Asau Harbour Savaii Island Samoa - a stroke of good luck

Coordinates: 13 30 S 172 38 W
Crew health: Delighted to be here

Fish caught: Nil yet again

We were up at 5 am to prepare to leave Matautu Bay at the crack of dawn. It was worth getting up early to hear the roosters crowing on shore and see the magnificent sunrise. We were expecting only moderate winds today and ideally, we needed to be at the reef passage into Asau by 11am, to catch the tide at the right stage for entrance.

It was a glorious sail with the wind on the beam along the fairly deserted and craggy coastline of northern Savai'i, past the lava fields from the last eruption in the early 1900s. Denise enjoyed hand steering all the way, comfortably seated on the new seat that Don had installed in the stern of the cockpit. The wind increased to about 20 knots as we neared the pass into Asau. The wind had backed to the north east and put us onto a slightly lee shore. There were one or two worrying moments as we manoevered the boat, with our relatively small engine, through the breaking seas at the entrance but we eventually managed to line up the not easily seen markers and locate the passage.

Once through the pass, we found ourselves in a small, delightful, enclosed, protected harbour. We were told it was a gem of sailors dreams here and it certainly is a great spot. We had great fortune and good luck - as we came out of the pass the wind piped up to 30 knots!! We just made it here in time. We plan to stay here for 4 - 6 days, depending on the weather. We look forward to exploring this part of Samoa.

We will blog again just before we leave for Wallis Island.

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