Pitufa.at

After a few days here in Anaho we can only agree with all the positive opinions we heard about this bay before coming here. It’s the most pleasant anchorage of Nuku Hiva: the water’s clearer than in the south (even though it’s still a bit murky), the sea’s calm in here, the beaches are almost mosquito-free and there’s a few lovely walks you can do… Continue reading »

The Baie du Controleur isn’t as spectacular at first sight as other anchorages in the Marquesas, it is even murkier, but we like it. Again, we’re the only boat anchored here, only occasionally a local boat goes by on the way to the village. We simply enjoy being in a calm anchorage. Only after a few days here, we fully realised how much of our… Continue reading »

We love creative food and at the moment we’re experimenting with local produce in combination with goodies we’ve brought here in our deepest locker, like e.g. canned beans (‘Kaeferbohnen’, big purple and black beans that are a speciality of Styria) that have sailed around half the world with us. Who would have thought that ‘Kaeferbohnen’ would go so well in a salad with steamed breadfruit?… Continue reading »

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 »