Pago Pago, American Samoa – Week 2

Beautiful, yet blustery, Pago Pago anchorage

Lovely local girl

Decorating for Labor Day

Two men taking a lunch break wearing traditional lava-lava (or sarongs)

Wet & Windy Weather Week:

It blew like stink for an entire week... 25+ knots... with no reprieve! Rain, rain and more rain. And I know while some of our friends are waiting out serious droughts in other parts of the world... desperate for even a single drop of rain... that I shouldn't be complaining. But wet dinghy rides – getting drenched in sudden cloud bursts – saturated right down to your undies – salty hair plastered quite undignified-like (and only on one side!) after being slapped around by saltwater waves – plastic poncho doing very little to ward off the wet... changing into dry clothes AGAIN... finding yet another place to try and dry out wet clothing... well, after a week it's a little much. Factor in restless sleep as the boat shudders and mutters endlessly throughout the night? That's a recipe for Cranky Crew.

'The Healing Garden'- memorial to those lost in the 2009 tsunami
located in the village of Leone

Nicest surprise:

I just met a cruiser (from Dallas) who is a friend of a non-cruising friend of mine (who also lives in Dallas, but with whom I became dear friends in San Antonio over 20 years ago)... who happens to be crewing on a boat that is anchored in the same anchorage as Hotspur right here in American Samoa! Greg and I finally met after missing each other in Tahiti and then again in Bora Bora. And what a delight he is... we chatted for hours like old friends! (Thank you, Mark, for introducing me to Greg!) I just love small world encounters.

Windblown in Pago Pago with my new friend Greg 

Luckiest in Line:

I was first in line... that's right... #1... to buy Samsung UNLOCKED cell phones for only $15 each! It was a Blue Sky promotion and I arrived well over an hour before time to start the line (and I looked a bit pathetic standing there hungrily all by my lonesome)... but I saved $70 locally (almost $200 had I purchased from Amazon!)!! And I didn't look so pathetic walking away from that mile-long-line that accumulated behind me with my cell phones and free T-shirts (that are way too big for any of us but they were FREE!). Yep... I'm a cheap cruiser. With my cheap cell phones for the family. Uh-huh... uh-huh... uh-huh...

And, after minimal effort, we have Carolyne enrolled in school! She starts 9/2.

One of the numerous fabric stores on the island...
we paid less than $7 for Carolyne's school uniform material!

Wam-V that will be following the Hokule'a and photographing the adventure
(http://www.wam-v.com/wamv.html)

Good Deeds:

Carolyne was out of bed at sunrise for the spay and neuter clinic. She loves to volunteer and did so many times while in Mexico. She jumped at the opportunity in the Village of Leone here on the island. Numerous cats and dogs were brought in for free vaccines, de-worming and prohibitive procreation operations. The state of the pets here on the island is pretty dim. Mange, starvation, ticks and fleas... it's pretty bad. I think maybe worse than in Mexico.

Tanya preparing injections

Steve getting sleepy pup ready for ear tattoo tag number and belly shave

Zeke and Nina came along to help, too

Kitty ready for surgery

This friendly kitty is the stray
McDonald's cat... eaten alive by mange

 (http://followtradewinds.blogspot.com/)The crew on sv Trade Winds rescued him- Carolyne and
 I will check on him next week

Farewell:

It is always the saddest part of cruising – saying “so long” to friends. Sv Mojombo departed on their way to Western Samoa, then to Fiji and finally back home to Tasmania.

Vicki, Nina, Gary and Zeke
(http://svkallisto.blogspot.com/)