. We also changed time zones again, so the clocks went back another hour. I don’t know if I’ll ever get over all this time changing and lack of sleep!  We arrived in Suva harbor around 3:00 in the afternoon and couldn’t reach port control. One of the other boats in the harbor  (HAPPY NOW) had arrived on Saturday and was waiting clearance as well. They were told to anchor by the big yellow quarantine buoy so we joined them over by the buoy. We are not allowed to get off the boat until we have cleared health, immigration and customs, so we took a sun shower, cleaned up the boat a bit and went to bed early!  Monday, August 28th Suva, Fiji / Viti Levu Island Latitude 18 degrees 07 minutes 04 seconds South Longitude: 178 degrees 25 minutes 3 seconds East Up at 7:00 am to begin the process of clearing in. We called Port Control at 7:00 am to find out the proper procedures and they asked to stand by on channel 16 for instructions. An hour and half later we were called back and told to bring the boat up to the wharf for clearance. It was actually a wharf for big ships and tankers so our sailboat looked dwarfed next to the big wharf. There was no ladder so I had to climb up one of the enormous bumpers on the dock to tie our lines. Another boat called HAPPY NOW also came to the wharf to clear in with us. They are from San Francisco. Immediately the health inspector climbed down to the boat and began our long line of paperwork, once he was finished we could take down our quarantine flag.  Once he was gone, David went to the office of customs to finish the process.  He came back and said that immigration was coming down to the boat. Pretty soon a gal showed up from quarantine with some paper work to fill out for Dewey. She had to have a look at him and then filled out his paperwork and warned us that he was not allowed off the boat. I assured her that he wouldn’t be swimming to shore. Finally immigration showed up with more paper work and the final stamp in the passport. By the time this guy was through we noticed that our dock lines that were tied to the wharf were really tight. The tide had gone down while we were here, pulling our lines taught and our rail was now under the bumpers and the bumpers were rubbing on our lifelines. Not a good situation to be in, so we quickly untied and headed back out to anchor. We went to the Royal Suva Yacht Club with the folks from Happy Now to share a taxi into town for the last of the checking in procedures. The paying of money and at a building called LIC on Butt Street. Only us Americans saw the humor in that address. After this was all taken care of we asked where a good restaurant to have a curry lunch would be. We were directed to the Hare Krishna vegetarian restaurant. What a delight this was. Being that half of Fiji is East Indian, there is some wonderful variety Indian curry to be had. The smells from the various restaurants spilled out into the streets for a delightful smell that made me very hungry. We had a great lunch with a variety of different things that I had never seen or tried before. So I tried a bit if everything except for something called a lemon pickle, it looked a little too strange. Then it was back to the yacht club to call the condo and the marina and let them know what was going on and see if we could push the dates back a bit. We also needed to find a marine store to find a chart for the area of the island that the condo is at. The chart we had was too general.  We called the condo and they sounded like they would be able to change the date for us. What a big relief! Then I called the marina and he actually said he was worried about us because we did not arrive yesterday and had called Savu Savu to see if we had checked in yet. What a nice guy. So with this worry out of the way we headed off to the marine store for our chart.  A local passing by saw us waiting for a taxi and offered to give us a ride to the front door of the marine store. We walked into the marine store only to be greeted by our friend John from the boat TAU, whom we had met in Suwarrow. What a surprise. They had just arrived back in Fiji on Friday and were so happy to be home. John actually owns this marine store, so he was in checking everything out. He also owns a coffeehouse in town so we may check that out tomorrow for breakfast. This guy and his brothers are the Bill Gates of Fiji. They are like national heroes here, for they are the first Fijian boat to ever complete a circumnavigation. They wrote a diary of the their travels that was published weekly in the Fiji Times. So everyone knows who they are. We feel very fortunate to have shared that wonderful time with them in Suwarrow.  With chart in hand we headed back to the yacht club. The folks from Happy Now had just arrived as well so we decided to have Fiji Bitter Beer with them at the bar before returning to the boat. It was a long and tiring day, I’m so glad we didn’t have to leave for Nadi today.  I will sleep well tonight.  Tuesday, August 29th, 2000 Suva, Fiji / Viti Levu Island Latitude 18 degrees 07 minutes 04 seconds South Longitude: 178 degrees 25 minutes 3 seconds East Today we are going to leave for western side of the island to the Nadi area and more specifically to a place called Denarau Island. There is a marina there where we can tie up the boat for a week while we go enjoy the Worldmark resort for a week of relaxing in a bed that doesn’t move and nice a hot bath. I’ve been dreaming of this for a few months now.  