Pitufa.at

We are enjoying our remote anchorage at the Motu Kouaku even though a weak front passed over us yesterday. There was not much wind nor rain, but the wind direction clocked around, as predicted, a full turn during 24 hours. As our anchorage provides protection only from the South and East, we’ve got quite some chop from the North and then from the West. It… Continue reading »

he last few days a wind has been blowing from the south bringing for the first time chilly air with it and a whiff of rough weather and icebergs far away down there. The sun is still burning hot, but autumn has reached the Gambier. We actually like the seasonal change that we experience here at the fringe of the tropics (compared to the neverchanging… Continue reading »

After finishing all our planned boat projects (varnishing inside, painting the cockpit, etc.) we’ve moved back to the boat. Running water, a toilet in the bathroom, no bugs in the living room, no rats on the roof – boat life’s pure luxury We’ll miss our little house and the garden though, especially our goatie. We spoiled her quite a bit, feeding her carrots and bananas… Continue reading »

Now that we’ve basically finished the jobs on Pitufa we’ve got time again to enjoy ‘our’ little island. Recently tourist groups from the two pensions on Mangareva have started visiting Taravai and last week our neighbour Herve led some up to the peak behind the village. As there’s no paths into the mountains we asked him for directions yesterday and started hiking up the same… Continue reading »

Yesterday our neighbour Herve showed us the ruins of the old church and its cemetery in the forest behind his house. An overgrown stone road leads up the mountain to the site where only one wall of the first church and a huge cross of the cemetery remain. Those were built by the people soon after the arrival of the missionaries in 1860. A landslide… Continue reading »

At the beginning of this week we sailed to Rikitea in order to get some things done in the big city (post office, etc.). Our elderly outboard engine had been a nuisance for quite a while (first the choke rod ripped off, then the carburettor got clogged, then the drive pin broke, etc.) and on Monday the gear lever broke off (since the axis of… Continue reading »

By now we’ve established a daily routine: we spend the nights in the house, have an early breakfast (with fresh baguettes, because the only electric equipment the house offers is a gigantic freezer powered by solar panels, hurray!) and spend the mornings varnishing on Pitufa. At noon we come back ashore and do some gardening, cleaning, etc. around the house. Life ashore is taking its… Continue reading »

When we saw that the grib file predicted winds of up to 30 knots for the weekend we already expected quite a breeze, but the squalls that moved every two hours over Pitufa brought gusts of 50 knots. We could clearly see the gusts approaching as high banks of whipped up spray, as soon as they reached the boat she was whirled around and pushed… Continue reading »

Last week has been crazy-busy-exhausting here. We have two building sites going on at the same time: Getting the house into a truly good shape would take lots of time (maybe burning it down and building a new one would be the easiest ), so we decided to get the house in a state well enough to sleep in it (killing spiders, cockroaches, shying away… Continue reading »