Pitufa.at

It’s only 100 nm from Papeete to Huahine, so we set out in the afternoon, to arrive tomorrow morning.

Finally we’ve got all our stuff together and can get ready to leave Papeete! After keeping us waiting for dinghy parts for 2 months (the rubber attachments of the mercury we bought here last year broke off after a few months and we wanted handles instead of the attached cord that had turned out to be far too weak to carry the dinghy) we got… Continue reading »

When the first explorers arrived on the Polynesian islands they were fascinated by the ‘paintings’ the locals had all over their bodies under the skin. The sailors soon got these body decorations too and the Polynesian word ‘tatau’ (or ‘tatu’ in the Marquesas) entered the European vocabulary as tattoo. The missionaries later discouraged tattoos (along with all other forms of traditional culture), but in the… Continue reading »

When land-based people want a new mattress they just go to a shop and buy one. For cruisers like us, that’s just the first step. Then comes the explanation where the thing should be delivered to (what, you have no address, what do you mean, just come to the parking space of the yacht club?), to be repeated several times a few days later on… Continue reading »

Our friends Liesbet and Mark have decided to quit cruising and their catamaran is waiting for buyers here in the little marina of Vaiare. We’ve met Liesbet here (Mark’s already in the US) who has the sad task of selling/giving away all their personal things that won’t fit into the airplane luggage (23 kg is quite a painful limit…). If you always wanted to cruise… Continue reading »

I had barely touched European ground when I met the fate of all happy, innocent, tropical islanders when they are exposed to nasty civilised viruses–I fell ill. At least I got away with a sore throat and a snotty nose and I hope to recover soon (unlike so many fellow islanders in the past…).

After almost 4 years of boat life I flew to Austria yesterday morning local time Tahiti, so evening UTC or was it the day before yesterday(?)–the time zones got me all confused, at least I didn’t have to change the time on the watch thanks to 12 hours time difference Anyway, it took us 2 years to sail to French Polynesia and only 26 hours… Continue reading »

After doing some maintenance on Pitufa in Tahiti we’ll head to the Society Islands to explore Huahine and Maupiti that didn’t fit into our schedule last year and maybe revisit Moorea, Raiatea and Tahaa.

After spending a year in quiet, calm places French Polynesia’s capital Papeete on Tahiti feels a bit overwhelming. About 250 boats sway on moorings or anchor off Marina Taina and they all roll and pitch like crazy whenever high swell comes up from the south and huge surf breaks over the unfortunately rather narrow fringing reef that protects the anchorage insufficiently. Two days ago it… Continue reading »