Pitufa.at

On the hike to the waterfall we made our first acquaintance with the famous no-nos: tiny flies that bite relentlessy despite mosquito repellent. The locals recommend monui (scented coconut oil) to keep them off, but as we had to wade through the river a dozen times on the way everything got washed off anyway and during our lunch break at the waterfall we provided lunch… Continue reading »

While daring surfers ride the high waves on the beach behind Pitufa, Pitufa’s crew’s limited to surfing on the internet… We haven’t had a good connection in months are now placing orders for spareparts for the boat, researching for new articles, catching up with e-mails and other cruiser’s blogs. Today we decided to also use the opportunity of having a proper hospital (one doctor on… Continue reading »

After spending so much time in quiet, remote areas, Taiohae, the little maintown of Nuku Hiva, seems like a bustling metropolis to us. Suddenly we have to look for traffic before crossing a road, the range of goods in the ‘magasin’ (almost big enough to be called a supermarket) seems mindboggling, there’s several hotels, restaurants and a daily veggie market with local produce. The island’s… Continue reading »

Our word of the month is definitely ‘weather window’. The weather changes so quickly here that it’s even hard to find a sunny spell that’s long enough to quickly go ashore, or just have a shower… we’re constantly waiting for ‘weather windows’ to get things done, get ‘grib files’ (wind prediction charts) every 6 hours. Slowly we’re wondering if we can’t find a weatherwindow to… Continue reading »

For days we’ve had the wind howling over the boat with around 30 knots, frequent squalls and freaky changes of weather. Black clouds rush in, rain whips horizontally along, 5 minutes later blue skies follow and so on… Trips ashore become adventurous, just going to get a baguette in the morning requires putting on full foul weather gear and we’re both sneezing and sniffling all… Continue reading »

The festival here in Rikitea has been going on for a week. Unfortunately we missed a few days because of the terrible weather, but two days ago the wind died down, the sun came out again and we could go out for activities again. Now the serious competitions start: yesterday the theme for the two competing dance groups was Mangarevan dance–they both danced different stories… Continue reading »

During our second stay in Taravai we anchored in the southern bay, because we wanted to visit the few families who live here. We did several dinghy excursion, were received with Polynesian hospitality, talked to the people and heard lots of interesting stories. There’s an abandoned village on the eastern side of the island. Only one family lives here als caretakers. Herve and Valerie maintain… Continue reading »

We got back to Rikitea last Monday, because the supply ship was due. It didn’t show up though until Wednesday, instead yet another cold front arrived, lowering temperatures to 15 degrees this time… We used the week to run some errants (each one involving several splashy dinghy rides in the icy wind), got more Kerosene for our stove, stocked up Diesel, traded some veggies from… Continue reading »

The weather report keeps promising warmer weather, but it never seems to actually arrive here. Winter’s coming here in the southern hemisphere and it feels like it. Yesterday I caught myself whistling ‘jingle bells’… When the sun’s out it’s hot, but the wind blowing from the south’s just icy cold. During the weekend we had constant wind around 25 knots, gusts up to 35 (that’s… Continue reading »

We heard and read about the Polynesian hospitality before we came to the Gambier Islands and were curious, whether people would still be friendly and generous to strangers, or whether they were already fed up with too many tourists taking advantage of them. We were positively surprised how alive the Polynesian hospitality still is. Everybody passing on the street greets with a friendly smile, people… Continue reading »

At the moment a low is passing by south of the Gambier islands sending freezing cold air up here. We’re shivering in temperatures in their low 20s–we’re just no longer used to temperate climates and have dragged the long trousers and hooded sweaters out of their hiding places in the back of the cupboard. Here it’s autumn and we just hope that the winter won’t… Continue reading »

During the last week we’ve been trying to catch up with boat projects that have piled up over the past few weeks. We’ve been busy cleaning the waterline (incredible how much grows on a passage and how hard it is to get off), sewing the zipper of the lazy bag, washing and storing sails after the passage, doing the laundry (fortunately there’s a friendly German… Continue reading »