Pa’apa’a Seiuli Mata’itai from Magiagi, Vailoa and Sapapalii is happy to be back home, courtesy of a brief stopover in Samoa yesterday by cruise ship MSC Magnifica.

He is one of about 20 Samoan sailors who work on the vessel, which berthed in Apia yesterday as part of a one-day stop before it heads to Tonga. 

“I thank God for this because we didn’t know the ship had Samoa in its pathway around the world, and this is the first time we’ve travelled around the world coming through Samoa,” he said.

“And we’re all so happy because when we went to other countries, other crew members got to see their families, while we felt a bit sad for not seeing ours. But this is the first time and all we can say is thank God,” he said in an interview with the Samoa Observer.

According to Pa’apa’a, the MSC Magnifica is a 17 storey vessel with a total of 4000 passengers. 

The Samoan sailor was spotted escorting his elderly father, wife and three young children in a tour of the ship, as it docked at the Matautu wharf yesterday morning.

The vessel left Samoa at 5.00pm yesterday for Nukualofa, Tonga and then Suva and Lautoka in Fiji to complete its tours of the Pacific Islands, before leaving for New Zealand.