Pitufa.at

An Austrian newspaper published an article about ‘Sailing Yesterday and Today’ (the 500th anniversary of Magellan’s first circumnavigation) and we’re mentioned as modern bluewater sailors. Here’s the link.

We’ve been in Moorea now for two weeks, explored the island with a rental car (quite a luxury for us hitch-hikers) and were lucky with the weather. Moorea’s such a spectacular mountainous island with incredible views! Leaving the pass of Opunohu Bay with Pitufa on the way to Cooks Bay we met a humpback whale mom with a baby. We let the boat drift and… Continue reading »

I took the boat to a calmer anchorage on Saturday, thought I was doing a nice single-handed manoeuvre, but then the little rollbar behind the windlass that keeps the chain under control while it rushes out broke and all 70 m of chain rattled out high speed. Fortunately I was far away from the reef, but still not happy and feeling quite ill on top.… Continue reading »

After 3 weeks alone here in Taina, Christian and my Mom were scheduled to arrive tomorrow morning. Now I’ve just got an email that their flight from Vienna was cancelled, they were rebooked for the following day… Here it’s grey and rainy after a 2 months of stable, sunny weather and a 3 m swell is forecast to arrive this evening. I’ve fallen victim to… Continue reading »

Since Christian flew to Austria last week, it’s just us 3 girls here (counting Leeloo and of course Pitufa). Life in Taina has been productive and quiet so far, but last night a 3m southwesterly swell arrived around midnight and made an end to our calm lifestyle. The reef that protects the anchorage isn’t very wide and swell turns the lagoon into a chaotic witches’… Continue reading »

Christian’s finger still looks a bit like Frankenstein’s monster, but it’s healing. The stitches will come out on Monday… Today we wanted to fill up with diesel, but as Christian can’t really use his right hand at the moment we couldn’t follow our usual routine with me at the wheel and Christian at the bow. Instead he was at the helm and I had to… Continue reading »

We spent the last two days on the Southern side of Tahanea, checking out the bird motus there and counting nesting couples as we always do. There seem to be less every year, too many visiting locals (from Faaite) and cruisers drive them away… It’s always hard to leave the Tuamotus and head towards the hustle and bustle of Tahiti, but we have to make… Continue reading »

We’ve just had a perfect week here in Tahanea with sunny skies and mellow conditions. We snorkeled the pass a few times and had close encounters with manta rays that were feeding in the current. Back home we were greeted by our gang of blacktip reef sharks, who hang out around boats hoping for scraps. Whenever we caught a fish the shark feeding from the… Continue reading »

During the southern winter it’s normal to have phases with strong southeasterly winds. Whenever there’s a big fat high moving by eastwards to the south of us, the winds get accelerated in a squash zone above. These so called mara’amu’s howl at least every 2 weeks over French Polynesia, but the one we’re having now is stronger than the all we’ve seen over the past… Continue reading »