Pitufa.at

This summer we get more windy and rainy weather here in the Gambier than usually. We don’t mind so much as we have plenty of jobs on our to-do list. At the moment the southeasterly’s blowing hard, but we’re tucked into a little, protected bay getting some work done. So far we’ve done engine maintenance (changed diesel and oil filters followed by a thorough bilge-cleaning), maintenance on the watermaker and the past two days were dedicated to sails: the leech line of our yankee headsail had chafed through, so we took the sail down and sewed patches over the damaged parts (fortunately our old ‘Pfaff’ household machine’s up to such work…). Today we stowed it away, got the big genoa up that we use for downwind sailing and rearranged the forecabin.

The weather forecast for tomorrow looks better, so maybe we’ll get off the boat for a change. There are no trails on this side of Taravai, but equipped with a machete, long sleeves and trousers and gloves we should be able to make our own path through the reed;-)

The weather’s back to gorgeous summer conditions here and we’re exploring the more remote islands of the archipelago.

Just now that we have a visitor (my dad is here) the weather has turned unseasonably nasty in the Gambier. A trough with fronts, strong winds and lots of rain has kept us mostly on the boat for the past 4 days. There were 30 boats in Rikitea, which made life in the anchorage quite exciting when the boats were swirled around in gusts and some of them dragged. Now we hope for some settled weather!

Ever since we arrived in the Gambier we’ve had perfect sunny, breezy and hot summer weather. We really needed these conditions after the rainy time in Rapa Iti–we had accumulated two laundry bags full of humid clothes (yuck) and due to the lack of circulation the interior of the boat was mouldy all over.

We stayed out on the motus, spent a week doing laundry in the mornings, cleaning furniture afterwards (first with vinegar then with oil, we call it the ‘salad treatment) and we still found time to go snorkeling in the afternoon and hang out with friends.

After eight years as writers and over 30 articles for Ocean7 a constant struggle with the new editor has induced us to swap to Austria’s biggest and most popular sailing magazine. Our new articles can be found in the ‘Yachtrevue’!

After more than a month we reluctantly leave Rapa Iti and our friends here. Unfortunately the second mooring didn’t work out, but the project goes on and more will hopefully follow! 600 nm to go to the Gambier Islands.