Apia

We have mostly been working on the boat here too! Since we are in a marina and don't need the dinghy every day, I decided to try to re-glue the pads on the top that the safety ropes are tied to. I set the dinghy off on the dock and spread it out then went looking for my contact cement. Not found! I had 3 tubes of the good stuff, but it no longer seems to be on board. I don't know where it went. Oh well, off to the store to find more. Oh, but this is Samoa. The only contact cement they have is for
building houses. OK I'll try it. I get back to the marina and discover that in the warm sunshine the glue has let loose around most of the transom! Arg. Instead of the simple job of gluing on some pads, I spend the day trying to glue the transom back on. You know, the board in back that the outboard motor clamps onto. I had moderate luck I think and now have glued the pads back too. I haven't inflated it yet, so I don't know how well it is going to hold.

I went in to send an email and discovered that in the process of lifting the dinghy off the boat, I accidentally slammed the hatch closed on my external antenna for the WiFi for the laptop!. No, they don't sell them here either. I'll just have to sit up in the cockpit to access the internet for a while, or take the laptop to town. I don't seem to have good luck with the antennas, as this is the third one to quit.

I finally got the right sized CF card to install the updates into the radar so I can use the new navigation charts on the radar display. I tried to update it, but it seems that it was not necessarily the CF card, but the radar display itself that doesn't work. Looks like we are not going to be able to use the fancy charts until I can get the radar repaired. It seems to still function well as a radar, so we won't spend the time here to get it fixed but wait until the Marshals. I still have the charts
in the computer and some paper charts too. Gee! it is only money, anyway.

I did get the HAM radio antenna fixed again. The same guy, Pierre from Vesper III that helped me install the first time in Pago Pago helped me. I still cannot go up the mast because my stitches are not completely healed from having the mole removed from my thigh.

We went to see the Robert Lewis Stevenson Museum here. He moved here to Samoa 5 years before he died and made such an impression on the Samoans that they have several monuments to him. It was very nice.

We met with Robby and Lorraine of Southern Cross. They were to have supper with a Samoan family they met here. It was to be a good bye dinner and invited us along. The night before, 16 of their relatives arrived unannounced to stay a couple of days while waiting for their flights back to New Zealand. So they brought a portion of the food to us at the marina and visited a while. We had Robby and Lorraine over and ate it on our boat. It was delicious, octopus in coconut cream sause, baked coconut cream
in taro leaves, taro root mussels and fresh bananas.