Pitufa.at

It’s simply great to have a milk-Kefir culture on the boat. Those little cauliflower-shaped buggers turn milk over night into something very similar to yogurt–no special temperature required, no special procedure. I just throw a bunch of them into a jar with (stirred-up powder) milk, the creamier the thicker the resulting yogurt. About 12 hours later the yogurt is forming, but still a bit liquid… Continue reading »

Shopping for basic things is really cheap in Suva, so we stocked up for the next few months, but then we got carried away with all the special, imported goodies at the posh supermarkets… With some searching there’s everything available here, even gluten-free products and smelly cheese Of course we also stocked up on boat repair/maintenance parts and then we did a last round buying… Continue reading »

We love exploring, but sometimes it’s good to just settle down in a comfy place and go into work-mode. We were in Vanua Balavu for three weeks and fell into our usual work routine–easy without distractions as there are no other cruisers here and the next village is miles away. Christian was working on an experimental set-up to make the Pitufino work with the old… Continue reading »

We couldn’t believe our ears when we heard barking ashore. Not a sound like a little yuppy dog would make, but a huge specimen, like a Saint Bernard dog… The next village is miles away, the islands are nearly impossible to climb with their overhanging shores and horribly spiky – had some lunatic abandoned his dog here? Then we heard more barking from the neighbouring… Continue reading »

The strange landscape here in Qilqila on Vanua Balavu is a result of the volcanos here on the Pacific rim: former reefs and coralheads were raised by tectonic activity and are now forming sheer cliffs and a maze of tiny islands. Why the cliffs aren’t all the same height (like on other raised atolls) seems mysterious–maybe there were different tectonic events over time… The spiky… Continue reading »

The Madden-Julian Oscillation is a weather phenomenon that travels eastwards around the globe near the equator and recurs every 30 to 60 days. It brings enhanced weather activity with clouds, rainfall, winds and an increased risk of cyclones. At the moment we are experiencing an active MJO here in the South Pacific. Cyclone Hale has affected Australia, New Caledonia and New Zealand and the grib… Continue reading »

The best anchorage on the eastern side of Taveuni is certainly Vurevure Bay. It would be no good in winds from the E or SE, but now in NW conditions it’s calm and additionally we are protected from the southerly swell that is usually running and the chop that gets bent around the island. Dinghy landing is possible at the creek at the end of… Continue reading »

Wailangilala is home to a few hundred red-footed boobies, a few hundred noddies (most common in Fr Poly, but rare here), some white terns and–much to our suprise and delight–about 20 couples of brown boobies! Those ground-nesting birds have become a rare sight, even though according to our Wikipeda they are listed as “least concern”–makes you wonder when somebody bothered to count last… It’s wonderful… Continue reading »