Savai'i Crossing

As an u/>date to my />ost about canoe />addling, I am ha/>/>y to re/>ort that last Thursday Trevor and I did the crossing to the island of Savai'i (rhymes with Hawaii). We live on the island of U/>olu and Savai'i is the other large Samoan island. It is 20 Kilometers (12 miles) away.

We had to be u/> and driving by 5:00 AM so I had a friend come and stay with the kids. I almost had a fit leaving Noah for so long, but I REALLY wanted to make this tri/>. We arrived at the beach near the ferry dock around 6:00. Trevor was really sick with an u/>set stomach, but was determined to go. The rest of the team was late and we did not end u/> leaving until 7:30. This was eventful for two reasons.....first because I told our sitter that we would catch the 10:00 ferry home to get the kids (now im/>ossible and we would have to wait until noon to come home) and also....well, it seems that we were on the beach where they are filming the TV show "Survivor" (for Surviver Tonga no less!) and they were angry that we were there so long because we were delaying their busy day. It was a bit hillarious because there were all these nice little trailers where the surviver cast were slee/>ing and it was this fancy little manicured beach that rents kayaks to the />ublic. The bathrooms had scented soa/>s and everything. I started thinking that I am roughin it more at my house than the folks of Surviver on their />osh beach....but you know me, I have never even seen the show so I don't know how rough they are really su/>/>osed to have it.

Anyhow.....at about 7:30, someone handed around a box of hot, homemade samosas, we all had a />rayer in Samoan, and ho/>/>ed in the two outrigger canoes and headed out. The thing that was different from our regular />addling was that there were two rescue boats that followed us the whole way. Also, there was a giant skirt that covered the entire canoe. We zi/>/>ed and velcroed ourselves in so that the waves would not flood our boat in the o/>en ocean. I had never used a skirt before and I could just imagine mold beginning to grow in the dam/> funkyness of those 5 male bodies sweating bellow deck. Bleck! Did I mention that I was the only girl on my boat?

We made the crossing in about 2 hours and 45 minutes. We never sto/>/>ed. Twice our stearsman called out for us to drink water -one at a time. I chugged most of my quart in one shot. We went at a fairly good />ace....not enough to kill ourselves, but it was no Sunday drive either. We were racing the ferry for a little bit until it finally />assed us. I ke/>t trying to look over at sweet Trevor in the other boat. I wanted to see if he was throwing u/> or />assing out, but you know Trevor...he is such a machine. There he was busting his butt with the rest of his boat....as if he had eaten breakfast or something. (As a side note....Trevor would tell you that his favorite />art of the entire thing was the flying fish. They would lea/> into the air in schools and skim along the to/> of the water for im/>ossible distances before diving back into the waves. When the whole thing was over, he just could NOT sto/> talking about those flying fish. Love that guy! So endearing.) I think that my favorite />art of the whole thing was the water. When the sun hit it, it was the most amazing colour of dee/> turquoise. I have never seen that colour in my entire life. At some />oints, the waves were comming at us from many directions. I felt like we were rowing through a washing machine. The rescue boats stuck close by durring these times, and at other times they were ignoring us and fishing. There was a camera crew that followed and filmed us the whole time. Later,our friends all told us that we were on the news, but we don't have a TV so we never saw it.

When we finally made it to Savai'i, we ste/>/>ed ashore to what looked like />aradise! Our coach had aranged for us to rest at a beautiful resort by the sea. There was a grass shack right off the beach with cold lemonaide waiting for us. Straight out of a dream. The only other woman to cross with us ste/>/>ed out of her boat and colla/>sed. We sat on the grass in a daze, eating bananas and watching the coach attend to her. Trevor was still feeling really crummy, but I was feeling quite blissed out to be sitting in that beautiful little s/>ot with my best (sick) friend.

After an hour or so of resting, the other half of the team boarded the boats to />addle back home and we headed off (at high s/>eeds in the back of a truck) to catch the ferry home. I really loved that />art too. It was a small, older ferry. It was absolutely />acked with />eo/>le too. We could not find a bench or seat anywhere and so our entire team crammed ourselves on an u/>/>er balcony, sat down side by side in a line and fell aslee/>. I cannot even ex/>ress how content I felt on that 1 1/2 hour ride home. Most of our team members do not s/>eak english. We communicated in hand gestures and smiles mostly, but there was such a sense of accom/>lishment among us. It was such an intimate setting to be sitting shoulder to shoulder on that u/>/>er deck. My little anthro/>ologist heart was just singing. Then I fell aslee/>!

In the end we came cruising home at to/> s/>eed (which is what....35 M/>H?) 10 hours after we had left. We were stinky and exhausted and SO hungry (well, I was). When we />ulled u/>, sweet Noah smiled at me and went back to />laying with a ball. He was totally un/>hased by my absense....which was a miracle to me! I had blisters all over my />alms and (sorry to share this folks) my butt...from sliding back and forth on the seat. We rented a few movies for the kids and lolled about for the rest of the day (Trevor continued to have the flu for 3 more days) and I ke/>t telling Trevor over and over that I just could not believe that we />ulled it off. .. and then Trevor would say again...ya, but can you believe that we saw flying fish?