Equinox

Today is the September Equinox (or vernal equinox here in the Southern Hemisphere) where the sun moves from the Northern to Southern Hemisphere. That means it is the end of winter and beginning of spring. Of course, winter is relative here in French Polynesia – it means I have been wearing my full 3 mm wetsuit in the water instead of my shorty spring suit. The change in seasons also means we have to start thinking about where we will be in the summer, which is cyclone season. Cyclone don’t often hit French Polynesia, but it can happen. And, with climate change and the chance that this year may be an El Niño year…who knows.

We’re to head back to the States on November to spend the holidays with friends and family. We’ll likely leave Adagio tucked away in Tahiti and keep our fingers crossed that no cyclones come this way while we are gone. Watching the devastation that Hurricane Florence just inflicted on North Carolina reminds us that tropical cyclones (which is what a hurricane is) are no joke. Our tentative plans for now are to head down to the Gambiers in January when we get back to Tahiti.

In the meantime, we have been enjoying ourselves in Huahine. It’s been nice to stay put somewhere for a change. So often in the last 2.5 years we have been constantly on the move, not really getting to know a place. But, we’re starting to know Huahine.

Mike has been surfing any chance he gets when the swell is up and has gotten to know the familiar faces on the surf break. For the most part, the locals have been really friendly to him even with a bit of a language barrier. But, as any surfer knows (or anyone who has watched a surf movie) there is always going to be some territorial jackass who doesn’t want anyone else on the waves but him. Mike’s only had one such encounter here.

We’ve also done the hike up the ridge line to the top of the mountain 3 times. It completely kicks my ass, but it’s all good fun. And, we’ve gotten in more diving which is always fun with huge schools of different fish each time. On our last dive, we had a school of hundreds of barracuda swim all around us. Very cool.

We keep finding excuses not to move on from this place. Sometimes it’s the weather, or a coming swell which will bring the surf. Last week our friend Dan on Kini Popo showed up, so we decided to stay a little longer. But, as the seasons start to change, we have to seriously start thinking about heading back toward Tahiti if we want to get any boat work done before we leave in November. I’ll be sad to leave here, but I know we’ll get another shot to return next year.

Sunset in Huahine…

-Katie