Looking for a Safe Haven to Secure ALSO II

We entered Pago Pago , Samoa in the worst weather we experienced in our sailing. We had just completed the fastest passage of our cruise and arrived early while it was still dark. Within ¾ of a mile of the entrance buoy to the harbor, we were hit by a small storm that saw the winds go from 25 knots to 55 knots in an instant. The wind over powered our autopilot, the heavy rain blacked out the radar screen and through an open portal a wave hit me and splashed salt water on the computer. That took out all our electronic navigation aids! As a result we had to turn and beat out of Pago Pago for 5 hours. Hard on the wind, we had breaking surf less than 100 yards to leeward on either tack. The wind and conditions demanded that I hand steer for the 5 hours! I was not sure we were going to make it. About 2:30 in the afternoon it began to let up and we were able to turn around and make a second attempt at entering Pago Pago . We crossed to Western Samoa for a couple of weeks and then moved on to Tonga . By this time we were looking for a safe place for the cyclone season in the South Pacific, while we liked Tonga , I didn't find an anchorage that I felt confident in. While in Tonga we met Peter and Bev from ÎHornpipe', they were planning to stay in Fiji for the cyclone season; as they had done before. We decided to buddy-boat with them to Fiji and arrived in Savusavu early in December 2001. Fiji stole our hearts in just a few hours. Within 3 hours we had met more local people than we had met in our entire cruise. We spent Christmas with a Moslim, Indian family and Boxing Day with a Hindu Indian family. After a couple of weeks we decided to go around to Bekana Island on the Northeast side of Vanua Levu to visit people we had met that owned the Island .