Briefly
p. 67 · Read in the full issue
• Western Samoa’s new ferry, the Queen Salamasina, 784 tonnes, which was a gift from the Australian Govern ment, was taken to Suva for repairs to the shaft propeller and another propeller. The damage occurred when the fe rry was negotiating the entrance to Apia Harbour on her seventh trip between the two Samoas. Carpenters In dustrial, which has a contract with the Western Samoa Government, are repairing the ferry. The other inter island ferry, the Limulimutau, was also out of action through damage incurred when she went aground on Salelologa Reef. The bottom hull and the propellers were affected. The Limulimutau was to go to the Pago Pago slipway. While the ferries are out of action fur ther renovations will be car ried out at Mulifanua and Salelologa wharves. These will include enlarging the turning basins to allow the Queen Salamasina to manoeuvre freely, widening and deepening the entrance channels and fencing the passenger terminals. • The Shipping Cor poration of NZ has introduc ed two unit load ships to the Auckland-Niue-Cook Islands service, which has been ex tended to take in Tahiti.
These ships are the Tiare Moana (formerly the Nordkyn) and a sister ship, the Fetu Moana (formerly the Vagan). The service offered by the two ships is based on pallets and other similar units and replaces the service by the conventional ships Toa Moana, Lorena and Luhe sand. The Luhesand will be returned to her owners in West Germany. She was op erated under USS Co man agement on contract to the NZ Government. • The Western Samoa Government intends to buy a Boeing 737 for Polynesian Airlines to use on regular lights to New Zealand, via Fonga. The government is looking for delivery about nid-1979. • The 9 000-tonne Japanese bulk timber carrier Hodai- Maru was refloated tfter stranding for seven lours on a mudbank near the mtrance to Rabaul Harbour
in mid-January. The ship op erates a regular service to Japan from logging ports on the coast of New Britain and was southbound in ballast when the grounding occurred.
She continued her voyage after an inspection revealed no hull damage. • The Pacific was reluctant to let the Monterey go. On her last voyage, after more than 20 years of cruising from San Francisco and Los Angeles to the South Pacific, the luxury cruiser ran into Hurricane Bob between New Caledonia and Fiji. Hove-to for 36 hours, she had to ride out rough weather with waves 9 m to 11 m high. Two passengers were injured and a lot of crockery was broken. One of the injured passengers had a cut below an eye which re quired stitching. The Mon terey made up some time when the seas became calmer, but was still 24 hours late when she arrived at Pago Pago. • The US Corps of Engineers awarded a $4 484 084 contract to Hawaiian Dredging & Con struction Co of Micronesia to build the Majuro dock and harbour complex on Dalap.
Their bid was the lowest of the six received. The dock will be on the lagoon side of western Dalap, and will replace the existing port at Uliga Island which is inadequate. There will be about 4 000 metres of wharf space and 10.7 ha back up area for future container
development.
• The Fiji Government has approved a new type of fare for PAA which will con siderably cut travel costs be tween Fiji and the United States. The fares, which came into force from February 5, will allow passengers to fly from Nadi to the US and back for $4BB, compared with the normal economy fare of $1 080. The Nadi-Honolulu return trip will drop from $B6B to $338. To qualify for the cheap fares a passenger books 21 days in advance of the week of travel, and is told the exact days of the flights a week before flying. • Pan American World Airways has cut out one of its three weekly flights between American Samoa and Hawaii, because of fare reductions and because there are not enough passengers to justify three flights.