US Samoa - Pago Pago

                    

25/10/2013

Trusty Honda Generator, Rod's night watch crew approaching Pago Pago


Pago Pago, the capital of US Samoa, is pronounced “Paango Paango”, with a soft “G”. After our experiences there, we felt “Pongo Pongo, 3 times a day!” would have been a more appropriate name!

      

The anchorage with the tuna factory on the left

As mentioned previously, adverse weather combined with electrical problems forced us into an unscheduled stop over there. The unsavoury smells emanating from the huge tuna processing plant, the filthy brown water in the anchorage, combined with the notoriously bad holding, did little to make one warm to the place as a cruising destination.

Pretty island with lush vegetation.......pity about the chocolate brown water!

However, other positive aspects combined, to turn things around for us, and when we left US Samoa, after nearly 2 weeks, it was with relief on the one hand, and quite some regret on the other! All the officials and people of US Samoa have got to be amongst the nicest and friendliest we have encountered anywhere.  The island itself is quite pretty, and we really got to enjoy the colourful local buses, the market, and cultures we found there.

Wonderful buses.....converted trucks with wooden passenger coachwork

Intricately carved treetrunk in front of the museum

The helpfulness and camaraderie shown by the few cruisers to one another, during all the drama of the SPCZ (South Pacific Convergence Zone) rain squalls, the 30-35knot winds and the 10 or so boats which dragged during one horrid night, was absolutely heartwarming.

In front of Sheer Tenacity is Michael's Cherokee Rose

Behind us is Inspiration at Sea with an enormous bowsprit that was too close for comfort after our 85m drag!

Nobody did more to turn our own problems around, than Michael Moyer, from “Cherokee Rose”. He was a mine of useful information, an engineering guru, and a really nice guy to boot!! He and his lovely partner, Anita, had been anchored in Pago Pago for 3-4 weeks, and had the whole place sewn up! As is sadly so often the case in this cruising life, one no sooner meets some really great people, and starts to form great friendships, than it’s time to say goodbye!

Whilst US Samoa is not blessed with an infrastructure of chandleries, repair facilities etc, it does enjoy one very definite advantage…… it is part of the USA, and as such, US Postal deliveries to Pago Pago are cheap,  duty free ,and quick!

With Michael’s help, we fitted my no.3 spare alternator, and decided to order a new replacement Balmar alternator, and  60A Xantrex battery charger, from the USA, using  the US Postal priority services. Despite a bank holiday and a weekend in between, I received my order within a week.  I collected the goods on Saturday morning, and gave the alternator to Michael, who was able to machine the body, in the same way as the engineering guys in Trinidad had to do, in order to get the original Balmar to fit the Perkins. 

I had spent the week wiring the boat for the new Battery charger, and to take the Balmar’s Smart regulator.  Shortly after lunch on that Saturday, Sheer Tenacity was back in the power business, with both bits of new kit fitted and working!

We were able to check out on the Monday, with a weather forecast of rough seas, fresh winds, squalls and rain…..not great, but do –able, to reach Tonga before the next wave of the SPCZ was due to hit Tonga. We were not looking forward to hauling anchors in this rubbish strewn anchorage. In our case, it was compounded by the fact that I had removed the anchoring ball from my trip line, and dropped the line, after seeing a catamaran homing in on my anchoring ball, thinking it was a mooring buoy! In Scott Free’s case, there was no certainty that the anchor was still not wrapped up in some of the spinnaker , which had caused all their drama earlier.

Once again, it was Michael who was there to help! As we were raising the anchor, the first thing that emerged from the brown water, looked like a bloated  white/pink carcass of a pig, as, belly up it emerged tangled up in a bit of fishing net, wrapped around our chain! It was with huge relief that I saw a muddy peddle sticking out of the side of the “corpse”, and I realized that it was a child’s rockinghorse!  Michael, in his dinghy, cut this free, and was on hand to retrieve the trip line, while we drifted in neutral, before it could foul my prop.

He plonked it on my deck, and was off to help Scott Free, whose anchor had indeed hung on to a few metres of spinnaker cloth! He cut that away too, and we sadly waved good bye to “Good New Friends”   as we headed out of the anchorage.

En route to Tonga....if you look really closely you can just see the island

Thankfully, the weather for our 340 mile leg to Tonga was nothing like predicted! A bit rough on day one, we still managed 150 miles, and another 160miles on day 2 in more manageable seas. We knocked off the last 30 miles in good time, and were able to anchor in Port Maurelle by about 15.30h, after a dry, fast, and good sail. As a bonus, I boated a nice Wahoo on the run in to Tonga.

Rod in his PJ's with Mr Wahoo!