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Birgit

Author's details

Name: Birgit
Date registered: September 22, 2010
Jabber / Google Talk: admin

Latest posts

  1. Papatura Island — September 5, 2025
  2. Papatura Island — September 5, 2025
  3. An Santa Isabel entlang nordwärts — September 3, 2025
  4. Sailing up the coast of Santa Isabel — September 3, 2025
  5. Erster Jahrestag an Bord — August 28, 2025

Most commented posts

  1. The Matuku Marine Reserve and how it came into being — 11 comments
  2. Donations for the Marine Reserve in Matuku — 10 comments
  3. Hilfsprojekte für Matuku — 7 comments
  4. Leeloo 2000–2021 — 6 comments
  5. Survived! — 6 comments

Author's posts listings

2020
14
Dec

Welcome to the jungle!

by Birgit

The alligator fake leather’s just a protective cover for the sofa mattress, on top of that (and on all the other 10 cushions around the saloon) we now have to sew fabric covers. Something unicoloured would of course look elegant, but a light colour’s waaay too easily stained and a dark colour would make the salon too gloomy. Thinking of cookie crumbles (especially on passage),… Continue reading »

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2020
12
Dec

Wrestling albino alligators

by Birgit

Last time we did the upholstery in our saloon with low-quality fabric from Panama that went blotchy and ugly soon and had to be redone every other year. The mattress foam we got in Tahiti was even worse. Now, with new foam and fabric, we wanted to be on the safe side and decided to do the main seating area (and sleeping matress for in… Continue reading »

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2020
07
Dec

Gorgeous Raivavae

by Birgit

Raivavae’s a gorgeous little island: tiny, with a spectacular mountain range, sheer cliffs and lush slopes. The lagoon is navigable, but rather difficult, because it’s shallow, very murky and a real maze of bommies. We’re good at navigating in coral-strewn waters, but coming to the NE corner feels like going through a mine-field, left, right, coral heads that come up almost to the surface lurk… Continue reading »

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2020
05
Dec

Arrived in Raivavae

by Birgit

We reached Raivavae this afternoon with the gennaker pulling us along in a light breeze. What a view! Raivavae’s a seriously pretty little island Only one other sailboat’s here, we called the gendarmerie on VHF 16, let them know that we’ve arrived from Tahiti and will remain in quarantine on the boat for a week.

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2020
04
Dec

Slow fairweather sailing

by Birgit

Yesterday we had the gennaker flying and it looks like we’ll need it again today in a veeery light breeze. 33 nm to go!

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2020
03
Dec

Lighter Winds

by Birgit

The forecast shows lighter wind, we hope it will not die down completely in us. 137nm to go.

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2020
03
Dec

Provisioning from Trahiti

by Birgit

The fast ride goes on. Still no fish, but we’re indulging in luxury food from Tahiti: for lunch we had a salad with ham (for Christian), with feta cheese (for me) and with ham and feta (without stupid green bits) for Leeloo 220 nm to go!

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2020
02
Dec

The miles are ticking down

by Birgit

With 15 knots of wind from the East and steady conditions we are rushing along with 6 to 7 knots. The water temperature has already dropped from 29.1° C to 28.3°. 269 miles to go!

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2020
01
Dec

Towards the Austral Islands

by Birgit

We are just motoring out of the pass S of Marina Taina–there’s not a breeze to be felt, but according to the forecast it’s blowing 15 knots out there. We just have to get away from the high mountains of Tahiti to find it… 390 nm to go to Raivavae!

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2020
29
Nov

Dirty Tahiti

by Birgit

The propaganda war against cruisers goes on in Tahiti. We saw in a magazine (Tahiti Pacifique) that after a horrible accident where a cruiser kid was killed by a speeding motorboat right next to his parents’ boat, not speeding in lagoons is critizised, but again the sailboats are blamed for ‘blocking channels’ and posing a risk?! The big anchorage off Marina Taina is (yet again)… Continue reading »

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2020
29
Nov

Hot and humid

by Birgit

We arrived a week ago in Tahiti and went into super-busy mode immediately. Not on our to-do list (we have tons of projects with the things we ordered from the US), but with unexpected chores: We spent two days repairing the sail, one day repairing the kerosene stove, 2 days repairing our new(!) dinghy as the damn thing arrived with serious damage from the transport,… Continue reading »

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2020
25
Nov

Gluten-free cruising

by Birgit

Ever since Christian had some health problems 5 years ago we’ve been cooking and baking gluten-free. In the beginning that was quite a challenge: I googled recipes and dismissed most because we couldn’t get the ingredients for them out here. I experimented a lot and found a few basic rules for gluten-free flour: – corn starch (available in minimarkets around the world) makes doughs hard… Continue reading »

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2020
25
Nov

Miss Pfaff

by Birgit

We managed to get several metres of heavy-duty dacron material (some from a sailmaker after all others had refused to sell any, some from fellow cruisers–thanks!), got the sail down, stuffed it into the saloon and set to work. The photo’s not quite realistic, we didn’t have a third person to take the pic so you can’t see how Christian had to hold up the… Continue reading »

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2020
19
Nov

Back again in Tahiti

by Birgit

We arrived in Tahiti last night after the breeze had died down–we had to motor the last few miles. It looks like we may get a weather window for the Austral Islands next week, so we’ll try to get all our chores done quickly before that. I have to visit my dentist, we have to repair our foresail and of course we’ll think of a… Continue reading »

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2020
18
Nov

Gennaker

by Birgit

This morning the wind dropped to 5 to 9 knots and Pitufa was stumbling along goose-winged. We got out the gennaker–it took us about an hour until we had everything sorted out, quite a cumbersome procedure. Now Pitufa’s flying along under that huge blue-yellow lightwind sail and it’s so calm that Leeloo came up to check whether we’re already at anchor. Pitufa’s companionway ladder is… Continue reading »

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