We got a few concerned emails, because there was a Tsunami in the Pacific (after an eruption in Tonga) and a depression over French Polynesia (with seriously bad weather in the Northern Austral Islands and in Tahiti and the Societies). Neither of those affected us down here in our protected bay in Rapa Iti.
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2022
16
Jan
All good in Rapa
2022
10
Jan
More Photos! We love the Tuamotu
We had hardly any internet access in the past few months, so those pics come a bit delayed…
Fishies, birds and smurfs--impressions of the Tuamotus
We spent 3 months in the Tuamotu archipelago, found some fabulous wildlife off the beaten track and explored atolls we had not been to before.
(47 photos)
2021
31
Dec
Pics of our rough passage
Some impressions of our passage to Rapa Iti:
Rough passage to Rapa
Rapa, the southernmost island of French Polynesia, lies outside of the tropics and the weather's a bit rougher down there. To sail there from Raivavae we picked a window with NW winds in the beginning, then we knew we'd have to sail through a front with SE winds, before arriving with SW winds. The short trip of only 300 nautical miles took 4 days, because we had to tack into strong headwinds.
(10 photos)
2021
27
Dec
What a ride
We never saw less than 20 knots from day 2 on, mostly 25 and always close-hauled… Now Rapa is ahead, just 30 nm to go! Pitufa was shaken and punched, taking off, slamming into waves, but she’s been doing really well. Only a window of our old sprayhood got punched in–resulting in some casualties in the garden before we could put some plastic and masking tape over the hole. We have quite some cleaning to do when we arrive.
2021
26
Dec
Still blowing
According to the forecast the wind is supposed to turn SW soon. It’s still blowing hard and the seas are quite rough. 120 nm to go
2021
25
Dec
Stormy night…
It’s blowing and we’re still tacking SW before going on a tack towards Rapa. Still 177 nm to go as the Christmas shearwater flies (not us, unfortunately)
2021
25
Dec
Stormy night…
Yesterday we were sailing under starry skies with the big light-wind gennaker blown up high, today we’re bashing into 20-25 knots from the SE and steep, high waves. 180 nm to go as the storm petrel flies, but Rapa is almost upwind, so we’ll need a few more to go there…
2021
24
Dec
Silent Night?
After a good first sailing day in fairly calm seas, the conditions will change today. A front and strong southeasterlies are ahead of us and Xmas eve is not going to be a silent one for us.
2021
23
Dec
Leaving for Rapa
We met plenty of friendly people again in Raivavae, but the anti-cruiser campagne led by the protestant priest here made us somewhat uncomfortable (rumours, nasty facebook comments, fake news) so we decided to leave for Rapa, even though the weather forecast isn’t ideal. Hopefully it’ll turn out okay… 290 nm to go
2021
23
Dec
Happy Holidays!
We wish everybody who’s sailing along on our blog a merry Christmas and a happy, healthy, successful year 2022 with opening borders and some normality after these crazy times…
2021
22
Dec
Pitufino–the multi-talent
I still haven’t grown tired of developing my Pitufino nav gateway–rather the opposite, I have spent a lot of time in improving it and adding new features. A great portion of the work on version V1.4.0 dealt with the networking core: new chip manufacturer SDK, time-out issues, UDP unicast streams, UDP unicast probes as alternative for broadcast, ICMP to close such UDP streams, TCP server for direct NMEA2000 data, and a new, much faster web server. The Sailing Instruments web app has got night colors and the Multi Display web app has got several new display types. Here are a few screen shots from those running on my Samsung Android phone. For more info see the Pitufino page.
2021
22
Dec
Our Nengonengo adventure in Latitudes&Attitudes
Our article was published in Bob Bitchin’s (gotta love that name) magazine!
Christian Feldbauer, Birgit Hackl: Nengonengo–Wilderness Reclaimed, Latitudes & Attitudes, Issue 37 Winter 2021-22, p. 136–143. Read online.
2021
22
Dec
“Black pearls” come in all shades of the rainbow…
I’ve had a creative phase again, got the dremel out and played with pretty things. I’m not a jewellery person, but the shiny balls that grow here keep inspiring me…
2021
19
Dec
Arrived in Raivavae
After a slow start we had 2 fast sailing days in a stiff southeasterly breeze. We had done enough easting beforehand to have a comfy angle all the way to Raivavae. We could feel the temperature drop with each degree of latitude south. It’s southern summer down here, but the night air is still cool enough to remind us that Christmas is coming 
2021
16
Dec
Slow sailing
We’ve only made 70 nautical miles over the last 24 hours, but we’re not complaining, just baked some bread, worked on the laptops, dipped in from the ladder–almost like at anchor. Just now the breeze is picking up, 340 nm to go!