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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
22
Apr

heading out

by Birgit

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

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2019
21
Apr

Autumn weather

by Birgit

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 »

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2019
13
Apr

Matapukurega Festival

by Birgit

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 »

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2019
02
Apr

Summer’s coming to an end

by Birgit

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 »

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2019
27
Mar

Cruising info on Tubuai

by Birgit

We’ve put a short cruising guide for Tubuai in the Austral Islands onto our blog.

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2019
16
Mar

Rainy weather program

by Birgit

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 »

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2019
28
Feb

Summer

by Birgit

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

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2019
20
Feb

Nasty weather

by Birgit

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 »

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2019
04
Feb

Cleaning

by Birgit

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 »

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2019
25
Jan

Back in the Gambier Islands

by Birgit

After a squally night with a few thunderstorms we’ve just crossed the southern barrier reef of the Gambier Islands. We’re motoring against the wind and glad that we’ve arrived. The passage wasn’t smooth, but full of smoothies–we had a ripe stack of bananas and lots of yoghurt (thanks to a thriving Kefir culture), so we made banana-yoghurt smoothies twice a day

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2019
24
Jan

Fast and on course

by Birgit

Finally we’re flying along with 7 knots in SE winds and we’re right on course. Unfortunately the grib shows NE winds for later on–that would be noserlies for us… We hope for the best, 110 nm to go!

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2019
23
Jan

Finally on couse

by Birgit

Last night the wind finally switched to the SE and we’re on a direct course to the Gambier. 230 nm to go!

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2019
22
Jan

Detour

by Birgit

The Gambier Islands lie northeast of Rapa Iti, but so far we’ve only made miles to the east, because we’ve had NNE to ENE winds, so we’re making quite a detour… The forecast predicts easterlies and then southeasterlies so we hope for the best. 310 nm to go!

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2019
22
Jan

Bad for sailing, good for baking

by Birgit

The squalls have passed, today we have light northeasterly winds, so we’re neither fast nor on course, but at least it’s calm enough for baking. We had fresh bread for breakfast and now the last nectarines from Rapa have jumped into a fruit cake 345 nm to go!

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2019
21
Jan

Sporty

by Birgit

What looked like nice sailing winds at the grib file has turned out to be an annoying succession of huffs and puffs. We knew we’d have to expect squally weather with a passing low, but we still hoped that today’s sailing wouldn’t be quite as sporty. Puff, reefing, huff, sails out, puff, 40 knots, quickly reefing down again, huff, rain, almost no wind–it’s been going… Continue reading »

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