The Big Swell

The word got out, in the news, on the coconut wireless, between saw cuts, a thousand mile long swell several hundred miles wide was coming our way from the south, Antarctica. As it hits Moorea the waves breaking on the reef at the south end, not far from us here, will be over 4 meters high (over 12 feet). All of the Tahitian and French surfers are excited and out riding these rollers. Fortunately this swell does not bring cold water with it, just the force. Claude and I forced ourselves away from the job around 3 PM to go for a swim and were quite surprised at the condition of the lagoon. Our beach was packed with Big Kahuna kiteboarders, preening themselves before they zip out onto the water. They are nailing signs to the coconut trees with beach rules on them (unfortunately for them this not their beach) that say things like “swimmers watch out for the fast moving kiteboarders, move out of their way”.

The water was not its usual clear bluegreen, instead a milky light green sort of like glacier water. The wind was blowing hard one way with a strong current going the other, we swam in that. Our safety valve was that we stayed close enough in shore to touch the bottom with our feet, but whenever we swam it was like being in a swimming machine, you’d stroke as hard as possible and only manage to stay in the same place. Occasionally coconuts and palm fronds would come floating by, it was clearly a large mountain of water that brushed over these islands for a couple of days. While walking to the wi-fi place there is a little river coming down from the valley, it also acts as a drain when the lagoon water backs up into the island. It was much higher than usual and flowing strong full of plant debris. I’m sure some of the smaller islands, motus, and atolls were much more severely affected.

On the same day as this the news of a 52-year-old Air France pilot who lived in Papeete sent us all a clear message. He was having a great time, like some of the wild jet-ski rental people from the resort club a mile down the beach from here. Some of his buddies were playing too, following him with their small speedboat. The pilot spun a turn and flipped off into the water…right in front of his friend’s boat, that was it, got his head cut in half, not cut off though. His teenage daughters were coming the next day for a visit from New York. Now they are in Tahiti with his ex-wife to put his affairs in order etc. The 5 mph law for the boats in the lagoon is not enforced at all, like so many other laws around here. Not knowing when the last moments are coming, we must all enjoy the ones we have, hopefully when the troops come in to put our affairs in order they will also say so-and-so had a good life.