Holiday Festivities

Holiday festivities started right on time here, which is of course way too early. People began setting off fire works in early December already shouting Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. The weather was entirely too hot for us to even imagine that it was Christmas time, much less have our normal holiday cheer. Nevertheless things quieted down around the marina. David and Stephanie left for San Francisco on December 22, so Christmas was just my mom and I but we also celebrated with Dylan, from Australia, who we had met in the Marquesas, and just to make sure everything was unusual, we made fondue.
This is the summer season and December is said to be the wettest month and the weather has definitely lived up to its reputation. It rained almost every day in December, sometimes for hours nonstop, but at times other it was clear and beautiful. I have been taking surf lessons and the learning curve is slower than I expected; it's still a lot of fun.
We ended up buying a new dinghy and engine here because our old one is quite big and it is fully inflatable so getting it up on a plane was rather challenging and our 15 hp engine weighs a bit too much for comfort. We bought a smaller rigid bottom inflatable with a 9.9 hp engine and so far it has worked fabulously. Yesterday we tied a rope on to the stern and went scurfing (getting towed behind the boat on a surf board). We had heaps of fun and lots of laughs and certainly is an activity worth repeating many times over, especially in this heat.
It is truly amazing how much heat effects my motivation to get up and do things. When I am just sitting on the boat dripping sweat from doing absolutely nothing it is kind of hard to just get up and start moving. Grocery shopping and the general errands for living always leave us completely drenched. Swimming is always the easiest activity for obvious reasons.
We left home on this trip with nothing in the world of tv entertainment besides some PBS dvds. Here we discovered the wonderful world of watching other people's dvd collections. I even found a few in German so that has been fun attempting to brush up. Nevertheless staying in this marina for so long has been challenging, both my mom and I are ready to start moving again. Just bearing witness to just how much materialism has permeated the far reaches of our planet has been slightly depressing. Furthermore the city of Papeete gives the atmosphere a completely different feel from community centered outer islands, which are our personal preference; you are able to connect with the people in a much more human way. My dad missed his flight from LA so he is flying in early tomorrow morning but we will remain here to finish up some work on the boat before we set sail again. The departure date is however inching reassuringly closer.