Wallis Island

We made it here OK. I guessed wrong about the distance it was 298 miles. It only took 2 days, 9:am to 12:30pm. The channel was running about 4 knots against us, but we motored in anyway.

We are in a new time zone, +12 hours instead of -11. That makes it Sunday morning so we are a day ahead of Seattle and 5 hours behind.

The only other boat here is Vesper III, the single handler French Canadian we met in Pago Pago. We haven't been ashore yet.

Leaving Apia, Western Samoa

Its well passed the 6:00 AM departure that I had dreamed of...The clothes were still out drying as we had a light sprinkle of rain just as we started to get them in last night. This morning just before 6, we had a good shower so we'll wait an hour or so for them to dry.

We are still headed for Wallis/Fortuna Islands, about 400 miles west. It should take about 4 or 5 days depending on the wind. It is supposed to be light, 10-15 on the stern. We haven't sailed straight down wind is a long time....

We didn't get to eat the sea worms, Palolo, as maybe they didn't show up on schedule. The old men predicted 3:00 AM SUnday. They come once a year for about a week. Usually the full moon at night in October. Tapelu didn't get back in time to have us over.

We spent the day yesterday doing final provisioning and checking out. We had a fair sized order from the duthy free store, mostly wine and beer. They deliver it to customs and we pick it up just before we leave.

More Photos

I just got word from Eldon that the pictures are also on my web site at the normal place. That is http://www.tcls.com under "My Cruising Photo Album" and "2008"
or just http://www.tcls.com/~larryl/log_katielee/photos/
I was purdy lazy, so not many of them have captions, but a few do.
Enjoy.

Pictures from 2008 posted

Finally some of our pictures this year are posted. Due to some difficulties Eldon has not posted them on my site yet, but my sister has put them up on her site.

So if you have a desire, see http://www.e-snyder.org/album/ under Larry and Trinda and 2008

We are planning to have dinner Monday with a local family, friends of Robby and Lorraine of Southern Cross. We are really excited. Tapelu went fishing today at the other island Savi'i, to catch a special fish. They only come once a year for about a week. The 'old men' say the will arrive at 3:00AM Sunday. Palolo they call them. I believe they are small, about 2 inches long. I can't wait to see and taste!

We are planning to check out of Samoa Tuesday morning and head for Wallis next. It should be 4 or 5 day passage.

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.

Apia, Samoa

Now in what was Western Samoa, they changed it to just Samoa.
We have to go into the marina, no longer allowed to anchor in the bay. There seems to be no checkin or outr fee but the marina is $52 Tala a day (at 2.64 tala/dollar)

I could not send an update cause I broke the antenna wire for the radio and when we got here I bought 20 hours of internet WiFi to the boat. But, they screwed up the login/password and I can't get it checked till Monday. Today is our 33rd anniversary and our friends from Fanning, Southern Cross, gave us 3 hours of their time so I could send this!

We had Robby and Lorraine over for supper, steak, salad, octopus, eggplant, Pecan pie and lemon pound cake. Of course a little wine. They also brought a champagne looking bottle with a scratched up bottle. When we finally got it open and it didn't fizz out, we noticed that it was "almond grape wine sparkling". I don't know if it was supposed to fizz, but it tasted OK. We drank it!

The trip here went fine, no wind so we motored the first 4 hours then drifted at about 3 miles an hour for 10 hours. Then the wind picked up and we sailed the rest of the way in, 78 miles in a mere 20.5 hours. But we were here by 1:00PM so we got checked in OK.

The colds we picked up in Pago Pago are still with us! Don't ever go to a hospital when you're not sick! You will be! Arg!

We met a boat, Blue Jay, that went to Penrhyn and Manihiki after us and both places asked them about us and sent their regards in case they saw us sometime. We tell the stories from there often. I'll think fondly of those islands a long time I think.

Looks like we'll be here for about a week, maybe.

Good Bye Pago Pago

We are planning to leave this afternoon from Pago Pago for Apia, Western Samoa. It is about 80 miles and a whole different country. No more American dollars and English! We've enjoyed our stay here except for the smell of the fish plant. I may never eat StarKist again!

This may be the end of the internet for a while too. My HAM radio antenna broke so it may be a while before I send more e-mail, unless Apia has WiFi. Since I had the mole cut off my leg, I can't go up the mast to repair the antenna til it gets well. The Doc said a few more days.

I sent CDs of pictures to both Eldon and Sherry. Maybe Sherry will get some of them posted so you can see them until Eldon gets the server back on line properly.