After breakfast Elaine made a number of phone calls to family and friends while Roy headed ashore for his optician's appointment. He had no sooner returned when the trough or low pressure system sitting over the Samoa Islands raised havoc in the anchorage.
With torrential rain and high winds about 2/3rds of the yachts at anchor dragged, including Do Over who were not onboard at the time and whose anchor was tripped by another yacht that dragged.
While we dealt with a 62 ft catamaran that kept dragging in front of us, sailors from two other yachts managed to get onto Do Over and move her to a shipping mooring while simultaneously dragging the yacht that had got tangled in Do Over 's anchor chain to begin with. That was barely sorted out when Roy had to dash to help another yacht that was dragging, but had lost the use of its engine. It was bedlam to say the least. Fortunately, by late afternoon everyone was re-anchored safely an
d then
Roy received a very unexpected gift as a thank you for all the help he had rendered. A lovely surprise!
This evening we had a great time catching up with Paula, Dan and the kids on Do Over having last seen them a few weeks ago in Bora Bora. While we took the route via Surwarrow before arriving in American Samoa, they had taken the route via Palmerston and Nuie, so we had plenty of experiences to compare. We also had the pleasure of meeting Vasco from the yacht that is sharing the shipping mooring with Do Over; a 79 year old single-handed sailor from Bulgaria who built his yacht with his brother and sailed it here about a year ago following his brother's death. An amazing individual indeed! There's hope for us yet.
7d111140-1bd8-4359-9a24-6f0968c7a52d-114798178 c8914ca4-339f-4347-931a-a8ffb396047788249223