We needed to get some stuff to the island of Ta'u before we arrived.
Since we were not sure what we could and could not get on the island we sent a little bit of everything. It took about five trips to the hardware store before we stopped thinking of things to buy.
Photo by Matt.
A ferry, the M/V Sili, made two runs a week between the Manu'a islands about 70 miles east of Tutuila and Pago. The loading went on all day. The cargo was food for stores on the islands, barrels of fuel and oil, a van, building supplies -- a lot of building supplies -- and an earthquake monitoring station.
Photo by Matt.
Since we were shipping cement, by boat, in the tropics, and at the beginning of the rainy season we bought a tarp and gift wrapped the pallet. It cost about US$1400 to ship all of the equipment for this experiment from New Mexico to Pago Pago. We shipped about 600 pounds of the equipment from Pago Pago on to Apia, Samoa for the sites over there for the ridiculous price of about US$1500 courtesy of DHL. The price to ship this equipment from Pago Pago to Ta'u was calculated by the cubic foot. It was way less than a hundred bucks. I like boats.
2014-08-03