After doing some maintenance on Pitufa in Tahiti we’ll head to the Society Islands to explore Huahine and Maupiti that didn’t fit into our schedule last year and maybe revisit Moorea, Raiatea and Tahaa.
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2015
30
May
2015
30
May
Rock and Roll
After spending a year in quiet, calm places French Polynesia’s capital Papeete on Tahiti feels a bit overwhelming. About 250 boats sway on moorings or anchor off Marina Taina and they all roll and pitch like crazy whenever high swell comes up from the south and huge surf breaks over the unfortunately rather narrow fringing reef that protects the anchorage insufficiently. Two days ago it… Continue reading »
2015
27
May
Back in Tahiti
Today we reached Tahiti after a really quick sail, in fact we almost had to slow down towards the end, because according to smurf rules only passages over 3 days deserve a bottle of sparkling wine and tapas
2015
26
May
Mahi Mahi
After an extended period of time without luck fishing, we caught a Mahi Mahi (Dorade) today. 105 miles to go!
2015
25
May
Warmer again
We’re rushung north and it’s getting warmer with every mile
2015
23
May
Sailing to Tahiti
Finally the weather seems to have settled again, the weather forecast predicts stable wind from the southeast so we’ll head out towards Tahiti in a few hours. It’s still cold and rainy here, but we hope it’ll get warmer with every mile we sail north!
2015
21
May
Cruising Info on Raivavae
As we hardly found cruising info on Raivavae, we’ve summarized our experiences in a small guide.
2015
17
May
Preparing for strong winds
The weather forecasts show quite an impressive low coming towards us tomorrow. As the forecast predicts sustained wind around 30 knots from the northwest and much higher gusts we’ve moved to the southern coast of the island, have brought out two anchors, tied the dinghy down on deck, removed the rain collecting canvas to reduce windage, etc. It looks like we’ll be able to leave… Continue reading »
2015
17
May
2015
14
May
Motu Vaiamanu
Yesterday we used the calm and sunny weather to explore a bit more of the southern, shallow lagoon with its numerous coral heads. We first navigated to a natural opening in the fringing reef on the southern coast of Raivavae to have a GPS track to this protected spot on cloudy days. Then we proceded carefully to the big motu Vaiamanu on the southeastern barrier… Continue reading »
2015
13
May
Mount Hiro
We’ve been waiting for wind to move on for more than a week now. First we had to sit out the passing lows and now there is a westerly breeze (for several days–that’s very unusual), so we can’t head west to Tubuai and there’s also not enough wind to take us up to Tahiti. Making the best out of the situation, we navigated Pitufa through… Continue reading »
2015
11
May
Winter weather
For the past week we’ve had a convergence zone sitting between here and Tahiti and three lows have moved over Raivavae giving us just a one-day break with sunny weather which we used to rent bikes and cycle around the island. Otherwise it’s been rainy, grey and windy, so we spent the time doing indoor chores on a–depending on the wind direction–more or less bouncy… Continue reading »
2015
06
May
Quite some weather
Raivavae is supposed to have the best anchorage in the Austral islands, but from the N and W only the outer reef gives protection. We had pretty nasty weather last night and today. Strong winds from N-NW (of course!) and several squalls with gusts up to 45 knots caused Pitufa to rock and roll in the anchorage. It was particularly bad around high water (now… Continue reading »
2015
03
May
Quiet hiker’s paradise
Raivavae’s a small island, the coastal road that goes all around is only 23 km long. There are two ‘route traversiere’ (paths across from north to south) and we walked both of them last week. The tracks lead up the ridge through lush vegetation, large taro fields and countless banana plantations (who can eat so many bananas??). The scenery resembles the Society Islands and so… Continue reading »
2015
01
May
Article on Raiatea and Tahaa in Ocean7 Magazine
Birgit Hackl, Christian Feldbauer: Raiatea & Tahaa — Südsee leicht gemacht, OCEAN7 03 (Mai/Juni) 2015, p. 20–24.