Pitufa.at

Last week we had lots of fabulous encounters with boisterous, curious, cute “teenager” birds–cute brown boobies. On most inhabited atolls of the Tuamotus there are no more ground nesting birds and even here on uninhabited Tahanea too many visiting copra workers (but also thoughtless cruisers) have shied away nesting couples from many of the motu on the remote side of the atoll. This year we have taken Pitufa to the Western side of the atoll, which is bommie-strewn and difficult to navigate. There we have adventurously anchored off little islets in the lagoon or sometimes just big coral heads with a few shrubs growing on them. Brown boobies have found a refuge there and as soon as we anchored Pitufa, we had a crowd of young brown boobies circling the boat–still practising how to fly and land, but eager for entertainment. They have never met people in their young lives, so they are quite tame and unafraid. They fearlessly landed on the railing, clumsily holding on to the lifeline while curiously watching our every move. One of them crash-landed on the aft-deck–fortunately he wasn’t hurt. We sat quietly in the cockpit while he wandered around, tried everything with his beak (lines, shoes, etc.) and finally did a plunge-dive from the swimming ladder. And no, he did not poop all over the deck–but then we also didn’t shout and wave to scare him away (like many boaters would have done). Of course we also didn’t go ashore and left the nesting parents in peace.

The term ‘brown booby’ is misleading: only the young birds are dark-brown (and to be honest quite ugly). The adults are black, with a gleaming white chest. The name ‘booby’ apparently is derived from Spanish ‘bobo’ (stupid) and in all other languages we know they also have some derogative name, because they tend to land on boats and are therefore easy to catch. Sailors also effortlessly killed masses of them as provisioning on lonely islands. Young brown boobies have a tendency to relentlessly plunge-dive for trolled lures (we get the fishing lines in as soon as we have boobies circling the boat), so again cruisers call them stupid for that behaviour. Since when is curiosity a sign of stupidity? I rather think it’s a strong indication that they are quite smart. Looking into their startling bright grey-blue eyes you see a sparkling intelligence gazing back.

We sent this article in for Leeloo’s 20th birthday, but it took a while to get published

Birgit Hackl: Cruisin’ with a Cat, Cruising World, November/December 2021.

We don’t want to fish and forage in the Tuamotus, so we buy lots and lots of provisioning before heading out. Making dinner plans we don’t ask “What do we fancy?”, but rather “What has to go next?” That doesn’t mean that we’re not cooking gourmet meals though. A few days ago one of the zucchini was getting squishy (resulting in zucchini risotto), then an aubergine showed signs of weakness (so we had a delicious moussaka), some of the potatoes from Tahiti started sprouting roots and the bok choy from Fakarava needed to go (spicy potatoes and bok choy vindaloo curry with flat bread) the stupid cabbage we bought off the ship in Fakarava started rotting from the stem (cabbage, apple and blue cheese pie yesterday) and the stack of bananas we bought in Fakarava also needs constant attention resulting in banana smoothies (with home-made kefir yoghurt), banana pudding with amaretto, banana crepes and sauteed bananas with crispy almond-flour crumbs. We often get pitying comments when people hear that we stay a long time in remote places, especially as we don’t have a freezer and I don’t cook meat on the boat (all the worrying looks poor Christian gets). I think we’re coping quite okay )

The convergence zone keeps annoying us… One sunny day is followed by a grey, rainy one. Two days ago we sailed south across the lagoon for SE winds (which actually showed up), today we sailed N again close-hauled for predicted NE winds–we’ll see
Due to the success of our travel book in German, I’ve decided to translate it into English. I started on “Towards the Horizon” today (grey weather is writing weather)–2.000 words translated, 90.000 to go

Nonos (tiny little sandflies, not much bigger than 1mm) were “imported” to French Polynesia with the sand ballast tall ships carried. They are known to roam the Marquesas and make many beaches off limits–mosquito repellent doesn’t bother them and the only protection seems to be a layer of coconut own (thick enough to drown them in it…). Unfortunately they are still spreading: sand is transported between archipelagos as building material (very clever), copra workers put coconut bags down on one motu and then on the next. Each time the sand may contain eggs and voila–the next paradise ruined.
Some people ignore the biting flies, but others (like me) react badly to their filthy snouts: the initial bite stings a bit, but 2 days later an infection sets in and purple, horribly itchy blotches are the result.
When we first visited Tahanea 7 years ago, we didn’t notice any nonos. A few years later the islands of the pass area were infested, but a little islet remained safe–that’s where we used to do sundowners with other crews. No more. Two days ago we had drinks with two other boats at sunset and now I’m itchy all over. 17 bites, so going ashore is a big no-no for me from now on

We just saw that one of our articles is on the online version of the Cruising World Magazine. Click here to read about home-brewing on a boat!

The Compass is another popular magazine (next to AllAtSea) that’s available for free in all the bigger chandleries throughout the Caribbean. We are therefore happy that they have published our article with tips and tricks to keep feline crew happy! Download the magazine here

Relying on other people’s waypoints for both anchorages and passage routes can be dangerous. Cruising blogs and compendia are full of bad or incomplete recommendations and generalizations from one-sample observations. It’s much safer to do proper research and practice the necessary skills to do your own route planning and make your own waypoints…

Birgit Hackl, Christian Feldbauer: Waypoints–Boon or Bane?, All At Sea Caribbean, November 2021, p. 50–52. Download the whole magazine for free.

The South Pacific Convergence Zone is having some fun with us at the moment. Its tail end is pointing towards French Polynesia and it seems the weather people are finding it impossible to predict how it will behave. The American GFS model and the European model predict completely contradicting wind wind directions and what we get in the end is usually not predicted by either of them. South of the convergence zone the wind blows from the SE, north of it it blows from the NW and in an atoll as big as Fakarava it’s a long way to the protected side of the lagoon.
Last week we slowly sailed southwards in fickle winds to find a protected corner for the upcoming strong S and SE wind. It never showed up and instead we were pitching miserably in NW wind. We motored up for a few hours to find a sheltered spot, then there was no wind, heavy rain and two days later we sailed close-hauled back up N again… It looks like the SPCZ will keep bothering us for a while with grey weather and nasty wind surprises.

Most people will agree that mass tourism is bad for the environment (except CEOs of big hotel companies maybe), because of all the pollution that comes with it. A certain amount of eco-aware tourism on the other hand really helps protecting nature. As soon as wild animals become a tourist attraction and the locals get some dollars out of that, they will refrain from killing and eating (or worse exporting) them. Fakarava is one of those places that has a nice balance: just a few dive operators and pensions and even though locals are still spear fishing in most parts of the lagoon you still notice that the dive sites for tourists are no longer touched. We’ve just come back from a snorkel with a mindboggling diversity and abundance of fish. Like an aquarium! And as they are not hunted they pose for cameras unafraid If only more of the Tuamotus had dive bases and small-scale tourism…