Pitufa.at

I took the plane to Tahiti two weeks ago to pick up my Mom at the airport. After three days of intensive shopping (I hitched 10 rides in 3 days) we flew together back to the Gambier. After getting over the jetlag (a heat wave here in the Gambier didn’t exactly help with adjusting to the climate) my Mom has nicely settled in and enjoys… Continue reading »

In the past two weeks the weather has shown once more that the Gambier are just the most pleasant place during the cyclone season. A convergence zone has been sitting west of us, bringing lows with nasty weather to the Cooks, the Societies, the Australs and even the Tuamotus. While the poor people there sit in strong winds and pouring rain we’ve had perfect summer… Continue reading »

A weather window to sail to the Gambier has come up and we leave lovely Rapa Iti tonight. We are a bit sad, because we had such a great time here, but it’ll also be nice to sail towards warmer weather. 570 nm to go!

The low passed by as quickly as predicted: yesterday morning we had 25 knots from the east (still calm waters even though the bay is open to the east), at noon 35 knots sustained (some chop built up, but nothing spectacular) and in the evening the wind turned southeast and calmed a bit down, but since then we’ve had gusts over the mountains, some up… Continue reading »

Rapa’s a great little island with beautiful nature and wonderful people, but weather-wise it’s rather unfortunate… It’s located outside the tropics and also outside the trade-wind belt. Variable winds prevail the whole year round which makes it somewhat difficult for sailboats to visit. In July and August the temperatures go down to 10 degrees with winter storms battering the lonely little rock. The summer is… Continue reading »

Rapa Iti (the old name is Oparo) was colonised by Polynesian settlers about 1000 years ago (sources vary on that). The limited resources of the small island (Rapa is only 40 km2 big, but most of that land area is rugged and mountainous) led to conflicts among the growing population and the construction of 15 fortresses on the hilltops. When the island was discovered by… Continue reading »

Sunny days have been rare so far, so whenever the sun comes out we try to use the nice weather as actively as possible. On Monday we went ashore to see the freighter arrive. It was a big spectacle as it didn’t only bring new provisions, but also the island’s kids who attend school in Tahiti or Tubuai and only come home during the longer… Continue reading »

Rapa Iti is the remotest island of French Polynesia. There is no airport, the cargo ship only comes once a month (sometimes it skips a visit…) and Raivavae, the nearest neighbouring island, lies 290 nm away. The anchorage inside the huge main bay of Rapa is well protected from waves, but gusts howl down from the mountains whenever there are strong winds–and that seems to… Continue reading »