I have found it particularly tough to describe or explain
our 5 weeks in American Samoa. We needed some civilization to get prepared for
the next part of the voyage and this was where we would be saying good bye to
our cruising partners Justin and Anna. We spent 5 weeks running errands and
recovering from
farewell parties. American Samoa has a bad reputation in the cruising community
and I can understand why though we fully enjoyed our stay.
American Samoa, like Puerto Rico and Guam, is a territory of
the United States. There is very little tourism other than yachts and a few
cruise ships. The main industry is the Starkist tuna cannery and the service of
the American tuna purse seiner fleet. It seems that the main export is military
service personnel and sumo wrestlers.
 |
| Dropping Justin's concrete pillar mooring. |
The Samoan people, like island dwellers everywhere are friendly,
welcoming, quick with a joke and slow to take things seriously. They are renowned
for their size and we can attest to this. We made many acquaintances and a few
friends. Twice we were offered rides 25km back to the boat by complete
strangers. We found that many people have spent significant amounts of time
living all over the U.S.
We spent a lot of time with the other cruisers in the harbour making a bunch of new friends. When we arrived there were a gang of young Americans
on different boats. Dane was one who had sailed with his brother from
California and was getting ready to drop a mooring so he could leave his boat
and fly home for a wedding, his own wedding! Awesome, he hadn’t seen his fiancé
in months! Another couple, Ty and Jess were captain and crew of catamaran whose
owner flies to different destinations to meet them. Another boat had two guys
as crew; Florent was one who we had met earlier in the trip, an avid skier and sailor who was always great company. Then there was Eric, a single-hander who is living the life working via the internet and on his third year in the Samoa /Tonga area. With all these cats we had great times: $1 taco nights, boat parties, jam sessions and moonshine tastings (I had nothing to do with that). Anyway, we still have our sight and lots memories of super fun times.
 |
| After the Kava. |
After the cocoshine was gone and most of the crew had moved
on we spent a lot of time with salty old single handers in town. Joe, on
Panacea, is a machinist and logger from northern California. Joe is making a
name for himself just being the greatest old guy you ever met. He spends his
days telling jokes between solving everyone’s problems. Jack on Kulkuri is
another character who we met on Suwarrow. We had left Jack there where he
proceeded to transport the rangers, Harry and Charlie who were marooned, to the
nearest airport and also their home island of Manahiki. Jack was commercial diver
and has been sailing pretty much none stop since the 70’s. Between these guys we
gained tons of knowledge, wisdom and new jokes.
American Samoa was a deviation from our normal routine. In
all the other places we stopped we spent so much time marveling at our
surroundings or planning snorkeling trips. American Samoa was America. We
shopped at the Costco like store, bought beer at the corner store and ate
McDonald’s (though that was primarily because it was the first place we were
able to access the internet – we did cut back considerably after we got
internet on the boat – just to be clear). Honestly, it was the bus system that
was the most defining cultural piece of American Samoa. The buses are privately
owned but licensed by the government. They are all personalized. Painted with
murals or just bright colours and outfitted with thumping sound systems. They
are just a pick-up truck with a wooden bus built at the back. The windows are Plexiglas and slide up or down
on an angle and the driver will take you to the door of your destination if you
just ask. The first time one deviated from its regular
route we were a little
concerned but he was just dropping an old lady off at the hospital up a side
road. While $1.00 for a ride anywhere may seem cheap, it makes for an expensive
trip when you have to stop at 4 or 5 different stores. Regardless we found it a
fun way to travel around the island. 
Cyclone season was about to engulf the south Pacific and even
though we only needed to get a few hundred miles north to safety we left it to
the end. On November 25th after a long good bye to Justin, Anna, Jack and Joe,
we were off.
