The First Saturday – December 8, 2018 – Apia, Western Samoa
Apia, the capital of Samoa, is on the western side of the International Date Line so when we cross the imaginary line tonight, we’ll have another December 8th. The Amsterdam was at the dock early in the morning and passengers were getting off by eight o’clock. Jeff and I commented that we still felt the ship rolling although it was tied to the pier.
Half an hour later, Captain Eversen’s voice came over the ship’s loudspeaker telling us that a strong wind was pushing the ship off the dock. For safety reasons, he said the ship had to leave the pier immediately. There were about fifty passengers still on land and tenders would pick them up and bring them to the ship. We watched from the balcony as the ship’s thrusters were engaged and the ship slowly moved sideways.
The Amsterdam crept away from the dock and motored into the bay and then we sat there all morning waiting for marooned passengers. We learned later that two of the lines on the dock had snapped before we pulled away.
As the ship waited in the harbor, I went on the top deck and took a few pictures of Apia. I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t explore Apia, but relieved that we weren’t stranded on the island.
After several hours, a tugboat appeared and guided the ship out through the narrow inlet. It wasn’t a deep water port like Pago Pago and the reef was very close to the channel. Captain Eversen said we would take a “scenic route” around the big Samoan island and arrive at Pago Pago, American Samoa early “tomorrow” – our second December 8th.
The weather was hot and sticky and very windy; rain clouds gathered on the horizon all day. Later there was a heavy tropical downpour.
The Second Saturday – December 8, 2018 Pago Pago, American Samoa
By early morning the Amsterdam arrived in the capital city. By the way, it’s pronounced “Pango Pango.” The dock was lined with shipping containers and looked a lot like the last two ports. Jeff went ashore in Pago Pago to do a little shopping. He got back to the ship just in time to avoid a torrential downpour.
Polynesian men wear wrap “skirts” of different fabrics and colorful patterns. The ’skirt’ was part of the uniform on the security guard in the photo below.
The dining rooms and Lido Buffet were decorated with red, white, and blue lights and streamers because American Samoa was the first American port we entered. It looked like a Fourth of July celebration.
We left Pago Pago harbor in the evening as the sun set and rain clouds swept over the hills. The port of Pago Pago is a very well protected deep water harbor.
Having two December eights was weird, but might be fun if it was your birthday and you could have two birthdays! The ship cruised out into the vast South Pacific Ocean. We had five sea days ahead of us to reach the Hawaiian Islands. So we hunkered down and hoped for calm seas and lots of shipboard activities.