ende

2015
02
Nov

Dramatically uncomfortable

When the anchor drops after a long passage, but the boat keeps pitching and rolling merrily, you know you’ve arrived in the Marquesas… Unlike the other archipelagos of Fr. Poly, these islands have no protecting fringe reefs and their coasts and bays are open to the waves and mighty swell of the Pacific. During El Nino years they are supposed to be safely out of… Continue reading »

2015
01
Nov

Almost there

Onyl 75 miles to go, so we hope to arrive in Nuku Hiva tomorrow morning.

2015
31
Oct

Hotter and hotter

Today we have got a nice ESE-erly breeze and are on a direct course to Nuku Hiva. 190 miles to go on a course of 19 deg. Summer is coming and we are sailing towards the equator — it’s getting incredibly hot…

2015
30
Oct

The world’s largest bathtub

The light winds continued. This morning it was calm enough to take a bath in the Ocean (while holding on to the ladder). Now we are on the way north towards the Marquesas.

2015
29
Oct

A real calm

After a night of very light winds the dreaded calm finally got us this morning and we ended up motoring (the waves were still too high to just sit on the water…). After a few hours the engine died–the clogged fuel line was fortunately easy to find and clear. Now we’ve just got enough of a breeze to keep Pitufa sailing again with 2 to… Continue reading »

2015
27
Oct

A blowy calm

The forcasts claim, there is no wind today, but we are riding 20+ knots from the SE. Wild, but definitely better than motoring.

2015
26
Oct

Sailing again

We are out at sea again. Not much wind at the moment in this area, so we hope it will pick up soon.

2015
25
Oct

Lessons in patience

At the moment we have the feeling that we spend half the time waiting for suitable weather windows browsing our forecasts and the rest of the time we are fretting about predictions that haven’t come true. As soon as appointments/deadlines (in our case the cyclone season) are involved, cruising definitely stops being fun. At the moment we are ‘stuck’ in calm, sunny weather in a… Continue reading »

2015
22
Oct

Stopover in Ahe

We arrived today in Ahe and anchored off the village in the South of the small atoll. Work on the giant Mahi Mahi we pulled in just before the pass is still in progress. It took us two days for a distance we easily could do in less than one in the right winds…

2015
21
Oct

Shellback

It’s slow going, tacking so close-hauled. To make 70 nm as the bird flies we’ve had to sail over 100 since yesterday. First it was very squally with Pitufa heeling down to the toe-rail in the gusts. Of course the fishing line snapped tight during one of these squalls, Christian had a hard time pulling the medium sized Bonito in while trying not to fall… Continue reading »

2015
20
Oct

Out on the ocean again

We left Tikehau at noon, the destination is yet unknown. We will see how far east the wind (on the nbose) will allow us to go.

2015
18
Oct

Sitting out the Maramu

After we had left Bora Bora, we slogged in two tedious days of sailing very slowly, as close-hauled as possible in light winds to Raiatea and then on to Huahine. On the way to Huahine we considered heading on straight to the Tuamotus, but the weatherforecast predicted fickle winds, so we decided to stop once more. We were lucky to do so, because 4 miles… Continue reading »

2015
16
Oct

In the Tuamotus again

After two days close-hauled sailing (crawling along walls rather than walking on the floor…) we’ve reached Tikehau.

2015
14
Oct

Towards the Tuamotus

After a few complications we are finally on our way to the Tuamotus. We hope the wind will last.

2015
11
Oct

Horror tales from the fridge

One of the things cruisers dread is a problem with the fridge. To do any repairs yourself you’d need at least a filling gauge to check the pressure and to add refrigerant, a bottle of refrigerant gas, a vacuum pump (in a size a yacht inverter or generator can handle), soldering gear, a spare compressor, a spare electronic unit, a filter/dryer, some copper tubes and… Continue reading »

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