Pitufa.at

Today around noon we passed our half-distance mark. After a very comfy and quiet first half of the night we passed from dark cloud to dark cloud with gusty wind and drizzle. This morning the sea was high again and confused. It’s a scary view when an especially steep and high blue mountain looms up over Pitufa’s side. It seems certain that the wave will… Continue reading »

Food’s a central topic in the life on Pitufa anyway, but even more during passages. We have a hearty breakfast around 9, a muesli or a salad at noon (hooray, we finished the bananas today, eating about 100 bananas in one week was quite a challenge–who’d have thought that the whole bunch would get ripe so quickly?? we’ll keep away from bananas for a while… Continue reading »

After just a week we’ve almost made one third of the distance–only a bit more than the distance of our Atlantic crossing is missing, but while we had to hand-steer on the Atlantic, here we just watch our windvane Wayne Vaney do all the steering. We’ve had two rough days with lots of squalls and strong winds intercepted by annoying calms during which Pitufa rolls… Continue reading »

While cruising through the Med, crossing the Atlantic and cruising through the Caribbean we kept adding little improvements to make life on passage easier (locked floorboards, sliders to secure drawers, etc.), but most of our sailing until now was downwind, with Pitufa gliding down waves and rolling. On this passage we now have the wind on the beam, as soon as it picks up (like… Continue reading »

Once again the earth is a blue disk and the sky its blue lid. The perfect deep azure of the Pacific is only dotted with occasional whitecaps today, the wind is lighter and progress slower, but also more comfortable. Looking at the chart it seems incredible how far away and far apart islands are spreads on the gigantic width of the Pacific. We haven’t seen… Continue reading »

We’ve had a fresh breeze and more than 1 knot of current helping us along on the first day and Pitufa’s flying along with 7 to 8 knots and the wind on her beam. After last-minute shopping, clearing up the boat and preparing for the passage we were actually looking forward to some days of lazy reading on the passage but life on passage turned… Continue reading »

Yesterday afternoon, after some slow tacking towards the first island of the archipelago, Isla Cristobal, we motored through the islands in the night. We are now south of our destination, Isla Isabela, and will make landfall soon.

Yesterday at 9 in the evening we sailed for the first time over the equator. According to our clever book about ceremonies and traditions that would require several rituals to turn the bollywogs (people who’ve never sailed over the equator) into shellbacks. The book said that would include dressing up in strange garb, crawling through garbage, being sloshed with something black and smelly and shaved… Continue reading »

The winds are still very light, but the waves have calmed down and sailing almost feels like being in a calm anchorage. Under deck we don’t even feel the huge swell that comes up from the south, only in the cockpit you suddenly realize that the boat is gently lifted up to the first floor and then set down on the groundfloor again Last night… Continue reading »