Saturday was a lazy day. We all slept in, I made a late breakfast, then we internetted, schooled and read until about 1400. Then we decided to go in to see what was what. After a zillion pulls and lots of cursing, the dinghy engine finally started. In the meantime Tortuquita (Dave and Booker) and Wendy Ellen (Zack, Susie and Ronan) came to the anchorage. It was low tide, so it took lots of persistence to finally make it to the beach and up to the Savai'i Resort. Once there we had beers, a fruit platter (with the first grapefruit since Fr. Poly) and fries. We did a quick tour of the immediate vicinity (they have a pizza parlor) and then headed back to the boat. I made bbq ribs -rum. We watched the first "Taken" movie with Liam Neeson - Not bad for a shoot 'em up movie.
This morning we got up and started stowing the boat for the crossing to Fiji. Major pain, but we decided to put the dinghy on the deck to save some wear and tear. The davits are hard on it on a long crossing. We finally were ready around 1130, so up came the anchor and we were off like a herd of turtles. Not much wind, but the sea was calm. We were able to sail for a little while, then around 1400 turned on the motor, hoping to get out of the Island's wind shadow and commence real sailing. Around 1500 we were passing the harbor of Asau and decided to stop for the night. The entrance gave us a few more gray hairs, but we got in and anchored and all is well. For anyone coming after us, the waypoints in the compendium are good - kind of disconcerting as our navionics charts put those waypoint on land..... but visually (in the real world) they were right on. There is no second range mark that we could see, but there are three poles (for want of a better term) sticking out of the water and the center one lines up with the white triangular range mark. Taka from the Moana resort paddled out to meet us, but by then we were through the worst of it. Luckily the light was good enough to see the shoals.
Since the dinghy was on the deck, Dennis and i swam in for a drink. Note - yes you can use a credit card, but 100 tala minimum charge. That part got lost in translation, so not sure what is going to happen. i will have to go in in the morning and figure it out with someone with the authority to make those kinds of decisions. sigh...... Anyway, pending what the gribs say we will be on our way tomorrow to Fiji. We expect it will take 4 full days, so hope to be there before closing time on Friday. If we don't leave tomorrow, probably won't leave until wednesday, as cannot check in to fiji on the weekend.
More tomorrow....
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