68 miles to a different country, different day!

June 25, 2018

We left American Samoa on a Tuesday night, and sailed overnight to Samoa, arriving on Thursday afternoon. The time of day stayed the same, but the date changed. Luke wondered if we will ever get that day back. It was hard to explain that time and date is a human construct, but sunset and sunrise is a natural occurrence. We had a small engine problem at midnight. It just quit. Dead in the water. I spent 7 hours changing filters, bleeding lines, cleaning fuel injection pumps, scratching my head. It turns out the air starve switch spring had broken, but because it is a spring within a spring, I didn’t notice. It took all of 20 seconds to fix when I figured it out and the trusty Perkins fired right up, with new filters, lines bled, and all cleaned out. I guess I can tick that off my list of stuff to do. Samoa was very welcoming. The check in process was easy. Quarantine, health, and customs all came to our boat within an hour and then we made our way for an easy 10 minutes at the immigration office. Everyone was so cheerful and helpful. I think we are going to love this place. We rented a car the next day and set off to explore the island. Had a blast swimming at the To Sea Sea Trench. Imagine a 100 ft hole in the ground near the coast with crystal clear sea water, tropical vines growing everywhere, and a 30 foot jump. Paradise for the adults and kids. There are waterfalls around nearly every turn here. Stopped at a few and had a few more jumps. We snorkeled and saw some giant clams along with aquarium fish. Flowers are everywhere, too. The roadside is neatly manicured with plants that come from community nurseries. If paradise is lost, we’ve found it here!

Some pictures: