American Samoa?

[HighTemp]

Originally Posted by edmundsteele

You will know everyone on the islands in a couple of months if you attend the “HASH” events, although the run we did on Guam did have a couple of people in hospital but no actual deaths.

I ran the HASH every Saturday for the 3 years I lived on Guam, back in the mid1980's. An exceptional cast of characters!

[donradcliffe]

One of the main reasons to go cruising is to experience other cultures. Samoa is a different culture, and all that has been said above is true. From his post, the OP is looking for the culture he is used to, but in a different place. That ain't Samoa. I've spent a total of a few weeks there on two visits, but its not the place I'd choose to live. A few American Samoa stories:

Night life-- My wife first went there in the 70's. She went to a local bar with a couple of girlfriends. They were enjoying themselves when the bartender said 'you have to leave, NOW!' Turns out they had been dancing with the Tongans and an ugly brawl was developing. If you think night life means bashing each other with beer bottles, you'll fit right in.

Work Ethics-- One visit was after a major cyclone had devastated the place. FEMA came in and gave everyone tents and money to rebuild their houses. The locals lived in the tents and bought Toyota pickups with the money. One of the cruisers had a job at the Toyota dealership, and made good money. He noticed that his fellow (local) salesman could have made a lot more sales, but just wasn't motivated, and he asked him why. The salesman said, 'when I come home with the paycheck, the chief takes the money and gives me back what he thinks I need to live on. Why should I work harder?'

The Harbor: Not only is it smelly from the canaries (most of the workers come from the other Samoa, because the Americans do better on welfare), but its full of styrofoam cups and plastic bags. Their culture used to use coconut shells and banana leaves, but now dispose of modern packaging in their traditional way. It is in the cyclone belt. There were cruising boats on heavy moorings, but there were also big Chinese fishing boats tied up with half inch lines. Come cyclone time the fishing boats and barges break loose and roam the harbor.

[Tetepare]

If OP wants a "base" to cruise from, the question would be how long are the cruises?

If it's a couple weeks to a month, Pago limits you to Tutuila, Savai'i, and Upolu unless one wants to spend much more time at sea.

To me, "base" means lots of places to explore in two week periods. That in turn indicates Vava'u, Moorea, Viti Levu, Noumea, Gizo, and Koror- all of which offer everything from day trips to month long excursions.

[Blue-Peter]

Thank you for the comprehensive responses. If it were up to me, I would live aboard and just cruise. Maybe that's how it will end up - maybe not. We are at the very very beginning stages of thinking about this. We don't even own a boat, but I have sailed my whole life. I just had the idea to see if AS was a possibility for us. It did at first glance, but it looks like maybe not. As for the religion question, it's no big deal, I just do not want to live in a place where people frequently ask me where I go to church etc. As for visiting a church as guest, no problem, I'm just not going to join it. It sounds like AS and Polynesia in general are cool about the whole thing. As for nightlife, I am not interested in clubbing or late-night craziness - those days are over. But, I would like to have a few places to choose from at a variety of price points. Eg.: Lahaina, Maui. We are not looking for "Miami in the Pacific."
Guam maybe another spot to check out to see if it would work. Likewise, USVI if we decided on a Carribean option.
Thanks again to all of the responses! This seems like a great forum with lots of useful information.

[Blue-Peter]

One more reply: My wife and I have travelled extensively. We are both bilingual in different languages from each other. We have both lived abroad for extended periods of time, and are quite familiar with interacting with different cultures. We are just exploring the possibility of doing a lot more of it by living aboard, or something close to that.

[ejs]

We just spent two months in American Samoa on our way across the pacific. We had a business deal going on and we needed an American Notary. we found the people there to be extremely friendly and welcoming. People stopped and asked if we needed a ride many times for example. We didn't find any animosity toward Pelagi (white foreigners) at all. I think it may be that they are not over-run with us like in Western Samoa.

We did find that all of the Pelagi live together in a couple of enclaves because you need to be 51% Samoan to own property. They are more isolated from the locals than I would like, but they had a healthy community.

As for a base of operations for the boat, it is very easy to get parts, (Pago Pago has a US ZIP code) most vendors on Amazon and all of the marine stores I tried ship there with no customs issues.

As a repair base there are virtually no services aimed at yachts. There are diesel mechanics and fabricators aimed at large fishing boats so if you have a similar issue to a fishing boat you can get things repaired, but that is about it.

The other comments about the harbor (industrial and sometimes smelly) and the nightlife (almost non-existent) are correct in my experience.

Cheers, Eric

[Pelagic]

Since you and your wife are starting out, I would suggest smaller steps in the more yacht friendly Caribbean as opposed to remote locations in the very large Pacific.

When you venture into the Pacific, it is a big commitment, so why unnecessarily add that to your learning experience while still chasing career's.

[phlbob7]

No way I would live there. You can't move your boat to get fuel or just a day cruise without first getting permission by walking to port captains office. I got my butt chewed for going to fuel docks. The customs charge $100 to leave port. ********. We had a big argument. Wound up not paying. They want to be independent but their canneries and fishing industries would fold up. No Marina. No place to haul out. Good for provisioning. I went only because they had a VA clinic. The people for the most part are great. But after any times of visiting my boat all of a sudden I found many items missing. Binoculars , night vision, etc. needless to say the women could not be trusted. Had a lot of fun with the men . All very big. No helping it but you had to drink all night with them. Don't want to offend those big bruisers. Lot of fun.