If you are cruising to, from, or around French Polynesia, you may be interested in checking in on the PolyMagNet. It’s an English-speaking SSB net where vessels underway can report their position and conditions, and boats at anchor pass on info about weather, anchoring, events, etc. in their area. It’s on air twice every day at 1800 UTC and 0400 UTC (8:00 AM and 6:00… Continue reading »
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2016
09
Dec
2016
05
Dec
Two new articles in All-at-Sea magazine
Birgit Hackl, Christian Feldbauer: Communication at Sea, All At Sea Caribbean, December 2016, p. 42–44. Free download from allatsea.net. Birgit Hackl: Cruisers cook creatively, All At Sea Caribbean, November 2016, p. 52–54. Free download from allatsea.net.
2016
04
Dec
Arrived in Hao
Today this rather nasty passage ended on a very positive note: after tacking at 4 o’clock in the morning we sailed really fast up on the last leg north, caught 2 yellow fin tunas off Hao, made it just before sunset to the pass and found just the right conditions to go into the lagoon. Hao’s pass is infamous for strong currents up to 20… Continue reading »
2016
03
Dec
Tacking
Somehow this passage is refusing to work out as planned. The waves are higher than expected, the wind more easterly, so we’re bouncing along and heeling at a crazy angle as close-hauled as it gets, Pitufa’s ploughing through the waves slowly and we’re making loads of extra miles to the south and will have to go on a tack up north during the night. It… Continue reading »
2016
02
Dec
Leaving Tahanea
Yesterday we reluctantly left Tahanea after 6 weeks, it’s not easy to leave such a beautiful place behind, but the cyclone season has already started and we should move further east. Even on Tahanea the human influence already shows negatively (some reefs are fished empty, some motus have been burned down, it seems that more people from the neighbouring island are visiting and there’s even… Continue reading »
2016
30
Nov
Maintenance days
During the past few days the weather hasn’t been great, so we did a maintenance week: We dedicated one day to the Tohatsu outboard engine (changed the gear oil, greased all squeaky parts, replaced the worn out propeller, repaired the old propeller to have a spare one, etc.), resewed the dodger that is stretched between lifelines and toerail to keep spray out of the cockpit… Continue reading »
2016
27
Nov
Creative Cuisine
Our last visit to a supermarket (still in Tahiti) was on October 10, so more than 6 weeks ago and you could think that the diet on Pitufa is getting boring, but no, with some creativity (and of course the fresh greens from the boat garden) we still manage to keep up our gourmet standards For breakfast/brunch we usually have fresh bread and cheese (for… Continue reading »
2016
25
Nov
Smurf Islet
Last weekend our anchor winch started making ugly, grinding sounds and we got very worried, because neither the prospect of manually heaving up the anchor while moving regularly around the atoll during wind shifts nor sailing to a place with an airport to order spare parts and wait endlessly for them seemed like much fun. Fortunately Pitufa is a self-sufficient boat with lots of spare… Continue reading »
2016
19
Nov
Always busy
Last week the wind was predicted to turn from the North to the West, so we did a last snorkel in the pass (on the northern side of the lagoon), then lifted the anchor and used the calm weather to take Pitufa out through the pass, quickly caught a yellow fin tuna and were back inside the lagoon of Tahanea within an hour. Afterwards we… Continue reading »
2016
11
Nov
Fishies!!!
We are now anchored next to the western pass of Tahanea and used the opportunity to snorkel the pass yesterday and this morning. The amount of fishies in the pass is just amazing. In the deep water (about 10 m) we saw big groups of grey reef sharks and white tip reef sharks (the biggest we’ve seen so far) hunting swarm fish together with tuna… Continue reading »
2016
04
Nov
Balanced days
Usually we use windy days when neither splashy dinghy rides nor dumpy snorkeling seem appealing for indoor-projects. This time we have such nice protection from the tiny island that we can still go snorkeling and go ashore every day, but we’ve still found a nice balance between fun activities and ticking off some projects from the to-do list. Yesterday we brewed beer (23 litres are… Continue reading »
2016
02
Nov
Lagoon island
Yesterday it was flat calm and we used the opportunity to motorsail 2 miles up from the southern side of the lagoon to a tiny islet inside the lagoon. It’s just a huge bommie with some shrubs, a few palm trees and lots of nesting birds. The shelf around it is very narrow and shallow and then the drop-off goes down to about 30 m… Continue reading »
2016
30
Oct
Surreal calm
On passage we dread calm weather and the flapping sails it brings, but inside lagoons it’s just what we wish for. Yesterday we sailed across a grey, rainy and stormy lagoon (during squalls we had 30 knots sustained…) to the southern side in anticipation of a windshift from the NW via the W to the SW. We were glad we had GPS tracks from our… Continue reading »
2016
25
Oct
What a mess again!
We had a pleasant sail across the lagoon doing about 5+ knots in winds around 12-15 knots, Pitufa sailing clause-hauled like on rails and Christian keeping a sharp look-out from the bow for coral bommies. It’s amazing, at 40 degrees on the wind she doesn’t need any steering, I could go downstairs and have a cup of tea and she’d still be on the same… Continue reading »
2016
23
Oct
Provisioning
Provisioning for a remote area is always tricky and we tend to focus so much on special goodies, that we usually forget to buy something basic like sugar (last time in Tahanea), salt (Maupihaa) and this time it’s black tea. Apart from that we’re doing fine. 12 days after our last visit to a supermarket we still have apples, a mango, half a stack of… Continue reading »