exploring tutuila

since we arrived in samoa we explored the west of the island where the main stores are. we later went to the eastern and northern parts with the more isolated villages. there is hardly any commerce in these areas, only beautiful sights.

mount alava

on a sunday morning during our stay in american samoa we climbed mount alava with jade and eduard, our sailor friends from korea.



this was a 5 hour hike through a trail on the ridge of the mountain. from the top we could see both sides of the island, when fog permitted of course. the way down was a challenging path of steps with a rope to be used to hold on because of how steep some of the steps were. when we reached the bottom of the mountain we were in a different village from the one we started. lucky for us a local pick up truck gave us a ride and we did not have to walk back 12 miles to the boat.

american samoa

american samoa is known for its tuna processing activities by the samoa packing company. Pago pago, the capital, produces the tuna in the cans of “chicken of the sea” and “starkist”. no wonder why this is the biggest US commercial fishing port in the world. as such, the reputation amongst sailors is not the best. The bay is known to be noisy, filthy and smelly from the tuna processing plants.
when we arrived we did see a lot of big fishing boats with huge nets and even helicopters on top. we also saw big freighters and tug boats and the chimneys of the processing plant. we did not see many cruisers, only a handful of them. surprisingly though, the smell was not so terrible and the noise is not bad either.



The bay is dirty but only at the end closer to shore. The water outside the bay is quite pristine and beautiful. the city in general is picturesque and the people are the nicest and friendliest we have met so far.



being a US territory, the prices are very reasonable and there is everything one could possibly imagine.



there is even a costco supermarket in the island!!!! we already took advantage of this and the good prices and have restocked our refrigerator!


the island also has very funny looking buses that take us everywhere for just one dollar or a dollar and a half. so far we have walked to town; explored the western most part of the island; enjoyed the mcdonalds across from the wharf and its excellent internet; have machine washed all our clothes and even dried them for only one dollar per load and; became members of the video club and watched a different and good movie almost every night! we still have a waterfall which we will go to and several hikes and the entire eastern part of the island to discover. We are very happy in this wonderful place which is not at all as described in the sailing guides or books. it is a lot better.



one very bizarre tradition we have seen is the graves in the backyards of the houses. they bury their family members in their own back yard and decorate the crypts with flowers and some even have roofs with roman type looking columns.


less than a year ago this island suffered a terrible disaster. a magnitude 8.3 earthquake struck the pacific near american samoa, triggering a tsunami with 20 feet tall waves that reached the shores of pago pago and destroyed everything on its path. even today we can see some of the damage and still closed down businesses and even boats on shore that were carried there by the big waves.

crossing to samoa

on june 24 we had our last french baguette of our last breakfast in french polynesia and left in the morning towards american samoa. the route was due west over 1200 nautical miles. this passage turned out to be one of the toughest. we had very rough weather, constant rain and sudden changes of wind speed and direction, not to mention the high seas which made the boat roll a lot.



cooking and cleaning for the 10days that this crossing lasted, were kept to the minimum not to get seasick inside the salon. even watching movies, which is something we do a lot during crossings, was not something we really loved on this one, partly because of the movement and also because we reached the last pile of movies left. we watched the best ones first, saving the bad ones for last….


on the other hand, such bumpy crossing was compensated with great fishing, and so far this was the best leg. we caught two very big mahi mahis of which we only eat one, one barracuada and a big wahoo.



unfortunately as I mentioned, the cooking was not so great because of the movement, and we did not eat all the food we happily caught. but we managed and made it safely to land in amercian territory on no other than on july 4th!! this could have been great because of the celebration, but was not so much because of the overtime we had to pay officials to clear us in on a holiday. at the end we were very happy to reach land and relax in a quiet anchorage.