Apia Arrival

Hi everyone,

We arrived in Apia at 1100 local time this morning.  Samoa is in UTC+13 time zone so we had crossed the date line.  Changing from UTC-11 meant the time was unchanged but it was suddenly tomorrow.  Weird but fun!

Samoa Ho!

Approaching Apia

Entering the harbour

Yesterday afternoon and overnight the E wind held in nicely.  We had occasional rain showers but they brought little extra wind.  By morning the showers had cleared and we had a great sail to Apia.

Entering Apia harbour was simple.  We called Port Control on VHF16 and they gave us permission to enter the harbour and anchor.  With that done we called Port Control again and they advised us to stay aboard and wait for officials to come and clear us in.  We advised them our dinghy was very small so they came out in a small barge.

The clearing in process took about 2 hours.  The Biosecurity folks visited first and that was just a case of filling in one form.  We could then take down our Q flag.  We were then asked us to dinghy in to the marina for customs and immigration but our electric outboard didn't want to play.  The officials then agreed to come out to us.  There were about half a dozen forms to complete, with a lot of repetition, but they were all simple.  One big deal was having a Zarpe showing our next port being Samoa - very important.

The officials were all very friendly and asked only for cool drinks since they were sitting in the cockpit in the sun.  They also enjoyed a specially prepared chocolate cake, with one officer requesting the recipe!  Another officer conducted a search of the boat which finished when they found a bag of chips which they asked if they could eat.  Overall it was a simple and good humoured process.

Here are some views from the anchorage....

View to W

View to SW

View to SE with marina in background

View to NE with commercial harbour

Tomorrow we hope to post a passage summary.  But first a couple of beers with sv Southern Wind and sv Traveller IV, then a good night's sleep.

Trust all's well where you are!

Apia Inbound Day 5

Hi everyone,

At noon today we were at 14 16S 170 12W steering 230M, sailing with single-reefed main and full yankee at 5 knots.  The wind was 12G17 from the ESE.  Our noon  to noon distances were 126nm by the log and 119nm over the ground.   Overall we'd logged 1334nm and 1292nm respectively.  Our distance to go was 92nm.  Less than a Freo to Quindallup!

Sunset with American Samoan Ta'u Island at left

We've had very nice sailing over the last 24 hours.  Quite steady wind pressure with direction varying between ENE and ESE.  The sea state has improved but there's still a short swell making is fail to meet our strictchampagne sailing criteria.  Nevertheless it's so much nicer than the previous damp and squally days.

We're about to gybe NW.  Looking forward to arrival tomorrow morning!

Trust all's well where you are.

Apia Inbound Day 4

Hi everyone,

At noon today we were at 14 17S 168 30W steering 280M, sailing with single-reefed main and full yankee at 5 knots.  The wind was 12G16 from the ENE.  Our noon  to noon distances were 120nm by the log and 117nm over the ground.   Overall we'd logged 1200nm and 1173nm respectively.  Our distance to go was 189nm.  Less than a Freo to Geraldton.

In the saloon

Yesterday afternoon was rainy.  Very rainy.  Lines of rain storms passed overhead one after another, leaving little wind and a confused sea in their wake.  Each was a mini convergence zone / trough.  It was a busy and very damp afternoon.  We motored for two hours after one line passed due to the angry sea state knocking the wind out of our sails making them slat violently.

Sunset rain storms

The evening was a little better with the squall lines further apart.  By the early hours of the morning the wind was backing substantially from SE ahead of a squall line.  We ended up quite close to Rose Island, a small atoll E of American Samoa.  At 0530 we gybed away in the new NE wind.

A sunnier dawn

This morning we've been sailing along under a mostly sunny sky and the NE wind has held in so far.  It'd be champagne sailing apart from the leftover sea state.  Gradually dying away.

Trust all's well where you are!