# For all my readers, especially tsell and kauvaka.



## Cpt Dick Brooks (May 13, 2013)

G,day, to you all, and how are you making out, especially tsell and Kauvaka? I'm back ! I tried to keep in touch with you guys when I was in Samoa, but my younger daughter's computer was broken by her two young daughters fighting over it, and computer cafés are not quite the in thing out in the South Seas... yet.
Mariana was dually sworn in as the Head Matai of her extended family, as well as the High Chief of her village and surrounding area. This will now give her the right to be a member of the Samoan Parliament, situated at The Fono in Apia. Our oldest daughter, Zyanya, and our son, Robbie, were also sworn in as matais. 
She had her official meeting fale built in only two weeks in that terrible storm that encircled the Earth from Peru, in South America, across the South Pacific to Australia, then through the Timor Sea and across the Indian Ocean to Somali, in Africa. Between the members of her village of Lotofaga-Safata and the local members of the Mormon Church, they completed the task in time.
I'll post more later, after I've recovered from flying 15,000 miles on three planes in only 48 hours... especially with three small boys of our family in tow. All the best, Cpt Dick Brooks.


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## tsell (Apr 29, 2008)

Cpt Dick Brooks said:


> G,day, to you all, and how are you making out, especially tsell and Kauvaka? I'm back ! I tried to keep in touch with you guys when I was in Samoa, but my younger daughter's computer was broken by her two young daughters fighting over it, and computer cafés are not quite the in thing out in the South Seas... yet.
> Mariana was dually sworn in as the Head Matai of her extended family, as well as the High Chief of her village and surrounding area. This will now give her the right to be a member of the Samoan Parliament, situated at The Fono in Apia. Our oldest daughter, Zyanya, and our son, Robbie, were also sworn in as matais.
> She had her official meeting fale built in only two weeks in that terrible storm that encircled the Earth from Peru, in South America, across the South Pacific to Australia, then through the Timor Sea and across the Indian Ocean to Somali, in Africa. Between the members of her village of Lotofaga-Safata and the local members of the Mormon Church, they completed the task in time.
> I'll post more later, after I've recovered from flying 15,000 miles on three planes in only 48 hours... especially with three small boys of our family in tow. All the best, Cpt Dick Brooks.


Hey, Dick, welcome back from Paradise! It's nice to see that you haven't become too lofty to remember your mates, but kudos to Mariana on her exalted position. I'm sure everyone is exceptionally proud of her. Please give her our best.
I hope you haven't put on too much weight after your grand lifestyle over the past few weeks? Any thoughts of moving to the South Seas permanently?

All the best,(Thumb)

Taff


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## kauvaka (Oct 11, 2009)

Was there plenty of corned beef, pork and marinated fish Cap'n? With pawpaw (Papaya), mangoes, bananas for afters? Congratulations to all concerned. Tofa!


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## tsell (Apr 29, 2008)

...and loads of palusami and taro?

Taff


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## Cpt Dick Brooks (May 13, 2013)

*For Taff and kauvaka.*

G'day, Roy, and talofa, Kauvaka, it's good to hear from you guys. We are all very pleased with the way that everything worked out, and are now trying to put our U.K. lives back together, after being completely jet-lagged. 15,000 miles in only 48 hours takes it right out of you. I didn't wake up until gone midday, despite getting to bed by 10pm. 
Yes, I did get my share of taro and palasami... and I'm not ashamed to admit that palasami is my favourite Polynesian food. When you think that this delicious side order was created by the Polynesians because there is no clay on these paradise volcanic islands in the South Seas, so they couldn't make pottery to make an accompaniable sauce to complete a dish, they created this wonderful food. 
Most of the time, I stayed at Mariana's house at Vaitele Sau, on the outskirts of Apia... and ate westernized versions of Samoan food... but when we went to her village of Lotofaga-Safata, on the southern side of Upolu Island, we ate true umu-cooked Polynesian food. And the pork and the cooked fish... as well as the raw oka... was absolutely delicious. As Kauvaka will assure you, Taff, this Polynesian food cooked in the umu... the underground fire pit... is absolutely delicious. Good luck to you guys, and it's great to hear from you. All the best, Cpt Dick Brooks.


