Pitufa.at

We spent a few more days in the anchorage in the SE corner. When the wind dropped a bit we did some more exploring around the uncharted lagoon. We motorsailed 9 miles west to an anchorage at the southern reef, avoiding dozens of coral heads on the way and anchored Pitufa behind a Z-shaped reef that comes off the barrier reef giving protection from the north-east to the south. This place is so pretty, it’s almost too kitchy to be true: We’re anchored in deep-turquoise, crystal-clear water in 8 metres, in front of us the water shades from light-turquoise to light-mint, the bommies are full of colourful corals and fish. The little island ahead consists of fine white sand and it’s a bird nesting place. We saw Boobies with their fluffy babies, lots of terns, frigate birds, different sand pipers, a tiny species that we identified with the help of wikikpedia as a ‘polynesian sand piper’ that’s endemic to the Tuamotus and only about a hundred inviduals can still be found on the few r at-free motus (rats abandoned the European ships for their own patch of paradise whenever ships anchored off islands…). At the moment it’s blowing hard (the grib files predict winds around 20+ knots until Sunday) so it’s too splashy and cool for out-door activities. Instead we’ll use the time to do some indoor chores. That’s the problem with the Tuamotus: the islands are too low to give protection from the wind. Many cruisers like breezy anchorages, but we prefer calm spots (especially Leeloo, who frequently climbs up to the cockpit to check whether we’ve finally come to our senses and turned off the stupid wind )