Pitufa.at

Keeping a kitten aboard busy keeps us pretty busy! Smurfy’s happy to play along with anything we play with (or rather everything we handle…), and he can play “chase” the mouse for hours just running after a rope or a roll of toilet paper, but we also want him to practice his dexterity. The first box we makeshifted lasted only a week–Smurfy just smashed it… Continue reading »

Smurfy has turned from a docile kitten to a raucous teenager within a few weeks. At least he’s still eager to help with every task Christian and I try to accomplish… How did we get anything done before we got our Smurfy?

Our loudspeakers in the cockpit started crackling and failing a few months ago. No problem, we got new ones in Austria and simply brought them back to the boat along with other roughly 59 kg of goodies for Pitufa… A few days ago while we were on passage, Christian ripped out the old ones and started cleaning and sanding the area while Pitufa was happily… Continue reading »

Our little Smurf has been with us now for a month, went from a handful of cat to more than quite a handful, from clumsy, sleepy baby to gangly, raucous kid, from 1 pound to almost 3 pounds! By now he’s an expert sailor, we have to keep him back as he’s getting a bit too adventurous for our taste One handful at 8 weeks… Continue reading »

When we inspected our Pitufa before the purchase, I thought the ugly ceiling lights would be the first things we’d toss. Somehow there were always more important jobs on the to-do list though. Now, only 16 years later, we’ve finally got round to replacing them

Pitufa’s steep ladder with 6 wide-apart rungs down our 160 cm high companionway is an insurmountable obstacle for a kitten. Impossible to climb up and potentially lethal when trying to jump down (despite a mount of cushions on the wooden floorboards). We therefore went out to buy material for a cat tree–not so easy in Port Vila. At first we couldn’t find a tube with… Continue reading »

That’s true for every kitten, but especially aboard, where understanding a few words in human language and actually obeying them can potentially save a few of a cat’s nine lives… We use the standard German word “NEIN” to tell him that something’s completely forbidden and taboo, which is handy as it’s not a word we use in any other context (when talking to each other… Continue reading »

Leaving our floating home alone while flying to Europe to see friends and family means lots of preparations: cleaning, packing, wiping surfaces with vinegar, storing everything under deck, thinking of all the things a boatsitter should do–trying to think of everything stresses me out completely. But the most difficult part of me is getting rid of our garden: after years of pampering and sustainable harvesting… Continue reading »

There is no separating and recycling in Vanuatu (yet, it’s just starting with some projects), but the local brewery takes their empty beer bottles back to refill them! So it’s a good idea not to buy imported beer or cans, but to buy Tusker in bottles. It’s quite a nice beer and we love their slogan “Bia blong yumi” (Bislama, is the second official language… Continue reading »

We’ll be travelling to Europe soon, so write an email if you’d like to have a little piece of the South Pacific close to your heart as well

We’ve been in Vanuatu now for 5 days, but we still haven’t been ashore, as we haven’t been able to officially clear in yet. The cruise ship for which the officals were meant to fly in was canceled, another one was possibly scheduled for yesterday, but didn’t show either. It’s been blowing 25 knots for the past few days, so we were working indoors, I… Continue reading »