Pitufa.at

Instead of grinding down our nerves sitting on the boat in Rikitea while waiting for the right weather to leave we have now decided to seize our remaining days in the Gambier. We have sailed over to Taravai, visited the village caretakers again, got some veggies and fruit, did some laundry and enjoyed a sunny afternoon on Pitufa. +++++++++++++++++++ Anstatt sinnlos herumzusitzen und unsere Nerven… 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 »

We used the sunny weather yesterday to hike up Mount Duff, the highest summit of the Gambier (441 m). The hike was quite steep, but we were rewarded with incredible views of the whole archipelago. Today the weather’s back to ‘normal’ winter weather with dark clouds, lots of rain and ferocious gusts. We’re finally growing tired of the cold and are discussing moving north to… 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 »

On Friday we came back to Mangareva for the annual cultural festival. This festival’s the most important event of the year here, it lasts two weeks, there are lovingly decorated food stands and each day some event is scheduled. The two competing dance groups of the island have practiced every day for two months (we heard them drumming every night and checked on their progress… 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 »