Pitufa.at

During the southern winter it’s normal to have phases with strong southeasterly winds. Whenever there’s a big fat high moving by eastwards to the south of us, the winds get accelerated in a squash zone above. These so called mara’amu’s howl at least every 2 weeks over French Polynesia, but the one we’re having now is stronger than the all we’ve seen over the past 6 years here. It’s been blowing around 30 knots (gusting over 40) for a week and it’ll keep on for a few more days. The swell has picked up, crossed with windseas it gets up to 4 m out there. The rough seas break over the outer reefs of atolls, fill up the lagoons and cause ripping currents in the passes. Two days ago two sailboats tried to get into the safety of the lagoon of Tahanea, but couldn’t make it in. This morning we heard that Raroria’s experiencing serious floodings in the village, damaged boats and houses, but apparently nobody hurt. We just hope that the seabird chicks that we saw there, have somehow mad
e it…