Pitufa.at

Last year we visited the 2 week long culture and dance festival in the Gambier where only two dance groups competed, but there was something going on every day and the whole village came to the foodstands and activities. Everything was for free, but on a rather small scale – no wonder with only 1000 people living there and hardly any tourists. This year we… Continue reading »

… seems impossible at times and is immensely frustrating. Everybody knows that they have a monopoly on whatever trade they’re in and we spend most days running after people trying to persuade them to take our money. The last boatyard we were in was extremely unfriendly and dirty (Technimarine in Papeete) and as we have to haul out another time we tried to get hold… Continue reading »

This visit to Moorea was less sporty than planned, because it poured down during the first week and the rain turned the footpaths into red-dirt-mudslides–no good for hiking. When the weather turned sunny we tackled the highest summit on the northern coast, Mt. Rotui, but the descent turned out to be too steep, slippery and hot for us (only shrubs and ferns grow on the… Continue reading »

Time flies by and today we celebrate another cruising anniversary: we’ve already spent 3 years cruising the world on our floating home and we still haven’t grown tired of it This year’s statistics don’t look as spectacular as the last ones, as we’ve ‘only’ been around French Polynesia: Visited country: 1 Islands: 11 Nautical miles: about 3000 Days on passage: 30 Expenses: EUR 18,680, of… Continue reading »

Hiking with surprise effect After finishing the watermaker project (we produce potable water again!!), we did some more hiking on Moorea. There are many paths all over the island, clearly marked, well kept, but lacking one essential feature: signs that reveal the destination of a path. The descriptions in the tourist brochure are also vague and we suspect that tourists are encouraged to do something… Continue reading »

The past days have been quite an emotional rollercoaster. Monday morning the bearing arrived at the shop (yippee), but then Christian and Adrian spent a frustrating day hanging head first in the engine compartment, trying to wiggle parts together. Imagine the scene: two sweating, swearing guys lying on the floor, each one stuck with head, one shoulder and one arm in the engine, barely able… Continue reading »

We’re still on the hard, waiting for a sparepart that was promised to arrived last wednesday, then friday, now postponed to next monday… Everything else is finished: new antifouling, we cut the dieseltank open and cleaned it (what a mess), made all kinds of small repairs and Pitufa’s basically ready to splash. Let’s hope the part arrives, because we can’t wait to get out of… Continue reading »

Sanding, painting, repairing, despairing when yet another complication comes up, running a marathon between chandleries–working in a boat yard’s takes us to our limits (and beyond), but we’re making progress.