Each leg of this trip offers enlightenment and knowledge about global places and this stop is no exception.
The Samoan islands were settled by Polynesians from Tonga about 1000 BCE. Samoa had become the point of origin for voyagers who settled much of eastern Polynesia.The Dutch navigators sighted Samoa in 1722, and other European explorers, beachcombers, and traders followed.

In 1878 the United States signed a treaty for the establishment of a naval station in Pago Pago Harbor. In 1899, Germany gained control of the western islands, and the United States took the eastern islands. Under the administration of the U.S. Navy (1900–51), American Samoa became a strategic naval base. In 1951 control of the territory was transferred to the U.S. Department of the Interior.

The Samoans agitated for control of their country’s affairs, and in 1977 Peter Coleman, a Samoan, became the territory’s first elected governor. Since then all members of the territory’s Fono have been elected by the citizens. In 1981 American Samoans for the first time elected a nonvoting delegate to serve a two-year term in the U.S. House of Representatives.

On September 29, 2009, the Samoan archipelago was shaken by an undersea earthquake of magnitude 8.3, centered some 120 miles to the south in the Pacific Ocean. The quake generated a tsunami that flooded the islands of American Samoa in several waves and caused extensive damage to Tutuila; Pago Pago was inundated, and villages throughout the islands were flattened, killing scores of people.

Next up is the long equator crossing to the big island, Hilo, Hawaii. So far the weather enroute looks good, with no major areas of bad weather in the picture …. Let’s hope for favorable winds aloft!