Part of the reason to sail to Pago Pago is to be able to receive packages shipped for reasonable cost from the US and not to have to pay import fees. The supermarkets and hardware stores also have some supplies that were hard, or impossible, to get since leaving Mexico.
Over the months our shore support friends collected various items we ordered, to be shipped later, to a future destination. The list included a lot of little and weird things one can hardly get in the islands, but ordering things from Amazon to a US address makes things suddenly available. Example:
A replacement / upgrade for our external, waterproof, monitor for our navigation system. A "simple" 15" LCD screen with high brightness, which will be mounted in the old aluminum case. The upgrade is the new LCD controller, with HDMI instead of VGA interface, plus LED back-lighting instead of old CFL. This stuff comes all from China, with a large range (weeks) for shipping times. We ordered it to Mike and Jenny, so they then can ship it when we say so with a more defined timeline.
testing the new LCD screen
A few days out, sailing from French Polynesia, we sent Jenny and Mike a "ship it" text. Timing of the logistics is crucial: The post office in Pago Pago holds mail for just 2 weeks.
All these waiting items got packed up and shipped via USPS on Wed 6/28, from North Carolina, at the same time, at the same post office. A weekly freight flight is used by USPS to transport Priority Mail from Hawaii to American Samoa, on a Saturday. Priority Mail Express would also go on other commercial flights, but there aren't that many to justify the extra cost.
All packages got an optimistic ETA of Mon 7/3. That would mean a package had 2 days to get to Hawaii, to make the freight plane. Unlikely.
Tracking with USPS often misses updates. But from the looks of what we did get to see, the packages took at least 4 different paths to get to Hawaii.
While we visited Suwarrow, we got the note, two packages actually made it Monday 7/3 to Pago Pago. We really didn't have to limit our time in Suwarrow because of that, but it gave us a deadline to be in Pago Pago before or on Friday 7/14.
7/11 we were in Pago Pago, picked up those first two packages same day, and then had to wait for the others to trickle in. Past the next weekend we got 1 more, 1 more must have been on a different flight and came mid week. One of the last 2 packages was a bit more concerning since it hadn't had any update for a week and that update was "left Miami". The two last packages did arrive for pick up on Monday 7/17.
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| the post office on a Sunday |