Well even though we just checked in yesterday we have to go clear out with customs to move to the other side of the island. Back into town for a few errands. We had breakfast at John’s coffee shop. It was really nice, very similar to a Starbucks. He did say he had gone to Seattle to study the coffee scene. Well it looks like he learned a lot. I wonder how such a place does in a tropical location. As we walked around town it was very apparent that there had been problems here. There is a very strong military presence. The military has checkpoints set up around the city of Suva where they have uniformed guards standing around in sandbag bunkers holding riffles and machine guns. You certainly don’t want to make these guys mad. Also walking around town you can certainly understand why they are having problems here, there are two very distinct and different cultures existing here, the East Indians and the indigenous Fijians. As you walk the streets you can see the East Indian women walking around in the traditional dress form Indian with a red dot painted on their forehead, the men wear pants, shirts and ties, while some of the men wear what would be considered traditional clothing from Indian of white loose shirt, white loose pants and white cloth hat. The Fijian men on the other hand wear the traditional sula (a knee length skirt, in dark blue or gray) and a nice shirt. The women wear long skirts and nicely tailored blouses made from traditional Polynesian prints. You can walk through some parts of town where you feel like you may be walking through Bombay, while other areas feel more like the Polynesia that we have been experiencing.  As you walk around taking in the different sites, sounds and smells you can certainly understand that it may be a long time before there is any compromise that will satisfy both cultures. Well it was off to customs for the final clearance. Now this guy is telling us we have to get a cruising permit from Fijian affairs before we can leave, even though the gal there yesterday told us we didn’t have to have one. So he sent us off on a wild goose chase to find Fijian affairs. Finally after a good hour of entering wrong buildings we finally found the place. We requested the cruising permit to go to Nadi and this guy tells us we don’t need one. I asked him if he could make us one anyway because the port control was not going to let us leave with out it. Talk about red tape. The letter is totally written in Fijian. So with letter in hand we head back to customs and port control. Now there is even more paper work to fill out. By the time we are done running around it was 1:00 pm and we still had to get a few gallons of diesel. Finally at 2:00pm we were lifting anchor and heading out to sea again. This would be about a 20-hour sail to Port Denarau.  It started out to be a nice sail around Mbengga Reef towards Kandavu Passage.  Around 7:00 PM the winds had picked up to about 25 knots and we were cruising along at 8 – 9 knots with just the main sail. The seas we getting high and we were in for quit a bumpy ride for the next few hours. David told me to go below and try to get some rest, but it was nearly impossible because we were getting tossed around so much. Finally I fell asleep and drifted off into the night. Wednesday, August 30th, 2000 Denarau Island, Fiji / Viti Levu Island Latitude 18 degrees 07 minutes 04 seconds South Longitude: 178 degrees 25 minutes 3 seconds East 112 Nautical Miles Traveled The rest of the nights sailing went a little calmer. When I came on watch at midnight the winds had died down and we only going about 3 knots, which was fine, we didn’t want to get to the reef entrance before daylight.  I stayed on watch until 3:00 am when David came up and took over. Around 5:00 am he came down and got me and said he was going to take down the mainsail. So I went up to help him get it down and then went back to sleep. Around 7:00 am I awoke only to discover that we very near the entrance to the reef so I manned the navigation table while David steered. Once safely inside the reef we still had a good 3-4 hours of motoring to get to the marina. So David went to sleep while I got us to the marina. The marina is up a river channel, which is the fist time we have ever taken Francis up a river. Once inside the harbor the wind had picked up considerable making it very hard to get into the slip they had saved for us.  They wanted us to come into the berth stern first so we had to try to back in with two huge cruise ships on either side in a strong wind. Finally they sent out a few dinghies to take our lines and pull us in and tie our lines. It was quite the circus but we finally landed safe and sound at 11:56 am. Whew! Surprise our friend Ed from California was here waiting for us. He knew we had a condo with a swimming pool arranged for this time and came by to help us enjoy it. Its truly amazing the simple little things you miss when you’ve been living on a sailboat! This is the fist time we have been tied up since we left California. We immediately connected the water and began washing all the salt water off of the boat and everything else. Then we had some nice showers and found the laundry. Everything we have is salt incrusted from the last two weeks of sailing. Feels good to put on a pair of shorts that aren’t stiff from saltwater. After a few chores we met our friend Ed at the bar for few beers. We decided to go into town tonight to see the movie perfect storm.  