Manu'a Flag Day Morning Paddle

Sara and I have been keeping up with our paddling group. We've been making a regular effort to go every Monday, Wednesday and Friday after work for the past three weeks. This last Friday was Manu'a Flag Day, so we had the day off from work. This led to our paddling group's decision to do a morning paddle, since most of us were planning on playing some sloshball in the afternoon.

One nice thing about the morning paddle was the pace was a little more leisurely than normal, as we weren't racing to get our trip up and back down the harbor in before darkness closes in. The extra time allowed us to take a longer route and stop for a little longer between legs. This let Sara and I have some down time to snap some photos.

The morning trip was also interesting, since the harbor as more alive with activity than it usually is in the evening. Instead of being just a few outriggers and the harbor patrol boats on the water, we were dodging fishing boats coming into port, large ships moving from the repair docks to the port and boats of all sorts heading in to the fueling station. Being a tiny, slow, man-powered canoe darting between these hulking commercial vessels, all of which (we hope) will adhere to a specific, on-the-water right of way system is like a gigantic game of chicken. Spending your days on land sometimes makes you forget how much of life on the island revolves around the things that come to the territory from the sea.

Paddling's been a good workout. It's a test of strength, endurance, technique and a zen like

quality to repeat the same series of motions hundreds of times. Every time out I feel I improve a little bit and find a new part on my body to get sore. Hopefully if I stick with it I'll start to resemble some of the Samoans who we go with, they are walls of muscle.

The hardest part of paddling is moving the boats to and from the water. The outrigger canoes are approximately 40 feet long fiberglass hulls, with the ama outrigger arm off to one side, which all-together weigh close to 400 pounds. The crew of the boat needs to flip the boat over in the water, without allowing it to fill with water and then carry the boat across a lava rock and coral covered beach, up to the lawn where the boats are stored on. After an hour paddling around the bay, this can be a difficult move, depending on how many people are there to assist with the carrying. In the end, it's worth the opportunity to get out on the water and get some physical activity in.