POST

Saturday September 29, 2007
Bang, bang, crash, crash are the noises of the night, but that is the end of the story. It
is early morning and I am taking down our GPS position, getting ready to update our
Yotreps position, so you can see us on the internet; just go to www.tomjohnsonfamily.com

and click on "Where is Bella Donna? ". Today we leave Pago Pago, American Samoa for a
passage to Vavau, Tonga. Everyone is busy with chores. John and Ant are changing oil,
Deborah is getting everything put away and secured; the calm water in this protected
anchorage will change dramatically as we enter the open ocean. Thet say the passage from
Pago Pago can be a rough one.

We are checked out and fueled up, so we raise anchor a little after 10AM or we try to
raise anchor. Willey Nelson's song "On the Road Again" is playing, the anchor is raising
then we realize a 2 inch in diameter steel cable is hooked by our anchor. Willie is put on
hold and we work with the cable until it lets go of us. The other day Bella Donna dragged
its anchor due to a big ball of fishing line that prevented the anchor from getting a good
bite.

Willie starts singing again and we make our way slowly through the cut in the barrier
reef. Almost immediately Bella Donna is pitched violently this way and then quickly that
way in a very angry and confused sea. Seasickness prevention methods are deployed; no
computer work, no reading, actually no anything except relaxing and going with the flow.
Actually this pretty much describes the day. By the time we execute our final navigational
turn heading for Vavau, we have the Genoa partially deployed in 18 knot winds from the
east. With the port engine at 1800 RPM we are doing 8+ knots speed over ground (SOG).

On this passage we will loose one 24 hour day in a heartbeat; we will cross the
International Date Line along the way. We will wait until we arrive to recognize the loss.
Actually Tonga is still in the western hemisphere; therefore, the dateline should be west
of Tonga; however, Tonga elected to recognize the date line early. This means we will
arrive in Tonga on Tuesday morning instead of Monday morning.

I finally succumbed to seasickness just before dinner. I probably would have been OK
staying at the fly bridge helm; the thought of eating made me sick. I made the mistake of
going down to the salon and trying to eat; one bite and I left for the cockpit couch where
I stayed and slept until midnight. The thought of getting up and fighting the rapidly
shifting deck and stairs to get to my cabin seemed equivalent to climbing Mount Everest. I
had to at least take my medications and refill my insulin pump that had just gone dry. It
took some time to get this done and by the time I completed the tasks I was again
exhausted and fell into a deep sleep.

It was between 3 and 4 AM when I awoke to a loud bang, bang. It sounded like someone was
hitting something with a hammer in the solon above. Bed felt so good, I did not want to
fight to get up, but something was loose and banging and must be silenced. I struggled to
my feet almost falling flat on my face as Bella Donna lurched two ways at the same time.
Up in the salon I could here banging in the kitchen. Down into the kitchen I went to find
the glass sliding door in the starboard forward cabin shower was sliding open and shut
with the beam to beam motion of this beam sea. Constant motion had loosened the locking
mechanism. Just as I secured the door a beam sea rouge wave hit and I heard a loud crash
and the sound of glass breaking. A lamp had been thrown from its resting place. Well, see
you later.

God Bless Bella Donna.

post

Friday September 28, 2007
We arrived in Pago Pago, American Samoa last night in a light rain. The trip through
immigration and customs was easy except for trying to manage 2 roller luggage bags, a
brief case and a large bicycle transport crate. Our journey started 8 hours earlier in
Kailua Kona, Hawaii in the northern hemisphere. We left an overcast, humid tropical day in
Hawaii for rain in a warm, humid tropical evening in American Samoa in the southern
hemisphere. John is at the airport to meet us; it sure is good to see him. We find the
first van; we think we will need two vans to take all the baggage to the port. As it turns
out the entire luggage and ourselves all fit into the small van, amazing.

The seaport is 6 miles away, but the speed limit on the island is 20 miles an hour
everywhere on the island; fast sports cars just make no sense at all in American Samoa. It
takes about 20 minutes to get from the airport to the seaport. As we approach there is a
strong smell of warm tuna. It reminds me of the smell of the empty tuna can that you
discarded in the trash while cleaning the kitchen after a tuna fish sandwich lunch. Along
one side of the port are tuna processing plants, for example Starkist, that surely discard
their trash after canning the tuna, thus the smell. There are also other smells and
industrial polluters. John tells us they had to take Bella Donna 3 miles out in the ocean
to turn the water maker on before we arrived; the water is that dirty with industrial
waste. American Samoa is not a tourist destination; the first clues to this are the
passengers on the plane. They were not tourists but working people or local Samoans
returning from a trip to Hawaii or the mainland US. The jobs here are hard labor, long
hours and involve hard work. The wages are very low; there are no unions. The workers get
off work and are too tired to make their own dinner so they eat from street vendors that
set up outside the factories. They then make it home to sleep to prepare for tomorrows
work. The unemployment rate is 29% so everyone is thrilled to have a job.