Ed had arranged for us to have a taxi driver take us and bring us back from the movies. Being that the economy in Fiji has been crushed by the coup it seems like the locals are willing to do anything to help you out for a small fee. It also seems like anyone with a car is now a taxi driver. Our new taxi driver is Save and he lives in Nadi and is an official taxi driver for the Sheraton hotel. He has turned out to be a very interesting character. He took us to the theater and was there to pick us up when it was over. Well, that wasn’t a good movie to see when you are sailing across the ocean. It sure made our little storms seem small. Then it was back to the boat for some R&R. Thursday, August 31st, 2000 Denarau Island, Fiji / Viti Levu Island Latitude 18 degrees 07 minutes 04 seconds South Longitude: 178 degrees 25 minutes 3 seconds East Today is the day I have been looking forward to now for several months. It is the day we get to check into the condo at the WorldMark Resort on Denarau Island, you have no idea how much I’m looking forward to a HOT shower, a bed that doesn’t move or is wet, and a washer and dryer that will actually have hot water! But we can’t check in until 4:00 this afternoon so we set to work on boat chores, we took out the bedroom carpet put it on dock and washed is down with some soap. We also laid out the storm stays’l and gave it good washing. Seems like everything on the boat is salt encrusted and it will be so nice to have the major salt crystals gone. I loaded up some clothes to take to the condo for a good wash and dry. Ed had arranged for Save to drive us around today and take us to the city of Lautoka, where we will have to visit customs to check in to this side of the island.  Off the 3 of us went with our taxi driver Save. He is a very entertaining fellow and gave us the thrill ride of our lives to Lautoka. First we visited the customs and got all our paper work taken care of, then we made several stops for Ed and finally it was the cost-u-less in Nadi. Ed went crazy in there, he couldn’t believe his eyes, he quickly filled up his cart, being that we had just been to one in American Samoa we just picked up a few things that we needed. We made several more stops along the way and then Save delivered all our purchases and us back to the marina. All this for 10 dollars a person. Try to get a taxi in Seattle to do that! It was very fun to tour the countryside with Save and learn about the different things going on. Poor Fiji, what George Spieght and his supporters have done to this beautiful country is criminal. The Fijian People are so nice and friendly and their livelihoods have been destroyed since the May 19th coup. One of the Sheraton hotels closed and all the employees had to go work at the other Sheraton for half of the week, cutting their pay in half. The marina where we have the boat docked has many cruise boats that take tourist to the outer islands. The captain running the marina told us before the coup they were running 17,000 people through the tours a month, now they are down to 5000! These poor people only get paid when they work and they have had their salaries cut in half! Its amazing they are surviving, but some how they are and are very hopeful that people will return to Fiji. I hope so because these are some of the friendliest people we have ever met. The traditional greeting in Fiji is B ULA! This is how they say hello or hi; everywhere we go we hear BULA BULA BULA with a big Fijian smile to follow. David and I set to work getting things ready to take to condo and then had Save take us to the resort. It’s a beautiful resort and several men wearing the traditional Fijian clothing greeted us. They helped us load up our gear and get settled in our room. It was so nice, a real kitchen, couch, table and chairs all with a TV with remote control! (That made David happy) we quickly got settled in and waited for our friend Ed to join us.  Ed soon showed up and we headed straight out to the pool and hot tub. What a beautiful site. The resort is right on the ocean and the hot tub and pool look straight out to the ocean. The resort has traditional Fijian singers that come out and sing Fijian songs by the pool every night at sunset. The pool is spectacular! It is actually 3 swimming pools, one large one in the center, with 2 smaller ones on either side; the 3 pools are joined together by 4-foot wide lanes with bridges over them. If you swim from one end to the other it is 123 meters! This is definitely my dream pool. And to make matters even better there is a swim up bar, so when you want to take a break from swimming you just perch yourself on a stool in the water and order up your pleasure.  David, Ed and I splashed into the larger pool right in front of the singers, by now the sun has set, the stars and moon are out and we are having a great time. Ed looked over at David and I said, “I’m telling you guys, I’ve been sailing around the world for 13 years and it never gets any better than this!” I’m so glad we all got this little break from our boats, it really made us appreciate this place all the more. We soon swam over to the swim up bar and toasted our good fortune with a tropical drink with beautiful Fijian melodies still playing in the background. After we had a good hot soak in the hot tub it was time to grill our dinner on the BBQ provided by the resort. What a great day we had today.