Pitufa.at

We spent another day in Sapzurro yesterday, waiting for the swell to go down. During the night, there was some commotion on deck, then we heard the clip-clap of the catflap and Leeloo delivered a squid to our cabin. After ungratefully refusing her generous gifts of mice, moles, birds, snakes and frogs for years, we decided it would be a shame to waste the little… Continue reading »

2012
06
Sep

What a busy day…

Today we got up at 6, left Sapzurro at 8, reached Puerto Obaldia at 9.30 (dolphins accompanied us into the bay!), but then our timetable was considerably slowed down by Panamanian officials. The lady at immigration could neither spell nor calculate, but compensated with being unfriendly. The guys at the harbourmaster’s office were fun, but had to fill in a dozen forms with a very… Continue reading »

2012
03
Sep

Cruising the San Blas Islands

Off the coast of Panama lies the Comarca de Kuna Yala, an autonomous region where the indigenous group of the Kuna live according to their traditions and culture, successfully avoiding the “blessings” of the western civilization. There are 365 islands (1 for each day of the year) so we’ll take some time exploring them

2012
02
Sep

Good bye Sapzurro

yesterday we got out all things from the saloon cupboard to reach the huge compartment full of cans and other long-lasting provisioning underneath. Checking our stock revealed that many delicacies need to be eaten before they expire, so we just had to buy some veggies, fruit and eggs from our veggie-lady Marta here in Sapzurro to be prepared for the next weeks of cruising. We’re… Continue reading »

2012
31
Aug

Ready for the rainy season

Cruising in the tropics during the rainy season can be unpleasant. There may be not much of a breeze so it can be steamingly hot and oppressive and in some regions strong thunderstorms are frequent. When it pours down you are forced to shut the hatches so no fresh air comes into the boat. And sometimes it pours down for a longer period of time… Continue reading »

2012
30
Aug

Article about Suriname in current Ocean7 magazine

In the new (September-October) issue of Ocean7, our Suriname article has been published Available at Tobacconists, petrol stations, etc. in Austria and Germany. Birgit Hackl, Christian Feldbauer: Suriname — ein Tor zum Regenwald, OCEAN7 05 (September/October) 2012, p. 28–35. download PDF (in German only)

2012
26
Aug

New Photo Gallery: Islas Rosarios and San Bernardo and Sapzurro

We’ve just uploaded new pics from our sail along the Colombian coast between Cartagena and Panama.

2012
26
Aug

A hike through the jungle

Yesterday we hiked to the next bigger town Capurgana. It was an incredible experience walking through the rainforest, with large butterflies fluttering around us and colourful flowers everywhere. The region here is within the “Darién gap”, a nearly impenetrable jungle in Panama and Colombia that reaches from the Caribbean all the way to the Pacific, without roads and very few inhabitants. The colonialists were fended… Continue reading »

2012
22
Aug

Walking aaaalll the way to Panama!

Today we took a walk up the hill (steep earthen steps) to the border to Panama. After 20 minutes we reached two idyllic huts with thatched roofs, each with a hamack and a relaxed soldier in it. 10 minutes and a few hundred concrete steps later we reached the village on the Panamian side: Puerto de la Miel. It’s also not connected to a road… Continue reading »

2012
17
Aug

Sapzurro–what an idyllic place

We arrived in Sapzurro this morning after a lovely, gentle sail (at least, we sailed 2/3 of the 120 miles). The night was somewhat scary with huge dark clouds and ligtning all around us. Luckily we only got some rain. On the last 20 miles the winds left us so we motored the last leg. We were a bit worried entering the bay because we… Continue reading »

2012
15
Aug

Sailing to Sapzurro

This morning when we had to motor without wind we cursed the mediterranean-like winds in the basin of Colombia (remember: either no wind, or too much, and if there’s any it’s always from the wrong direction…). At noon the wind shifted and picked up slightly and Pitufa started with gliding along quickly and effortlessly on the flat seas, immediately we started praising the mediterranean-like sea… Continue reading »

2012
15
Aug

Leaving las Islas de San Bernardo

The day before yesterday southerly winds were predicted, so we took Pitufa to the northern side of the island to search for the pass through the reef we had discovered by dinghy. Our findings seemed to agree with our C-map charts, so we were optimistic. However, on the way we encountered some spots where the reef came up to three metres with C-map claiming that… Continue reading »

2012
13
Aug

Tintipan, Islas de San Bernardo

Yesterday we made a dinghy ride all around the island (that admittedly sounds less impressive when you know that the island is only 1.7 miles long ). On the northern side the reef reaches out several miles, we found a pass into the lagoon, but there’s shoals everywhere and taking Pitufa over here would be quite tricky. There are a few luxorious looking villas on… Continue reading »

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2012
11
Aug

Thunderstorms

The area here is famous or rather infamous for its frequent thunderstorms. In Cartagena we saw the lightning far away in the south each night–now we’re in the middle it. Last evening the flashes in the south looked like the finale of a new years eve fireworks… at three o’clock in the morning the squall reached us with gusts over 30 knots of wind, we… Continue reading »

2012
10
Aug

Islas de San Bernardo

We left the reef channel of Isla Grande this morning at 7 o’clock veeery carefully and then motored southwards through the Rosarios archipelago–unfortunately again there wasn’t enough wind for sailing. It became clear how the archipelago was named: the little islands really lie next to each other like pearls on a rosary. Each island has at least one house, sometimes the motto seems to be… Continue reading »