Pitufa.at

Before we even went sailing for the first time we were already inspired by Doris’ and Wolf’s stories and photos. After watching their presentations about the magical places they visited with their SY Nomad we were even more determined to go cruising… Of course I read Doris’ book then and loved it! In the meantime we have met Doris and Wolf out here in the… Continue reading »

A fellow sailor has written and illustrated a super-sweet book about an octopus and his adventures. It’s for very young readers from 2 to 7 years old. German only though… “Olli Oktopus findet eine Taucherbrille” is the first part of a series and available on Amazon!

During his third month aboard, Smurfy turned from a savage, but sweet kitten into a rebellious teenager with severe anger issues ignoring all boundaries and testing his limits daily. We tried all the usual tricks we had learned with our previous cats and also did some reading in cat psychology studies: never play with hands but toys, offer punching balls to get rid of aggression,… Continue reading »

I was quite unhappy when I spotted some spider veins on my boobs last year (of all possible places…). I had them lasered, but they quickly reappeared, so that wasn’t a solution. Planning our journey to Europe last August, I had the idea of a cover-up tattoo, got in touch with an artist in Turkey and liked her sketches. On the way back we did… Continue reading »

Falling over board and drowning is the biggest danger for a ship’s cat. Smurfy’s a reckless climber and we could not persuade him to be careful–he insisted on climbing on solar panels, balancing on the railing and other crazy stunts. We were eagerly waiting for him to finally fall in, so he would learn his lesson in a safe anchorage instead of on passage (where… Continue reading »

We love to linger in remote places, but of course you can’t just go shopping for fresh herbs, salad or veg on an uninhabited island… Therefore it’s great to grow some and we usually have basil, mint, spring onions, parsley and sometimes even bellpeppers, chilis, pak choy or tomatoes growing in pots underneath the sprayhood. They are placed on a non-skid mat and secured with… Continue reading »

Smurfy is growing up so fast! At barely 4 months he already weighs 2 kilos…

Keeping a kitten aboard busy keeps us pretty busy! Smurfy’s happy to play along with anything we play with (or rather everything we handle…), and he can play “chase” the mouse for hours just running after a rope or a roll of toilet paper, but we also want him to practice his dexterity. The first box we makeshifted lasted only a week–Smurfy just smashed it… Continue reading »

Smurfy has turned from a docile kitten to a raucous teenager within a few weeks. At least he’s still eager to help with every task Christian and I try to accomplish… How did we get anything done before we got our Smurfy?

Our loudspeakers in the cockpit started crackling and failing a few months ago. No problem, we got new ones in Austria and simply brought them back to the boat along with other roughly 59 kg of goodies for Pitufa… A few days ago while we were on passage, Christian ripped out the old ones and started cleaning and sanding the area while Pitufa was happily… Continue reading »

Our little Smurf has been with us now for a month, went from a handful of cat to more than quite a handful, from clumsy, sleepy baby to gangly, raucous kid, from 1 pound to almost 3 pounds! By now he’s an expert sailor, we have to keep him back as he’s getting a bit too adventurous for our taste One handful at 8 weeks… Continue reading »

When we inspected our Pitufa before the purchase, I thought the ugly ceiling lights would be the first things we’d toss. Somehow there were always more important jobs on the to-do list though. Now, only 16 years later, we’ve finally got round to replacing them