Half day of ops at Swains Island and after lunch recovered the boats and it was goodbye to Swains Island for another two years. Though I did not set foot on the island, receiving a gift from people I have never met or seen put some attachment to the place. It’s Polynesian hospitality that brought me back to these islands in the past. I recall seeing movies and reading books as a kid but never thought I would ever see or even live part time in the South Pacific. What I see and experience is not a Rodgers and Hammerstein play or John Wayne and Lee Marvin punching it out on Donovan’s Reef. The female lead in that movie wasn’t even Polynesian and they were used only as extras.
As we pulled away from Swains, I went out to the weather deck to take one last look and hoping that I will be on the trip that returns here in two years. So far I have been lucky to be on cruises that went to Samoa either on the Ka’imimoana or the Hi’ialakai in the past years. You never know, I may be transferred, decide to hang it up or be back here in 2012 writing about this place again. I was lucky to make one more Nuku Hiva trip in 2007 to say farewell to Miss “R” and Miss “J”. After being taken off the KA that year, never take any trip on a ship for granted. You may never know where you will end up. I have been on the Hi’ialakai for three years and I know I am safe for one more.
Goodbye Swains
Tonight we are steaming back to Ta’u Island at Manu’a. We were just there a few days ago and now heading back. From my understanding there will be a half day of ops and then head to Tutuila and Pago Pago for a break. I have that planned already and talked about that before. I do not want to start showing my age by repeating myself and forgetting I had mentioned it previously. Just when I thought things were going to wind down prior to the Pago break, I received several e-mails that put me back into overtime mode again. Some things that were to be automated weren’t exactly automated.
So I already have some priority one projects on top of doing laundry tomorrow before we hit port. To conserve water, the laundry flat is secured for the duration. If I cannot do laundry then I have to find a Laundromat and I recall they were not like the ones back home. In Western Samoa you have to buy the soap and pay the Laundromat person to wash and dry your clothes. While in Pago I need to look up my wife’s acquaintance and see if she still lives there. I will take more photos if I have the time.
I have to go to the galley and get some water and pop some popcorn for midnight snack. I want to get this published and then hit the rack. I got an e-mail from Mr. “W” on the Ka’imimoana and he made it back to Honolulu today.
I bid you goodnight from the open seas in South Pacific, steaming towards Ta’u in Manu’a Islands in the American Samoa chain. Manuia-po from the Hi’ialakai.
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