Western Samoa Grounding

Created by sue. Last modified on 2010-08-27 13:15:01
Countries: Samoa

21 August 2010

Asau Harbour can be used. You have to get the right coordinates. Ask the pilot in Apia for a copy of the chart and Lat and Long.

Daniel Villinger

13 October 2009

Last evening, after looking at the charts and our guidebook, we decided to move into a little bay on Savaii (called Asau Harbour on the charts). We even saw a sailboat anchored deep inside so we assumed that if all three pieces of info. said it was okay to go in we should go in-right?

As we pulled into the channel the water started to get shallow - very quickly! We hit bottom (co-ordinates 13.29 S / 172.39 W).

We were stuck solid on a shallow sand bar with rock and reef strewn all about. My guess is that a cyclone must have silted up the entrance. The boat immediately started lurching back and forth. I thought for sure we would be another shipwreck, just like a trawler that was high and dry on the reef 500 yards away.

We all basically freaked out and began yelling at each other. That didn’t work so we launched the dingy with all the anchor chain and anchor, and Matt got into position about 100 feet out to throw the anchor overboard. Our plan was to use the anchor as a winch and drag ourselves off the sand bar. The bottom of the boat was now grinding herself hard on the reef and the incoming tide and winds were pushing us into shallower and shallower water. I tried to put the boat in forward and all we did was grind more.

We basically gave up hope at this point. Matt was not making much headway due to the drag of the anchor chain and he was vainly trying to motor the dinghy back out into deeper water.

After about 20 minutes of this we got a break - big time. The current somehow pushed us into a slightly deeper spot so I cranked the wheel and we were able to motor out with about 1 inch of water under the keel. We motored and grinded our way back out and somehow made it to deeper water.

We were almost there when the anchor chain caught on a coral head. We were then jerked backwards and began to be sucked back into the shallows again. We all yelled at Matt to pull up the anchor chain. Mike meanwhile was on the bow pulling in the chain with the anchor windlass and looking out for coral heads. Somehow Matt used super human strength and was able to unlodge the chain. We then motored out of the death trap with Matt in the dingy with 300 feet of rusty chain.

By this time it was nearly dark. We were worried about the hull, but after inspection we realized she wasn't taking on water so we set sail and simply sailed away from land. We spent the night in 20-knot winds and tacked out 25 miles until 4 am. The night wore on and on and our frazzled nerves didn't help.

Other cruisers, we had spoken to, said the charts were off for this place. They are all based on 100-year-old German surveys done when they controlled this area.

Jody Lemmon