Pitufa.at

We were thrilled to see on the chart that there’s a big marine reserve shared by the Philippines and Malaysia just off the coast of Sabah north of Sandakan. We read that you can get tickets to sail to one of the islands, but couldn’t find out how when we were in Sandakan. Other cruisers after us tried harder and still couldn’t find a way… Continue reading »

Almost all boats in the Philippines have outriggers on both sides, from the smallest sailing canoe, to the big ferries and fishing vessels. The medium size that’s around in large numbers has inboard diesel engines (usually quite overpowered), so they sound like big tractors and look like angry spiders running over the water at high speed. We’ve been calling them “spiders” ever since we first… Continue reading »

Five weeks after the surgery, life is almost back to normal on Pitufa. After keeping up a 24/7 vigil for such a long time, Christian and I can finally leave the cats alone again and go for a snorkel or a walk together. It has been a tough period in our lives with lots of worry and little sleep, but watching little Squeak bounce around… Continue reading »

We were finally out of Carmen lagoon, enjoying being out in clear waters, the cats were doing great, were neither afraid of motoring nor sailing and we were so happy to be finally underway to Borneo (Malaysia). When the AIS stopped working we fixed it, when the watermaker stopped working we changed the membranes, but then the engine started leaking oil and we got very… Continue reading »

The project-mode has continued now for a month while we’re in the mooring field outside the boatyard. We’ve been working all day every day to get Pitufa ship-shape again… Remember our old Bertschie kerosene stove with lots of character and a tendency to spit flames and soot? After 15 years we’ve finally got rid of him and installed a shiny induction stove In order to… Continue reading »

Smurfy was having a great time at the Lav Garden Hotel, getting along with neighbouring cats (also ship’s cats) and having an occasional brawl with stray males. But one day all three of us were having sundowners up in the garden of the hotel, when a crazy, little female stray rushed at us: she beat up Smurfy and loudly demanded FOOD, FOOD, FOOD from us!!… Continue reading »

After 4 months with Pitufa in the boatyard and us living ashore in a hotel we’re finally back aboard! There are still tons of project to finish, the boat needs tidying and of course we’re provisioning (and adding to the general chaos), but we’re incredibly happy and relieved to be back on our floating home. Life ashore really isn’t for us To make things even… Continue reading »

…IF you’re good at looking away. If you admire the blue sea (and avert your eyes from the masses of rubbish the rivers are sweeping out). If you watch the funny, colourful buses and trycicles on the roads (and ignore the cloud of dust and smoke hanging over the road) If you enjoy the cheap, little food stalls (and don’t see the mangy, starving, stray… Continue reading »

Since we got back in the water, we haven’t had a day off: Christian installed two gigantic solar panels instead of our old bimini. Unfortunately one of the panels arrived smashed, but we put them up as a roof anyway, while we’re waiting for the replacement panel. Yet another hiccup and delay… Galley and bathroom were finished with pretty new countertops: Then we changed the… Continue reading »

Getting on the hard here is a fairly adventurous undertaking: At full moon or new moon (when the tides are especially high) boats go into a cradle in the shallow water, then when the tide is low the cradle is dragged up the ramp to be able to work on the boat. To get back into the water, it’s the same system in reverse… We… Continue reading »