American Samoa -- NOT

Going from Samoa to American Samoa one crosses the international date line. This gave us back all the hours we’d lost as we traveled east all at once. Of course, as DJ pointed out, this did nothing to help with the lost sleep! We did get two June 10ths, though, which was unique.

Our scheduled stop for the second June 10th was American Samoa. Liz and I were up early as usual and noticed that we sailed right on past Pago Pago, our intended destination. Around 8:00 Captain Leo came on to inform us that no, we would not be stopping. Winds were too strong to make docking at Pago Pago safe, so we’d have an unscheduled sea day.

That was a bummer for us, and more so for the folks who were hoping to visit the National Park of American Samoa. If you’re a national parks fan, this is a tough get. I felt especially bad for Mike and Sarah, who have been to a lot of national parks and really wanted to get to this one.

To once again recap the canceled ports, here’s what we’ve missed:
• Tristan da Cunha – scrubbed due to weather. Bummer as this was a really unique port of call.
• Mossel Bay - scrubbed due to weather.
• Mayotte – canceled due to storm damage.
• Broome, Australia – canceled due to “port congestion.”
• Geraldton, Australia – canceled due to “port congestion.”
• Esperance, Australia – weather, I think?
• Burnie - weather
• Eden – not sure
• Picton - weather
• Bay of Islands - weather
• Port Vila – port damage
• Pago Pago – weather

There were a couple of ports added – Brisbane and Sumba – both of which I missed during my exile.

On a positive note, we had a good sea day on the 11th, which was capped off with the final ATW dinner. The previous dinner had been a dud, so we made sure to get a table to share with friends fo this one and it worked out much better.Read more