The next day we go ashore to provision so we can leave tomorrow for Tonga. American Samoa
is well supplied with items from the US. There is an Ace Hardware that is extremely well
stocked and a True Value less well stocked. The people are exceptionally friendly, even
friendlier than other Polynesian people we have encountered in the South Pacific.

School children are everywhere on the streets in their lava lavas, a printed fabric cloth
wrapped around the waist as a skirt; both the girls and boys wear the same lava lava. Each
school has a lava lava of a different color that uniquely identifies the school. Many of
the grocery stores sell the lava lavas for from $3 to $5 each.

Like many of the other south Pacific islands all the people live and work on the coast.
All the roads are on the coast and circle the island. The middle of the island is
mountainous and not suitable for development including all but minimal agriculture. They
are beautiful to look at and good for trekking into the wilderness to witness the many
waterfalls. It rains off and on all the time; this is the rainy season. When we asked a
man living aboard his sailboat what he did for fresh water, he just laughed and said I
never want for water; I catch all the rain water I need.

Deborah and Ant went to the local farmers' market for fruits and vegetables tonight.

Deborah and Ant went to the local farmers' market for fruits and vegetables tonight. One
can not buy fruits and vegetables in the grocery stores, only in the farmers' market.
Friday night is supposed to be the big night. However, by the time Deborah and Ant arrived
most of the vegetables were gone, but there was still a variety of fruit. The people were
so friendly; they bought one fruit and were given two extra. The local asked where they
came from; when Deborah said Great Briton and South Africa their interest was peaked. They
don't see many travelers and rarely people from so far away. They were so taken by Deborah
they wanted her to stay and they offered her a job. When they asked what she was trained
to do, Deborah said she was an experienced stock broker. They said they were sorry; they
had no need for a stock broker.

It was an early night; I was in bed by 9 PM. We are "On the Road Again" tomorrow.

God Bless Bella Donna.

POST

Monday September 24, 2007

I am sitting by the pool in Kona watching the sunset over the Hawaiian Trail Wall. A cruise ship is sailing into the sunset. The day was hot and humid but the sunset is comparatively cool, actually balmy. The day was cloudy; we hardly saw the sun. This is a typical day this time of year; clouds of steam created by waning summer heat aided by the volcano’s VOG. It is 6:09 and the sun just broke out of the cloud cover to reveal a beautiful sunset, even if the sun is a little hazy. It looks like one of those portrait photos that are fuzzy soft.

 

I got here yesterday afternoon. I usually come with at least Donna and usually with others as well. It is different having no one to share Polynesia with; it is lonely. An army of workers started tearing the roof off our house today; we are having a new roof put on as you can protect a steel roof just so long in this environment of continuous salt spray. Donna would not like the dust and little bits of scrap metal from the roof. The workers clean up every day, but they are just men and you know how men clean.

 

I went for my usual walk just before sunset yesterday north on the wall that separates us from the ocean known as the ancient Hawaiian Trail. Kailua Kona was King Kamahameha’s home and the place from which he ruled the islands in ancient times. The wall is along the high water mark and ancient Hawaiian rulers walked this trail to ponder life. Rumor has it that many rulers were buried along this trail and to this day their spirits will help you guide your life.

 

I walk .65 miles north into the old airport park. The original Kailua Kona airport was closed in 1970 and the new international airport is 10 miles north on the coast. The park has baseball, soccer and football fields and a roller hockey rink.  There are tennis courts, swimming pool, horse shoe pits and gym. There is even a nice building, the old airport terminal, where local dances and music are performed. The abandoned runway provides more than enough parking for the beach less than 100 yards away.  Tables, shelters and restrooms are provided. My destination is on the mauka (inland) side of the runway where a .7 mile paved path circles through a park like area, known as Makaeo. The Friends of Fitness maintain a series of gardens and native trees interspersed with benches and tables. Native Hawaiians often come here to practice drums, dance and song. There are herds of mongoose that dart across the path from the native brush on the mauka side. This “park” is where locals bring neutered cats to live with the mongoose. Locals then feed the cats, but are forced to feed the mongoose as these persistent creatures get along fabulously with the cats. In return the cats become feral, wild like the mongoose. I make it at least three times around Makaeo then back home, over 3 miles.

 

Today I attended a Board meeting, shopped for a few groceries and went for a bike ride looking for real estate information and “The Paddler” magazine. I rode 7 miles south through the town of Kailua Kona. With the cruise ship is in town, late in the afternoon, there are tourists hurrying around looking for that last purchase before having to return before departure to Maui.

 

God Bless Bella Donna.