ende

Birgit

Author's details

Name: Birgit
Date registered: September 22, 2010
Jabber / Google Talk: admin

Latest posts

  1. Vögel auf den Salomonen — July 25, 2025
  2. Birds in the Solomons — July 25, 2025
  3. Nähprojekte — July 23, 2025
  4. Sewing projects — July 23, 2025
  5. Wieder daheim! — July 20, 2025

Most commented posts

  1. The Matuku Marine Reserve and how it came into being — 11 comments
  2. Donations for the Marine Reserve in Matuku — 10 comments
  3. Hilfsprojekte für Matuku — 7 comments
  4. Leeloo 2000–2021 — 6 comments
  5. Survived! — 6 comments

Author's posts listings

2025
25
Jul

Birds in the Solomons

We don’t see many sea birds here, but when anchored close to shore the chorus of birds consists of an amazing array of different voices! The most raucous and visible are the groups of white cockatoos that flit from tree to tree and always seem to have something to quarrel or chat about. We hear lots of different warblers and pigeons, but they mostly remain… Continue reading »

2025
23
Jul

Sewing projects

While I was in hospital with the staph infection Smurfy gave me (okay, indirectly as the bacteria entered the blood through a Smurfy scratch) he thought it was a cool idea to pee on my bed, so Christian (who was overwhelmed by the boathold already) spent a day washing sheets and pillows. Fortunately the mattress cover was due to be replaced anyway–we had bought the… Continue reading »

2025
20
Jul

Back home!

Still standing! Battered, swollen, but happy to be back home and out of the dirty harbour of Honiara. 1 week since the surgery to clean out an abscess on my kneecap after a staph infection from a little scratch on my ankle… 6 more days, then we can get the stitches out and I’m allowed to dip into the Pacific!

2025
14
Jul

Bacterial Infection

The western Pacific islands are notorious for bacterial infections. Despite constant disinfecting one of my many Smurfy scratches got infected while we were working at Simon’s Nature Reserve. A nasty bug got into my bloodstream, chills, fever and then my knee spontaneously went melonsized. A day later (July 2) we went back to Honiara, antibiotics IV at BS Medical, ultrasound at Frontier radiology–thanks to all… Continue reading »

2025
29
Jun

Our experiences cruising Papua New Guinea

I’ve just finished a short summary of our visit to the Eastern and Northeastern Islands of PNG. This area used to be quite popular, but for the last decade rumours of violence and crime (that are certainly true for parts of the mainland) have kept sailboats kept away. We enjoyed the little islands very much and would like to encourage more cruisers to visit–the islanders… Continue reading »

2025
25
Jun

30 years together

… and the last 14 of these years 24/7 365 aboard our Pitufa–I suppose these count double?? We got lucky and found each other as teenagers, so we got to grow (up) together

2025
18
Jun

Installing a solar system for Simon’s Nature Reserve

We’ve been busy all week, but now the solar installation for Simon is finished! Christian (and plenty of helping hands) mounted 3 of our used panels together to have one big panel Then Simon’s brother Charles built a post where the panel will have a maximum of sunshine Then we had to lead a mighty long cable high up to keep it safe from playing… Continue reading »

2025
15
Jun

A shipment from Australia to the Solomons

We ordered a new chain and new solar panels from Australia and had them sent to a freightforwarding company and they were meant to send them here on a containership. Sounds simple, but it turned into an epic story when OPFL in Brisbane after being super responsive suddenly no longer reacted to emails or calls. Just when we were convinced that they had sold all… Continue reading »

2025
09
Jun

Shopping in Honiara

We’ve just spent 3 days on Honiara’s dusty roads chasing parts for the mooring and solar installation and of course we’ve done some more provisioning for ourselves. Once again everything went fine, nothing got stolen and yesterday we sailed over to Simon’s bay again! We didn’t get much sleep in the loud and rolly anchorage in Honiara and this time Christian caught a big-city bug,… Continue reading »

2025
30
May

Photos of Simon’s Nature Reserve

2025
30
May

Support for Simon’s nature reserve

Google maps shows a place called “Simon’s Nature Reserve” in a bay on the Florida Islands just north of Honiara and intrigued by the name we anchored, not knowing what to expect. An eco lodge? A nature park with a guard? Turns out Simon is just a local man living in a hut ashore, but he has dedicated the past 20 years to protecting the… Continue reading »

2025
26
May

Honiara, capital of the Solomons

Anchoring We were warned not to go to Honiara by sailboat as the anchorage has a bad reputation for bad holding, bouncy conditions and crime. Well, I suppose we got lucky: we found a good anchor spot off the breakwater cafe (a big thank you to Fred, the owner, who let us use their dock and helped with advice) and with a few days of… Continue reading »

2025
15
May

Sailing towards Honiara

The only times we get north or northwest wind is when a cyclone or low passes south of us. With some patience we managed to sail all the way down from northern PNG riding those winds. This week a low south of Guadalcanal brought strong winds and floodings to Honiara–and brought us a weather window to sail down from New Georgia to the Florida Islands… Continue reading »

2025
05
May

8 months of Smurfy aboard

Incredible, but true, our kitten’s already grown up. He’s still a bit crazy, but getting better (or so we tell ourselves). Unfortunately there’s no veterinary in the Solomon Islands, so we still haven’t been able to have him neutered. For now we just hope that he won’t start marking his territory anytime soon as he can smell neither competing rivals nor lady cats out here… Continue reading »

2025
29
Apr

Convergence Zone weather sailing (motoring)

We have a shipment arriving in Honiara, the capital of the Solomons, mid May (new solar panels, a new anchor chain, etc. coming on a container ship), so we should slowly make our way southeast towards Honiara before the trade winds set in. No problem, we thought, even though there’s not much wind we’ll just do short hops with little puffs of wind, it’s only… Continue reading »

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