Commodore
September 24, 2023

Monday 25 September – we are in big trouble!

Sharon the marina manager had told us last night that customs and immigration had come to see us on Sunday and we were not at the boat, and that we were not meant to have left the boat until cleared through by them. She said we should just tell them we were asleep. 9am four officials arrived and boarded PolePole, Rowan had to help the three largish ladies get on board. One lady came marching over to me and told me she was very disappointed in us, I was speechless! Rowan said my face was a picture. Luckily before I could say anything she said they knew we had taken a taxi, hired a car and been out all Sunday! I pleaded absolute misunderstanding, that the Health and Port Authority guys who boarded us Friday night had made it seem like we were free to go, they said we must take the Q flag down and I am sure he said we could go to the shops and restaurants……. we took it as free to leave the boat! We apologised profusely and thank god we had not tried to say we were asleep, as quite obviously somebody was keepiing tabs on us in the marina. We got them ice cold refreshments and soon we were all laughing – thank goodness! We spent a good hour filling endless forms, the bio-security guy took all our fruit that looked manky in the fruit bowl, asked me to put all my seed pods into a sealed container and scratched all my fake plants to check they were plastic! Actually he was the sweetest guy – my now thriving aloe vera plants they were not bothered with at all!

There was a french boat – Hippocampe, out in the anchorage that arrived in the early hours after us. The Official ladies were trying to contact them, and asked us to try calling them on the vhf, but we got not reply. Rowan offered to take them all in the dinghy – they all readily accepted! What a scene, everyone roaring with laughter getting into the dinghy, the big lady falling on her bottom onto the floor of JeldiJeldi. The immigration lady’s skirt was so tight, the other ladies were in hysterics, they all then had to duck down as the only way out was under the boat between the two hulls. As they got out to the anchorage, Hippocampe was pulling their anchor up to come into the marina. So the boatful of laughing ladies returned. The scary Customs lady’s parting words were that we had paid for our misdemeanour by taking them on the dinghy ride!! Phew what a relief it all ended in such a jolly manner and we were now officially allowed to leave the boat!

The officials onboard JeldiJeldi coming out from beneath PolePole

Having recovered from the morning saga, we set off with Paul and Liz to continue visiting the sights that Marina had recommended. First stop was the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum, at his house he built in the 1890’s. An enormous residence with huge lawns to keep the jungle at bay and to prevent the building becoming overshadowed by the enormous trees. Robert LS had a Samoan name Tusitala, meaning teller of tales, he was obviously embraced by the local community, and is still respected for his role in preparing the country for independence. He married Fanny, an American divorcee, over 10 years his senior, who he had met in France when they were both on holiday there. She came to Samoa with two of her children from her previous marriage. Robert’s mother also joined them from Edinburgh. Sadly Robert died at the age of 44, just under 5 years after arriving here. He really managed to pack a lot into his life, he appears to have been a really likeable person as well as an avid writer, what a shame he had no kids to pass on his writing genes to.

The enormous house designed by an American architect

The tapas room – this is hand made local paper with local block printing using natural dyes, the whole room was lines with the paper

I really liked the wall paper

Beautifully planted gardens

The large lawns keeping the jungle at bay

Fanny’s room

Cartoon of RLS teaching Austin who was Fanny’s daughter’s son

Fanny was into medicinal cures made from plants – curious Magice Mosquito Bite Cure, Insect Destroyer!

More views of the garden

Fanny made their clothes

A portrait of RLS

The Samoan ladies running the museum practicing their singing and dancing, which was lovely to listen to

The back of the original house

Villa Valima, RLS is buried at the top of the hill, next door, which is now part of the Botanical gardens

We then continued on the ‘Cross Island road’ up and over to the other side of where we were yesterday. We went to an area of reef in a little village, where they have giant clams. We swam into the calm warm sea and about 100m out we started seeing endless clams of about the size of a lap top, all sorts of colours and patterns. Then we got to the beacon and there were these giant clams which they say are about 40 years old. They are enormous, about a meter in length and 2/3 of a meter high, inside is this amazing coloured body, that looks soft and squidgy. There was a dead clam in amongst them that was just a white shell, which was an interesting contrast. So sad we forgot the GoPro! The clams are being protected and have a breeding program run by the village, sadly the giant clams are really endangered these days.

Beautiful roadside verges

The reef with the giant clams

We had arranged to meet at Marina and Monty’s home at 5pm to go to the Hash meeting with them. We went directly there from the beach, luckily our payment to the village who own the Giant Clam reef, included a fresh water shower. Monty and Marinas home was lovely, so airy and cool up the mountain not too far from RLS’s house. They’ve made it very homely with their big desk, as both of them are studying. They work and study alternatively, and do a job share for the UN, which is very impressive.

We then headed off to the house where the Hash meet was taking place, which was not too far away. It was a very interesting bunch of people, a mix of locals and ex pats (mainly from the UN office) and a mix of ages. There were about 25 people, 5 ran (including Monty), and the rest of us walked at a good pace. We walked up the hill into the Botanical gardens beside RLS’s house, up and around and back to the house, which took about an hour. Everyone was so friendly, we paid 20 Tala and that gave us as much beer as we could drink. There was a group circle with lots of chat, and drinking forfeits. Joe who we had met yesterday played the ukulele throughout. It was a very jolly evening. Incredibly the Norwegian guy hosting the event, went to Greshams school in Norfolk, this was a boarding school we looked at as it is our nearest one. I stupidly never asked if he was a contemporary of Olivia Colman as I guess they are a similar age. He said he got sent to Greshams because he was naughty, the school said that he wasn’t suitable for Oxbridge which made him determined to get in! He landed up going to Oxford. He is married to a Samoan lady. The other coincidence was meeting a very feisty Kenyan lady working for the UN, she couldn’t believe she was meeting someone else born in Kenya. Burgers were ordered in and we stuffed ourselves, pretty much undoing the good from our walk, but they were delicious. It was a very fun evening and great to meet so many interesting people, we can see why Monty and Marina have enjoyed it here for so long.