The Robert Louis Stevenson's old house, now a museum

Oh the shame, the humiliation. We have to confess to having spent nine nights in a marina this month . Having spent three weeks at anchor in American Samoa last month enjoying the Pacific Arts Festival and the fantastic laundry facilities, it was time to move on to its neighbour Samoa (formerly Western Samoa) 60 miles to the west. This is a two island group, Upolu and Savi'i, each approximately 30 miles long. Upolu, the slightly smaller of the two is the main island and the final resting place for Robert Louis Stevenson who is still highly regarded locally for his liberal views in support of the islanders in colonial times. He is known locally as 'Tusitala' which translates as 'Teller of Tales'.

Last year, the government of Samoa had a shiny new marina built (see the picture on the front page), complete with a noticeboard of 50 regulations to welcome arrivals, in Apia, the capital.

Samoan Waterfalls

To help pay for it, they made a new rule, visiting yachts are no longer allowed to anchor in the harbour as they were previously and have to go into the new marina. Unfortunately for some yachts, the marina had not been dredged deep enough and they could not get in. No problem, the marina fees had to be paid even if anchored out. Having said that, the marina is very shiny and new and the prices weren't too high, so it was quite nice to be moored up with limitless water and not have the anchor drag alarm on at night and worry during squalls. Particularly nice was the serenading early every morning by the local Bulbuls (red bottomed sparrows) when they visited to help eat our bananas and papayas which hung in a net on the aft deck.

American Samoa was excellent for buying some of those first world essentials such as 'Head & Shoulders' shampoo and a new external hard disc for the laptop to store all of the photos we are accumulating. However, as most of the not so fresh vegetables were shipped in from the US of A (and would start to rot within hours of being removed from the chiller cabinet), the local produce market was very limited. No such problem in Samoa, Ruth was in Heaven and we are now regaining our health.

The magnificent Birthdays cakes

It was also my birthday month (again) and Ruth excelled herself by producing not one but three huge, juicy, fruity cakes. The reason given was those were the quantities given in the recipe, so that was what she made. A big plus was that I did not have to be so miserly with the cake and I could liberally hand out slices to our friends in the marina.

My new Birthday Suit

Dinner that evening was at the Yacht Club adorned in my new birthday suit, a hand made tunic and lavalava (Polynesian kilt) purchased from the Fijian stand at the Pacific Arts Festival last month after the spectacularly good fashion shows. The garland of shells was hand made by Michaela of 'La Gitana'. The overall effect is not at all 'girly' as most of the local men are similarly attired and the staff at the Yacht Club were most complimentary

We had a very pleasant time catching up with our friends Volker and Michaela of the German boat 'La Gitana' who have spent several months in the isolated atoll of Kanton in the Kiribati group living with the islanders. They enjoyed the experience so much, they plan to return with some hard to get goodies for the islanders. The tales they tell and the descriptions of the islands up there are giving us some interesting ideas for next year.

Samoa was big enough to justify hiring a car for the day to do some tourist stuff so with a deep intake of breath by Ruth who had not driven for a while, particularly in a right hand drive vehicle, we set off. The highlights of the island were:

• Visiting Tusitala's Tomb with friends Hans and Dory from the Dutch yacht 'Happy Monster'

  A visit to the home of Robert Louis Stevenson, Vailima (a name now adopted by the local beer brewery), which was demolished by a hurricane in the 90s but rebuilt with donations. It is the perfect house for living in the tropics. Wide, shady verandas around the entire house, huge opening windows so the wind blows through the building, and a view over the extensive botanic gardens. Part of the visit had to be a walk up a nearby hot, steep, muddy hill to his tomb but the views made it worthwhile. The epitaph was written by himself.
  

  Robert Louis Stevenson's Epitaph Under the wide and starry sky, Dig the grave and let me die. Glad did I live and gladly die, And I laid me down with a will. This be the verse you grave for me: Here he lies where he longed to be; Home is the sailor, home is the sea, And the hunter home from the hill.

  
  

• A garage soap factory selling its products internationally which were made from coconut oil and caustic soda.
• An attractive garden showing many varieties of locally cultivated plants. The visit included a demonstration of how to make coconut cream for ones piña colada (there will be a small video when I can find an internet link sufficiently manly to upload the 20 Mb file).
• There were many waterfalls to be visited but as it is currently the dry season, they were struggling a little.
• Good views of the traditional Fale (pronounced fah-lay) open houses still in use. These light, elegant structures give good ventilation in the tropical heat and encourages the noble community spirit endemic in Polynesia. Although there are national governments, the area chiefs still have much say in how the villages are run.

• The Samoan Baha'i Temple

  A visit to a Baha'i temple, an interesting worldwide religion which attempts to take the best from all major religions (love thy neighbour, etc) and drop the contentious bits (eye for an eye, etc). The basic beliefs are as follows (paraphrased):
  • Most major religions are saying the same thing so stop arguing about the trivia.
  • We are all stuck on this small world together so let us all grow up and work together.
  • Universal peace
  • Universal education
  • A universal language
  • An international Tribunal
  • Religion must be in accord with reason and science
  • Equality between men and women
  • Abolition of all prejudices

    An interesting approach with much to commend it.

Samoan Fale

Another nice touch was the morning police parade complete with full marching band (picture below but a video will be posted soon) to salute the raising of the national flag. Smartly turned out, they parade every weekday marching about a mile from the station past all the stopped traffic to the carry out the ceremony outside the Government building before returning to the station to await some crimes to solve.

Having completed our tour, we left Apia Marina to stop for a few days in a small bay in Savi'i to catch up on some boat maintenance and much missed snorkelling. As I write this, we are having a very pleasant sail to the small reef enclosed French atoll of Wallis were I hope to post this update. Time to start practising my French and look forward to proper baguettes for breakfast again.

Next Month

Next month, we will be sailing south to the extensive island group of Fiji, the ' Cannibal Islands' of old.

Videos

For those of you with Broadband internet, this month's videos are here:

• Morning Parade
• How to make coconut cream

Samoan Police Morning Parade