ende

Birgit

Author's details

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

Latest posts

  1. Water dispensers against plastic bottles!! — April 23, 2026
  2. Primer auf Deck und andere Wartungsarbeiten — April 2, 2026
  3. Primering the deck and other maintenance — April 2, 2026
  4. Werftprojekte in Zeke’s boatyard: Deck — March 28, 2026
  5. Zeke’s boatyard: Getting started — March 28, 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

2015
21
Dec

HAKA!

by Birgit

The last two days were long, exciting, vibrating and exhausting. We had a fishing boat rented to take us over from Tahuata to the neighbouring island Hiva Oa and after a calm period the wind was up to 20 knots, the waves accordingly high and the 1 hour ride in the small boat quite adventurous–especially as we had a similar boat following in our wake,… Continue reading »

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2015
17
Dec

Festival des Arts des Iles Marquises

by Birgit

Every 4 years cultural festival takes place alternately in one of the six populated islands of the Marquesas. Tomorrow the 10th Festival will kick off on the island of Hiva Oa and dance and drumming groups, choirs and artisans from the Marquisian islands of Nuku Hiva, Ua Huka, Ua Pou, Fatu Hiva and Tahuata, but also groups from Tahiti, the Gambier and even Rapa Nui… Continue reading »

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2015
14
Dec

Dolphin show

by Birgit

The sea around the Marquesas is dark because of the black volcanic bottom, the water often murky and notorious for sharks, so it’s not too inviting for swimming and snorkeling. But sharks aren’t the only big predators around here–today we’ve had a large group of dolphins visiting the anchorage. Locals also call Hanatefau the dolphin bay, because they come here so often. It was exciting… Continue reading »

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2015
11
Dec

The world is standing still

by Birgit

…at least our little world on Pitufa We sailed just 2 miles south to the next bay Hanetafau where we’ve found the first calm spot in weeks. It’s amazing how your energy comes soaring back when you sleep through the whole night and no longer constantly bump head and toes on the rocking boat. We used this rush of energy to explore the island per… Continue reading »

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2015
02
Dec

Back in Fatu Hiva

by Birgit

We have returned to spectacular Baie des Vierges where we made our first landfall in the Marquesas two and a half years ago. The picture of this bay adorns the cover of Ocean7′s current edition

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2015
30
Nov

Diesel days

by Birgit

Our Pitufa plus gear is generally very benign–when things break they usually do so at a suitable time (if there’s ever a good time for that…). E.g. the windlass stopped working just before we sailed to Tahiti where spare parts could be found, the clew of the genoa ripped off just 4 nm before we reached Huahine and the fuel line of our Yanmar engine… Continue reading »

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2015
18
Nov

Sauna

by Birgit

When we arrived in the Marquesas, the islands looked brownish and withered. Locals told us that it had been unusually dry (even for the dry season) and we moaned in the relentless heat of the sun. Our white (!) deck was so hot that you couldn’t step on it barefoot, the 30 degree warm sea acted as underfloor heating and the whole boat turned into… Continue reading »

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2015
10
Nov

Taiohae, Nuku Hiva

by Birgit

At the moment there’s still southwesterly swell coming up (but that should become less frequent and violent as summer comes to the southern hemisphere), at the same time northerly swell comes down (and will become more with winter setting in up there) and in combination with predominant wind plus windseas from the east, finding a calm spot in the open bays of the Marquesas is… Continue reading »

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2015
02
Nov

Dramatically uncomfortable

by Birgit

When the anchor drops after a long passage, but the boat keeps pitching and rolling merrily, you know you’ve arrived in the Marquesas… Unlike the other archipelagos of Fr. Poly, these islands have no protecting fringe reefs and their coasts and bays are open to the waves and mighty swell of the Pacific. During El Nino years they are supposed to be safely out of… Continue reading »

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2015
30
Oct

The world’s largest bathtub

by Birgit

The light winds continued. This morning it was calm enough to take a bath in the Ocean (while holding on to the ladder). Now we are on the way north towards the Marquesas.

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2015
29
Oct

A real calm

by Birgit

After a night of very light winds the dreaded calm finally got us this morning and we ended up motoring (the waves were still too high to just sit on the water…). After a few hours the engine died–the clogged fuel line was fortunately easy to find and clear. Now we’ve just got enough of a breeze to keep Pitufa sailing again with 2 to… Continue reading »

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2015
25
Oct

Lessons in patience

by Birgit

At the moment we have the feeling that we spend half the time waiting for suitable weather windows browsing our forecasts and the rest of the time we are fretting about predictions that haven’t come true. As soon as appointments/deadlines (in our case the cyclone season) are involved, cruising definitely stops being fun. At the moment we are ‘stuck’ in calm, sunny weather in a… Continue reading »

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2015
21
Oct

Shellback

by Birgit

It’s slow going, tacking so close-hauled. To make 70 nm as the bird flies we’ve had to sail over 100 since yesterday. First it was very squally with Pitufa heeling down to the toe-rail in the gusts. Of course the fishing line snapped tight during one of these squalls, Christian had a hard time pulling the medium sized Bonito in while trying not to fall… Continue reading »

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2015
18
Oct

Sitting out the Maramu

by Birgit

After we had left Bora Bora, we slogged in two tedious days of sailing very slowly, as close-hauled as possible in light winds to Raiatea and then on to Huahine. On the way to Huahine we considered heading on straight to the Tuamotus, but the weatherforecast predicted fickle winds, so we decided to stop once more. We were lucky to do so, because 4 miles… Continue reading »

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2015
16
Oct

In the Tuamotus again

by Birgit

After two days close-hauled sailing (crawling along walls rather than walking on the floor…) we’ve reached Tikehau.

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