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## tsell (Apr 29, 2008)

Cpt Dick Brooks said:


> G'day, Roy, and talofa, Kauvaka, it's good to hear from you guys. We are all very pleased with the way that everything worked out, and are now trying to put our U.K. lives back together, after being completely jet-lagged. 15,000 miles in only 48 hours takes it right out of you. I didn't wake up until gone midday, despite getting to bed by 10pm.
> Yes, I did get my share of taro and palasami... and I'm not ashamed to admit that palasami is my favourite Polynesian food. When you think that this delicious side order was created by the Polynesians because there is no clay on these paradise volcanic islands in the South Seas, so they couldn't make pottery to make an accompaniable sauce to complete a dish, they created this wonderful food.
> Most of the time, I stayed at Mariana's house at Vaitele Sau, on the outskirts of Apia... and ate westernized versions of Samoan food... but when we went to her village of Lotofaga-Safata, on the southern side of Upolu Island, we ate true umu-cooked Polynesian food. And the pork and the cooked fish... as well as the raw oka... was absolutely delicious. As Kauvaka will assure you, Taff, this Polynesian food cooked in the umu... the underground fire pit... is absolutely delicious. Good luck to you guys, and it's great to hear from you. All the best, Cpt Dick Brooks.


Hi Dick, guess you'll soon be settled in and belting out another bunch of chapters. Give my regards to Kimberly when you speak with her - I think she's forgotten me!
My belly's rumbling - there's nothing in world cuisine to match palusami, eh? I just about lived on palusami and goat curry in Fiji. As for the umu, lovo and hangi, as you say... delicious! Raw oka - we had a cook on a tanker who made that with the flying fish which flew aboard. I still make it, but no flying fish around here, unless I annoy Sylvia!!

Keep in touch, cheers,

Roy


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## ccurtis1 (Aug 16, 2007)

Good to see you back Cap'n. Looking forward to more of your tales.


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## Frank P (Mar 13, 2005)

Nice to see that you are back Dick.......


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## Cpt Dick Brooks (May 13, 2013)

*For ccurtis 1. and Frank P.*

G'day, guys, it's good to hear from you. I'm trying to get over jet-lag, after flying 15,000 miles on three planes in 48 hours. As Samoa is directly on the opposite side of the world from England, it takes a while to re-a just your body clock. All the best, Cpt Dick Brooks.


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## Cpt Dick Brooks (May 13, 2013)

*For tsell and Kauvaka.*

G'day to you, Roy, and talofa to you, Kauvaka, it's good to hear from you again. I must admit that I ate well on Polynesian food in Samoa, especially from the umu in Mariana's village of Lotofaga-Safata, on the southern side of Upolu Island... and there was plenty of local fruit served with the meals, including pawpaw.
My favourite fish for oka is albacore, although they served it very nicely made with yellow fin tuna. Mariana even makes it in England using fresh mackerel from the local fish stall in the market... and that also tastes fine.
I was surprised to see so much curried food this time I was in Samoa, and was informed that this was the influence of Fiji, only some six hundred miles to the west... although they are Melanesians, with a majority of Indians in the island archipelago. It went down well with the Samoan food along with it.
It's time for bed, lads, although you are only just having a late breakfast out in the South Seas. All the best, Cpt Dick Brooks.


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## Bill.B (Oct 19, 2013)

South Pacific, Ipswich.....South Pacific, Ipswich. If the Bounty had been collecting breadfruit in Ipswich there would have been no story Dick. Glad you had a great trip and all went well. I will be making my annual pilgrimage again soon to.......................Ipswich! Must be something about it to keep on drawing us back.
Cheers 
Bill


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## Cpt Dick Brooks (May 13, 2013)

*For Bill. B.*

G'day, Bill. B, it's good to hear from you. Like me, you sound like you've spent most of your life at sea... and that you yourself are also an Ipswich boy. I love the tropics, all over the world... and especially the Caribbean, where I worked with my last ship, Debut, but I love the South Seas the most. I spent five and a half years in the South Seas, after transiting the Panama Canal with Debut, before arriving at Cairns, in Australia.
After travelling a year through the islands of French Polynesia, I arrived in Pago Pago, in American Samoa. Using this deep, well protected harbour for a base for one and a half years... travelling mainly back to the Cook Islands, and once to Niafu, in Tonga, with 265 tons of cyclone relief, following a devastating cyclone that blew much of the islands buildings out to sea like waste paper down an empty street... I sailed for Apia, in Western Samoa with Mariana, my new teenage Polynesian wife, to meet her family.
Once settling into the routine of living on board Debut in the outer harbour anchorage... which was cool, and free of flies and mosquitoes, being a quarter of a mile offshore... I secured a contract with Mobile Oil to do all the maintenance in the harbour on their super tanker moorings and their mile long undersea oil pipeline to the tank farms of Mobile Oil, Shell and British Petroleum. From there, Mariana and I set out to explore the South Seas and the Coral Sea with Debut, until we arrived in Australia in June, 1985. And the rest of the story is history, as the saying goes.
It's good to hear from you, Bill. B. You can go to the Books Forum for the Kindle code for my nine books, especially 'The Black Ship's Odessa, Book Two.' All the best, Cpt Dick Brooks.


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