Pitufa.at

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 »

We often have groups of squid and cuttlefish hanging out around the boat. They are really interesting to watch communicating with each other with intricate changes of colour, swimming forwards, backwards and even sideways looking like aliens. We always wondered why they were so interested in the anchor chain, now we know: they are looking for a convenient substrate to attach their eggs! The poor… Continue reading »

In Taro we saw a big freighter loading logs and asked the guys at customs and immigration about it: they said that logging was done on a big scale by Malayan companies. Asked about regulations for reforestation they just sadly smiled and shook their heads–theoretically maybe, but neither the logging companies nor the land owners actually replant trees. So lush rain forest is turned into… Continue reading »

Nowhere else have we encountered such huge numbers and such a variety of anemones and clown fish subspecies!

Are you interested in reading my travelbook, but haven’t ordered one yet as you don’t want to support Amazon? I’ve now converted it into a pdf, scaled it down to a reasonable size (50 MB) and I’m happy to send it as a WeTransfer. The paperback costs 17 euros on Amazon (btw I only get 5 per book), but I thought I’d offer the pdf… Continue reading »

Remember our plan to sail up from Vanuatu to the north of PNG using the SE trades in order to arrive before December when the wind collapses and then sail back from northern PNG to the Solomons using the NW monsoon that’s supposed to blow over PNG from December to March? Well, that didn’t work out: the winds got very light (but predominantly east) in… Continue reading »

Smurfy’s the most stubborn person I’ve ever met (of any species and that includes my own pighead), fiercely independent and rebellious–not ideal features of a ship’s cat. None of the cats we’ve had before prepared us for this struggle… Sometimes we’re close to giving up, but then he shows his adorable, dotted belly and we’re melting again. Sometimes we suspect that he’s not quite sane…… Continue reading »

Giant clams rarely get to grow to a size that merits this name. All across the Pacific we hardly ever saw specimen larger than a hand as they are considered too tasty to be left on the reef by locals (and cruisers). Here in PNG we see giants of a meter or more all over the place! Often they are considered a last food reserve… Continue reading »

Seeing healthy coral in waters around and even above 31°C around many islands in PNG gave us hope that coral might be able to adapt to rising temperatures. In French Poly and Fiji we saw horrible bleaching events at 30°C already, but the coral near the equator that is used to all-year-round hot water seemed to cope. But then around the northern islands of New… Continue reading »

Big fishing fleets empty the Pacific, but we still troll a simple handline whenever we sail between islands and sometimes we get lucky! On the last sail we caught a jack while still in the lagoon–perfect size and timing and Christian quickly cleaned it with Smurfy eagerly watching and waiting for the first bite of sashimi… When we were in the middle of the passage… Continue reading »

Not sure? Ask Lorraine, she does. The row of houses in front of hers has disappeared over the last years, by now the water is rising into her house at each high tide. She shrugs it off with a smile, while standing ankle-deep in the Pacific, cleaning her island-cabbage. Lorraine has never been on a plane, she doesn’t own an air condition, her family just… Continue reading »