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2014
25
May
2014
25
May
Holidays on Moorea
Yesterday we sailed the fifteen miles downwind to Tahiti’s little neighbouring island Moorea. Incredible what difference a smooth new antifouling makes–Pitufa was flying along with 7 knots… Moorea’s a beautiful place with steep, green mountains and we’re planning on doing some exploring, even though it’s a bit hard to take time off for fun with still a lot of outstanding projects and (even worse) a… Continue reading »
2014
21
May
Splash!
The past days have been quite an emotional rollercoaster. Monday morning the bearing arrived at the shop (yippee), but then Christian and Adrian spent a frustrating day hanging head first in the engine compartment, trying to wiggle parts together. Imagine the scene: two sweating, swearing guys lying on the floor, each one stuck with head, one shoulder and one arm in the engine, barely able… Continue reading »
2014
17
May
Still in the boat yard
We’re still on the hard, waiting for a sparepart that was promised to arrived last wednesday, then friday, now postponed to next monday… Everything else is finished: new antifouling, we cut the dieseltank open and cleaned it (what a mess), made all kinds of small repairs and Pitufa’s basically ready to splash. Let’s hope the part arrives, because we can’t wait to get out of… Continue reading »
2014
10
May
Days on the hard are hard days
Sanding, painting, repairing, despairing when yet another complication comes up, running a marathon between chandleries–working in a boat yard’s takes us to our limits (and beyond), but we’re making progress.
2014
08
May
New Article in Ocean7 Magazine
The first part of our article about the Gambier Islands has just been published in the May/June issue of the Austrian sailing magazine Ocean7. Birgit Hackl, Christian Feldbauer: Iles Gambier — Südseeparadies am Rande der Tropen. Teil 1, OCEAN7 03 (Mai/Juni) 2014, p. 24–27. download PDF (in German only)
2014
06
May
On the hard
Last night the cosy anchorage turned out to be an area where anchoring was prohibited, as a port sheriff informed us late at night. He insisted we had to move away, not considering our protests that we weren’t able to move without an engine. It took us half an hour of discussion and setting a stern anchor to move a few metres further away from… Continue reading »
2014
05
May
Pitufa in Tahiti
A small accident forced us to sail to Tahiti earlier than planned. After doing repairs in a boatyard we’ll take the chance to explore the island a bit.
2014
05
May
Arrived!
We’ve had a bit too much excitement for our taste during the last 24 hours, but now we’re safely anchored in Papeete, Tahiti. We arrived yesterday at night and had to sail along reefs right into an (to us) unknown anchorage right behind Point Venus at the northwestern corner of Tahiti. Usually we never enter an anchorage at night, but as this one’s very open… Continue reading »
2014
02
May
what a day…
For a few days we’ve been fretting about a change in the weatherforecast. Instead of the predicted steady easterly trades we saw before setting out, the forecast suddenly showed a strong blow from the NW when we’d be approaching Tahiti. Strong winds on the nose when navigating close to shore in a boat without an engine worried us more than a bit. So we were… Continue reading »
2014
30
Apr
Half the distance done
After a quick start we got into funky weather yesterday. The sailing’s been quite varied, with wind shifts, squalls, rain and lots of work with the sails. We even had the chance to experience a calm period with still standing high waves–real fun being tossed around with flapping sails and without the temptation to just turn on the engine and motor for a few hours,… Continue reading »
2014
28
Apr
Bombs in Paradise
We’ve been lucky with the weather so far and are making good progress. Also fishing was good: we caught a Yellowfin Tuna yesterday, i.e. tuna for breakfast, lunch, supper and for Leeloo of course. Today we passed Mururoa, the atoll where the French did nuclear tests until the 90s. The low lying atoll became visible when it was just a few miles S of us.… Continue reading »
2014
26
Apr
On the way to Tahiti
The weather report changed completely yesterday, so instead of having some more quiet days in Onemea we decided to head out today. Our friends who had agreed to tow us out couldn’t come at such short notice, but the crew of an American catamaran who had just anchored next to us the evening before didn’t hesitate helping us and at 10 o’clock this morning they… Continue reading »
2014
23
Apr
Waiting
We’re still in the little bay Onemea, waiting for the packet from Tahiti to arrive. During the strong easterly wind last week it was quite busy here, as 4 other boats huddled in to seek shelter in our protected bay. There was quite some socialising going on with dinner invitations and even a small beach party, just what we needed to take our minds off… Continue reading »
2014
18
Apr
Change of plans…
During the year we’ve spent here, we saw lots of boats coming in with damages after the passage, had friends waiting here for ages for spare parts, got news from leaving boats who had to limp to Tahiti with broken rudders/masts/etc. We always counted ourselves lucky as Pitufa seemed immune to such mishaps, but now we’ve had bad luck ourselves: on the way to our… Continue reading »