Pitufa.at

We made it safely into the atoll despite rough conditions in the pass and are anchored down for the nasty weather that is predicted. Just now a big black cloud approaches and announces the storm to come.

We checked weather this morning and decided spontaneously to try a new, but a bit fickle window… We’ll leave soon, keep your fingers crossed for some wind for us

The festival ended last week with a torrential downpour that lasted a whole day–even locals claim they’ve never seen rain coming down with such intensity over such a long period. After that followed a week of perfectly calm and finally sunny and warm weather again… Yesterday a tempting weather window to sail to the Tuamotus came up–light northeasterly winds would allow a smooth sail with… Continue reading »

There’s a 3 day long cultural festival going on in Rikitea at the moment. Groups from Hao (Tuamotus), Hiva Oa (Marquesas), Tubuai (Australes), Faaa (Tahiti) and even Rapa Nui (Easter Island) have arrived, events take place every evening and it’s great to see and hear the differences in their dances and choirs. The anchorage has filled up with boats, almost 30 are anchored here at… Continue reading »

This year the summer weather in the Gambier hasn’t been great and now it seems that it’s coming to an early end. The second mara’amu (strong southeasterly wind) is bringing chilly airmasses to us and a sniff of winter’s in the wind. We’ve been really busy between boat projects (e.g. we got new foam from Tahiti and redid our sofa including new upholstery), writing and… Continue reading »

This summer we get more windy and rainy weather here in the Gambier than usually. We don’t mind so much as we have plenty of jobs on our to-do list. At the moment the southeasterly’s blowing hard, but we’re tucked into a little, protected bay getting some work done. So far we’ve done engine maintenance (changed diesel and oil filters followed by a thorough bilge-cleaning),… Continue reading »

The weather’s back to gorgeous summer conditions here and we’re exploring the more remote islands of the archipelago.

Just now that we have a visitor (my dad is here) the weather has turned unseasonably nasty in the Gambier. A trough with fronts, strong winds and lots of rain has kept us mostly on the boat for the past 4 days. There were 30 boats in Rikitea, which made life in the anchorage quite exciting when the boats were swirled around in gusts and… Continue reading »

Ever since we arrived in the Gambier we’ve had perfect sunny, breezy and hot summer weather. We really needed these conditions after the rainy time in Rapa Iti–we had accumulated two laundry bags full of humid clothes (yuck) and due to the lack of circulation the interior of the boat was mouldy all over. We stayed out on the motus, spent a week doing laundry… Continue reading »