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Birgit

Author's details

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

Latest posts

  1. Primer auf Deck und andere Wartungsarbeiten — April 2, 2026
  2. Primering the deck and other maintenance — April 2, 2026
  3. Werftprojekte in Zeke’s boatyard: Deck — March 28, 2026
  4. Zeke’s boatyard: Getting started — March 28, 2026
  5. Einklarieren in Surigao (Philippinen) — March 19, 2026

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. 2 magical, but bouncy weeks on an uninhabited atoll — 8 comments
  4. Hilfsprojekte für Matuku — 7 comments
  5. Leeloo 2000–2021 — 6 comments

Author's posts listings

2017
12
Nov

Big atolls

by Birgit

We usually avoid big atolls, because when the wind shifts you suddenly have a few dozen miles of fetch ahead and getting to the protected side in nasty weathers means hours of motoring against the wind. Fakarava is more than 30 miles long and doesn’t offer many protected corners (no protruding reefs to hide behind). Its attraction is the South pass where hundreds of Grey… Continue reading »

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2017
04
Nov

Fakarava

by Birgit

Yesterday we left the lovely lagoon of Toau and sailed over to the neighbouring atoll Fakarava. We had a nice breeze, calm seas and only took 3 hours for the 13 nm ‘passage’. Unfortunately we weren’t lucky fishing this time, but Fakarava has one of the bigger villages in the Tuamotus (also quite some tourism) and so we stocked up on luxuries like tomatoes, eggplants… Continue reading »

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2017
01
Nov

Beautiful Toau

by Birgit

Looking at a chart of the Tuamotus you’d think that many of the atolls (especially those without passes) would be uninhabited wilderness. Unfortunately almost all of them have at some point been ‘cleaned’ (the shrubs burnt down) and the natural vegetation was replaced with coconut plantations. Therefore it’s rare to find motus with bird colonies and we’ve been disappointed in many places. In Toau we’ve… Continue reading »

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2017
23
Oct

Atoll hopping

by Birgit

Yesterday we made another small hop from the false pass on the Northern side of Toau down to the SE side where there’s a pass into the lagoon. The day started squally with sporty tacking up and down in shifting winds (the atoll kept jumping into our way, so we had to dodge it twice), but then we were sailing close-hauled along the edge of… Continue reading »

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2017
22
Oct

Sprayhood made by Dustom

by Birgit

The sprayhood we bought in Croatia 8 years ago is still in good shape, the sunbrella and the ‘windows’ (I don’t know what material) are keeping up nicely, so we can only recommend the canvas work done by Dustom (check out www.dustomcovers.com). The threads were giving up after long years of exposure to UV light, so we spent 3 days restitching all seams and as… Continue reading »

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2017
18
Oct

Toau

by Birgit

After a few grey days with lots of squalls, yesterday morning it was sunny again and the wind was blowing from the NE. Despite contradicting weather forecasts we couldn’t resist the opportunity and set out towards the neighbouring atoll Toau. I mean, what can go wrong on a passage that’s only 30 nm? We sailed across the lagoon, out of the pass at the wrong… Continue reading »

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2017
17
Oct

4D Bimini

by Birgit

The bimini’s a sun shade/rain cover that is kept over the cockpit by 4 tubes. As we like being dry and shaded off during passages as well and never take our bimini down (some sailors do so regularly), it gets some wear and tear over the year. It got chafed through at the aft edge and we knew we’d have to repair that damage before… Continue reading »

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2017
17
Oct

Mending, sewing, repairing

by Birgit

We have been in Apataki now for a few days, but we haven’t seen much of the atoll. We visited Sonja, Tom and Keanu (SY Pakia Tea) who have their catamaran here out on the hard, in the only (but somewhat improvised) out-haul facility in the Tuamotus. Apart from that we’ve stayed on board and did sewing-machine jobs. First came a sail repair, as the… Continue reading »

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2017
12
Oct

Apataki

by Birgit

When the stream of water from the tap no longer hits the sink, but swerves beyond the rim, you know you’re heeling too much… This passage was only 220 nm as the frigate bird flies, but we tacked up and down and the mixture of too much wind (30+ knots) and not enough wind (less than 10 knots) was rather tiring. Initially we had planned… Continue reading »

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2017
10
Oct

Tacking

by Birgit

After a bouncy and splashy day (things that have never before moved, managed to jump headfirst into the cabin–we’ll see if the printer survived…) we’re now sailing along nicely in about 15 knots from the east. The Tuamotus are spreadout east of Tahiti, so we’re tacking and trying to figure out which atoll we can reach this way.

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2017
09
Oct

Towards the Tuamotus

by Birgit

Yesterday we set out from Moorea towards the Tuamotus, first too much wind, then not enough, now too much again–sailing’s not always easy…

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2017
03
Oct

Hiker’s paradise Moorea

by Birgit

At the moment there’s a strong Maraamu (southeasterly wind) blowing that brings cool air to French Polynesia, but we’re nicely protected from the wind here in Cook’s Bay on the northern side of Moorea. Moorea is a spectacular little island with steep mountains, calderas and lush valleys and the breezy weather’s perfect to explore the numerous hiking tracks that crisscross the island. During our last… Continue reading »

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2017
29
Sep

From Tahiti to Moorea

by Birgit

I’ve just checked our emails and realised that we haven’t posted a blog in two weeks. The reason isn’t that there was nothing going on, but just on the contary there was indeed too much to do on Pitufa to keep up with the blog. We had a rental car for 24 hours (afternoon to afternoon, very convenient for shopping), bought 2 car loads (4… Continue reading »

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2017
14
Sep

A new watermaker!

by Birgit

It’s been a sunny, hot week here in Taina (despite the fact that it’s still supposed to be winter), but we didn’t see much of the weather as we spent most of our time in the bilge. We removed the floorboards and the companionway ladder in the mornings and worked on the watermaker parts all day. The cat thought that was very strange behaviour and… Continue reading »

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2017
03
Sep

Still snotty

by Birgit

The virus Christian brought back from the plane turned out to be quite persistent and annoying. Of course I got it two days after Christian and we’ve been snotty, sneezing and coughing a duet for over a week now. In the meantime we’ve managed to install the main pump of the watermaker. It’s too big to fit into the bilge like the old one, so… Continue reading »

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