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Birgit

Author's details

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

Latest posts

  1. Wie man ein Krokodil hypnotisiert — October 23, 2025
  2. How to hypnotise a crocodile — October 23, 2025
  3. Kleiner Wadelbeisser — October 17, 2025
  4. Smurfy aka Pukpuk monster aka Komodo dragon monster — October 17, 2025
  5. Fotos von Buka, Bougainville — October 4, 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

2019
01
Dec

Outpaced

by Birgit

We spent a few nice, calm days in Tahanea enjoying the beautiful pass and the many, curious sharkies hanging out around Pitufa (cleaning fish helps making friends ) This morning we saw an opportunity to sail to the neighbouring atoll. Motutunga is uninhabited, with only a few motus and a false pass on the northern side. Studying satellite images we thought we could take Pitufa… Continue reading »

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2019
23
Nov

Overly sporty sailing

by Birgit

We had a an unexpectedly sporty sailing day yesterday. The weather forecast predicted NE wind, so we thought it was a good opportunity to sail SE down to Tahanea. We woke up at 5 with a NE squall, so we quickly went out through the pass into a glowing sunrise, trying to use the favourable wind. Of course the wind turned E as soon as… Continue reading »

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2019
19
Nov

Crappy weather

by Birgit

Ever since we’ve arrived in the Tuamotus a persistent convergence zone has been sitting across the area. Actually it’s not just one, but rather a cluster of them… This means the wind shifts around unpredictably–the weatherforecasts are overwhelmed, contradict each other and get it completely wrong. Yesterday the American GFS model predicted strong southerlies, while the European model insisted on light northerlies. What to do… Continue reading »

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2019
10
Nov

Between holidays and projects

by Birgit

After the stressful, busy time in Tahiti we were sooo looking forward to getting away from it all–no more appointments, quests for parts along dusty roads, traffic jams, pollution, AC-frozen shops, sneezing people etc. We were really looking foward to holidays in the Tuamotus, but of course we’ve already had 2 days of mast projects (a dogdy tri-coloured lantern and a broken mounting of the… Continue reading »

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2019
08
Nov

Toau

by Birgit

We arrived in Toau after a very slow, short sail using our gennaker for the first time in ages. Of course it got tangled up and twisted and took a long time to figure out again The pass is tricky as it’s very shallow and open to the east (prevailing winds), but our timing was good. Just after arriving we snorkeled between the passes, a… Continue reading »

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2019
04
Nov

Arrived in Fakarava

by Birgit

We’ve just arrived in Fakarava with northerly winds, anchored next to the pass in the N and will hop over to the neighbouring atoll Toau tomorrow morning when the wind switches to the east (it’s a tricky pass and in the morning we’ll have wind and current in the same direction). The sail up here was quite boisterous with many squalls and a little front… Continue reading »

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2019
04
Nov

Fish!

by Birgit

Its a bit squally, but today we’ve had a fast sailing day and caught a fish! 90 nm to go.

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2019
03
Nov

Setting out yet again

by Birgit

When I say ‘we bought a new fridge’ landlubbers think we got a new box and put it into its place. On a boat things work differently: we had to get out the old tubes and evaporator, drill new holes into the stainless fridge compartment, install the compressor, evaporator and install the tubes. After that we bent some plexiglass and screwed it in to keep… Continue reading »

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2019
31
Oct

Back in Tahiti for repairs

by Birgit

After two exciting days, but rather sleepless nights off Makatea (rolly anchorage) we set sails for Tikehau, an atoll just due north and a nightsail away. Underway we noticed that the fridge was acting strangely, with the compressor working constantly drawing almost no electricity (a sign for a gas leak). It wasn’t easy to turn around, say good-bye to the idea of turquoise lagoons and… Continue reading »

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2019
29
Oct

Tour of Makatea

by Birgit

We’ve been busy exploring Makatea for the last few days. It’s a raised atoll with a plateau over steep, white cliffs towering over a strip of flat land around the island and a fringing reef. The reef falls off steeply, but the friendly locals have installed 4 moorings for sailboats–basically their only tourists apart from a few travellers who arrive with the supply ship from… Continue reading »

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2019
27
Oct

Makatea

by Birgit

After a night of lightwind sailing we rushed along nicely again and reached the raised atoll Makatea around noon. All moorings were taken, but a friendly Belgian boat let us tie up alongside.

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2019
24
Oct

We can’t get away from Tahiti

by Birgit

After 3 months in Tahiti we are eager to head out towards the Tuamotus: I feel healthy again, we got Pitufa prepared, bought more provisioning than we can store, but somehow we don’t get away from Tahiti. First the drain of the kitchen sink fell off (rusted through) and just when Christian had finished repairing it, he noticed that the fridge was acting strangely–the compressor… Continue reading »

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2019
15
Oct

Super-simple gluten-free bread a la Pitufa

by Birgit

When I started searching for recipes for gluten-free bread the results were disheartening. Too complicated, too many ingredients I wouldn’t be able to find in the South Pacific. Some recipes for tapioca-bread included eggs and massive amounts of oil (not very healthy…) and others claimed that I wouldn’t be able to produce non-crumbly bread without adding xanthan gum. My first experiments with tapioca and rice… Continue reading »

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2019
15
Oct

Dengue Sequel

by Birgit

Each time I think I’m getting healthy and stronger again, I’m punched back down. Two weeks after what I thought was a dengue infection we were getting us and the boat ready to start hopping eastwards again. Smack, I was down with high fever, severe backache, headache, nausea–the same symptoms as two weeks ago, just stronger. Yesterday (day 4 with fever) the temperature got so… Continue reading »

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2019
03
Oct

Dengue fever

by Birgit

I got strong fever last week accompanied with a head ache and back ache–typical symptoms for dengue. As we’ve had it before I was worried (dengue can be extra dangerous when you get another type your immune system thinks it recognises). I got lucky though, the symptoms remained weak and I was fine after only a week. Researching on the internet I found that there… Continue reading »

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