Pacific Crossing 2011-12

October Pictures

The second set of watermaker parts left California on a Tuesday arrived in Samoa Thursday.

Recess in American Samoa

In American Samoa, Western Samoa, and Tonga churches are everywhere

WW II pillboxes still very evident

Our feast at Tisa's

Our hostess

Our host

Our plate maker

The feast cooking. Our first above ground roast.

Helping the barkeeper

Shango off to Western Samoa (aka Samoa). Finally a change from constant downwind sailing

Whales at sunset as we leave American Samoa for Samoa.

Car Tour of Samoa

 Robert Louis Stevenson's grave outside Apia, Samoa

Our night at the site of the Samoa Survivor filming

Our Fale

Amy and Diana after outfitting our Fale

Our hosts. Happy to have just Shango and Soggy Paws rather than the whole Survivor crew.

Dave and I hamming it up at one of the two Survivor beaches

Our first view of a Tongan island.  Tafahi in this case.

Keeping cool in Niuatoputapu

Kids everywhere love to pose

Shango and Chesapeake

The crew at Sia's for a Pot Luck

Sia, our hostess. The unofficial admiral of the Niuatoputapu Yacht Club.

Graham from Dream Away, Dave and I went off to fix the Priest's diesel powered Kava press  

Despite our lack of success Father Lawrence was still grateful for the effort

Typical house before the 2009 Tsunami

Housing from the Red Cross and other international relief efforts  after the Tsunami

Shango anchored off the village

View of the lagoon and volcano from atop the Niuatoputapu ridge trail

Sherry and Dave scrambling up the ridge

Yours truly taking a breather

Major event on the day we left Niuatoputapu, the weekly supply ship

Goodbye (we thought) to Niuatoputapu and off to our last stop for 2011, Vava'u, Tonga

Chesapeake looking just fine

I was relaxing and enjoying the ride  

Several hours later, responding to VHF call for help by Tongan fishing boat, Lesila

Soggy Paws approached to provide tools to help with transmission repair

Dave made a perfect toss on his first attempt

Repairs were not successful. Shango offered to take two of the crew back to Niuatoputapu

2 crew swimming over to Shango

Climbing up our ladder

Safely aboard

No good deed goes unpunished.......

30 hours later, arriving in Vava'u with no starter 

Dave again practicing his pitching. This time a tow line. Again, perfect shot.

Soggy Paws with Shango under tow entering Neiafu harbor in Vava'u, Tonga. 

Starter replaced and off to explore the Vava'u group

Reminds us of Penobscot Bay in Maine

Anchorages everywhere

Sad parting. Spirare off to New Zealand

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