Day 3 - Monday, 20th August
My legs were hurting when I awoke. Specifically, the muscles in the back of both legs. This is most likely the result of climbing the very steep slope of Mt Vaea two days before. And doing it in thongs probably didn't help either.
First order of business today was to visit the Tokelau-Apia Liaison Office (TALO), and I arrived at 10:00am. I was buying a ticket on tomorrow's ferry to Tokelau only to be told that departure had been moved forward by 24 hours and the sailing was at 9:00pm tonight.
Happy with this turn of events, I bought my ticket and then went back to the hotel to pack.
Two hours later I was back at the office to check my luggage in as cargo. Once that was sorted I went for a walk down to the waterfront and the markets. There was still some whole fish for sale - skipjack, albacore, snapper and a dolphinfish as well as smaller cods, parrotfish, and two unicornfish. Lots of trinkets made out of coconut shells, but also some very nice wooden bowls and some traditional Samoan axes, and something that looked like a wooden precursor to a Klingon Bat'leth. I may return and buy one if I have the time, when I come back this way again in two weeks.
The sun had been relatively innocuous due to the cloud cover, but I still sweated because of the humidity. And then it started raining, not heavily, just a light shower, which was welcome relief. I caught a cab back to the hotel where I tried to relax, stay cool and unsweaty until the evening.
A sign near the hotel pointed down a road indicating that Conservation International had an office there, so after lunch I decided to walk down and see what I could learn about their projects in this region. However, halfway down the road three dogs decided that I didn't know the password, and therefore I was not permitted to pass.
When I arrived in Samoa I had been told to watch out for dogs as there were a lot of strays and there had been attacks, so I had been keeping an eye on these three since I had sighted them from further up the road. Two were lying in grass on the left side of the road, and a third on the right, up on a small embankment. All three were silent as I walked down the middle of the road toward them. I ignored them and looked straight ahead, but watching them peripherally. All three were staring at me, which I wasn't too happy about. I was almost about to pass them and was thinking to myself "Somebody wag your tail, or look away" when one of the dogs on my left jumped up and lunged forward a metre towards me, snarling and growling. He was a dark-coloured dog with some Bull Terrier in his blood, very stocky with a solid chest and muscles rippling all over. The second mutt had jumped up too, but was barking with head in the air and moving around the way dogs do when they want to try and intimidate.
But Cujo wasn't bluffing, he was very serious and seemed to be incensed by the fact I was standing my ground. I might have managed to pass him if he was by himself, but there was the third dog on the other side of the road. He hadn't made a noise at all and was still lying on the embankment watching me, although he had lifted his head up off his paws. And when I looked at him, he didn't wag his tail either. In order to pass Cujo and his sidekick I would have to turn my back on this third dog, something I had no intention of doing. So after standing my ground and weighing up all my options I eventually chose to slowly back away and return to the hotel. Cujo, muscles rippling, ran into the road growling and snarling and watched me depart. His sidekick ran around in circles triumphantly barking. The third dog remained silent and immobile.
I returned to the hotel, just a little disappointed, but as I'd been planning this boat trip for the previous six months (with several false starts), I wasn't going to risk missing the boat now due to being laid up in hospital by doing something stupid.
After relaxing for a few hours I checked out of the hotel and a taxi took me down to the wharf, arriving at 7:30pm. There were about 30 other people there, but I was the only caucasian. A man with a little moustache (and looking a little Greek) came over to make conversation.
"Are you going to Tokelau?" He asked.
"Yes," I replied "are you?"
"Yes". This was a relief because until then I wasn't sure I was at the right place.
"Which atoll?" he asked.
"Nukunonu. And you?"
"Atafu. Do you have your bedding?" He enquired, looking at my little backpack.
"No, I didn't think I would need any. I'm supposed to have a cabin"
"Oh." he said "Did you take your seasick pills?"
"Umm, no. I've never been seasick before" I answered.
"Oh, that's good, we've all taken them. Have you been on voyages like this before?"
I suddenly realised that this was something I hadn't considered. I've been on boats a lot over the years and never had any problems while others in my family have been quite ill. But they were things like the Manly Ferry on Sydney Harbour, or dive boats in harbours or sheltered waters. The PV Matua was going to be sailing the open ocean, something I'd never done before.
"I have some pills if you need them" the man said. I thanked him and he went back to his family.
And then I also noticed a lot of people with plastic shopping bags of food, snacks and drinks etc. Another thing I hadn't considered. I hadn't eaten since breakfast, and although I can happily go 24 hours without food, it had already been twelve hours since breakfast and the boat ride would be a minimum of 24 hours, possibly more than 48 hours. I had bought two large packets of chips as snacks for Tokelau - they were in my checked in luggage so weren't accessible. All I had in my backpack was half a small bottle of coke - I'd have to make that last. (As it was I needn't have worried - on board we received breakfast, lunch and dinner).
Boarding was to start around 8:00pm, but by 8:30 there was still no movement. Apparently nobody had told immigration we were leaving a day early. They eventually arrived at ten-to-nine, and by 9:30 we were boarding.
The PV Matua is a 45 metre long cargo ship, designed to take passengers as well. The 'lounge' as I called it had a total of 18 seats. Many families had forgone the seats and spread their woven mats on the floor and put mattresses on top, and they were content to stay on those.
I settled into a vacant seat and a few minutes later at 10:06pm we slipped our moorings. The gentle rocking as we sailed down the harbour was causing me no grief so I relaxed, confident my stomach would be fine. A few moments later as we cleared the heads the boat lurched forward and down, then back up and over to the left, then rolled back to the right, then started all over again. "The Manly Ferry never did that!" I thought to myself.
A short while later the Captain came and collected me to show me to my cabin. As I stood up I almost fell over again with the violent swaying of the floor. I staggered after the captain as he took me below decks to one of three cabins. Each had two stainless steel bunkbeds that were bolted to the floor, I was on the top bunk and was sharing the cabin with a doctor from Atafu, an old man from Fakaofo, and a member of the crew.
The next few hours were a little uncomfortable, not because of the bed itself, or my stomach, but because every time we rocked to port I was worried I would roll off the bed. But a few hours of rocking and I wasn't worried anymore as we never rocked that far. And I eventually fell asleep.
Hix
Photo Count for the day: 0
