American Samoa: Yacht lost on Reef at Pago Pago
Two sailors who claim they were denied safe harbour in Pago Pago, have been shipwrecked on a reef at the entrance to the port and now face the task of removing their damaged yacht.
Published 2 years ago
Francisco Galvez and his brother Esteban were sailing their 1967 Pearson Vanguard SV Volunteer from French Polynesia to American Samoa when their journey ended in disaster.
- Photo from Samoa Times website.
According to a report on the Talanei.com website, the yacht ran aground on a coral reef off Aua village after it was denied entry to enter the port of Pago Pago. This was confirmed by Director of Homeland Security Samana Semo Veavea.
According to Samana, the standard procedure since the COVID pandemic is for vessels to request prior permission, at least 72 hours before arrival. But the yacht’s occupants had not followed this requirement.
“As a precaution to allow time to check out the background about the yacht and its occupants, instructions were given to keep the yacht out until the next day,” he said.
“But by morning, the yacht had drifted and ended up running aground in shallow waters off Aua. The two occupants swam ashore to Aua village. First responders were at Aua to render assistance and also administer COVID tests. Both men were negative.”
Francisco Galvez reported his version of what happened to Volunteer.
In Search of Freedom
My brother Francisco Galvez and I, decided to take on an adventure and sail from French Polynesia to American Samoa. The boat sailed great through many days of pretty bad weather but she finally brought us safely to the American Samoan harbor after 20 days offshore.
As soon as we arrived to port, our misfortune took place. The harbor’s master did not grant us permission to tie to a safe dock or a quarantine buoy. He said he needed authorization from the governors office, so he ordered us to leave the port and drift outside until further notice.
We drifted for 9 hours; exhaustion started to kick in. We contacted the port control again and again and we told him that he was putting our lives in danger. When the night fell we were scared for our safety and the safety of our boat so we tried to seek shelter anyways. We sailed back in the harbor and we dropped anchor but the port captain sent us the marine patrol. They escorted us out to open waters. After that, we tried to escape from the current and the coral reef several times but eventually, out of diesel and energy, our minds fell under extreme fatigue. We drifted back and crashed against the coral reef.
Abandon Ship
We took the VHF (the radio) and we cried for help, for assistance. We were so desperate. Then police boat approach us commanding us to abandon the ship and to swim to shore for safety. We got badly injured by walking and swimming through coral and climbing the cliffs.
Now the American Samoan authorities are making us responsible for everything and they are demanding us to clean up the mess. This could cost us about $20,000.
We have lost everything we had. We have lost our beautiful Volunteer. We have no resources to respond to their claim. We are devastated.
Francisco Galvez
SV Volunteer
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Related News:
Yacht SV Volunteer Runs Aground off Aua Village (Samoa Times)
What Caused this Sailboat to Run Aground (Samoa News)
The Loss of the Pearson Vanguard “Volunteer” in American Samoa (‘Lectronic Latitude)
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Noonsite has not independently verified this information.
Related to following destinations: American Samoa, French Polynesia, Pago Pago
Sadly these sailors didn’t do their homework and make the required notifications and requests beforehand. Now they want to blame the American Samoa authorities. You have to be responsible for doing what is required to enter a foreign country. It’s not that country’s government that should do the work fr you. If they were low on fuel they should have requested fuel be brought to them. Certainly they would have obliged as long as the crew could pay for said fuel. Too many yachties out here these days think they can circumvent the rules or that they just don’t apply to them. It’s a shame because it makes things more difficult for those of us who do follow the rules. Tough lesson to learn but hopefully they learned it.