Talofa!

ALoha from Apia!  WE arrived yesterday morning, in time for the planned "sail in" of the fleet.  Samoa is much larger than I had ever imagined.  We are on the island of 'Upolu, but looking to the east, you can see the lights of Tutuila, and to the west, you can see Savai'i, whose profile resembles Mauna Kea, with the cinder cones on the side of the mountain.  Apia is sunny and green  Most of the island appears to be wooded and lush, and stretches on for miles.  It was quite a wild ride getting here, but the day we sighted the island, the wind died.  We sailed VERY SLOWLY towards it for the day, only rounding the eastern corner about 9 pm.  Luckily, a land breeze came up, propelling us with a little more force towards our destination.  We made it in time for the ceremonial fleet sail-in.  Today was a day off, with a tour of the island, but Hana-Lee, Kainoa and I were on watch from 6 am to 6 pm.  WE let Kainoa go play, and with the majority of the crew gone, Hana-Lee and I took the opportunity the oil the deck.  It is beautiful, but sticky.  The payoff for us is that we'll get an additional day off, as well as the satisfaction of knowing that we did our work on the waka.  At sea, and in port, the waka is our home andour island, and we do what we need to to keep it beautiful and tidy.  A nice surprise for us was that our waka "father", Hoturoa Kerr and his wife Kim are here in Samoa until we leave.  Hotu was withus initially, but needed to take care of some business at home.  He'll be rejoining us in Vanuatu to sail to the Solomons and back to Aotearoa.  Work first, play after!