Our Books
Order our books at Amazon
2017
20
Nov
2017
20
Nov
Fish!
We haven’t had such an easy passage in a long time. The wind was strong (surprisingly just as predicted and also from the direction the forecast had promised), not so strong to build up huge waves (2 m were not even enough to make the cat seasick), but just enough to push heavy Pitufa along swiftly. Averaging 6 knots we needed less than 2 days… Continue reading »
2017
19
Nov
From Fakarava to Tahiti
We left Fakarava yesterday, but instead of sailing straight to the Australes as initially planned, we have to go to Tahiti first to do some repairs. We’re sailing swiftly along with 15 to 20 knots behind us and will reach Tahiti tomorrow. 120 nm to go!
2017
15
Nov
Sharks
The south pass into the lagoon of Fakarava is popular with dive tourists. Reef sharks hang out in all passes we’ve seen in the Tuamotus, but for some unknown reason the pass of Fakarava is teeming with grey reef sharks (apparently 200-300 live in the area). You see some of them while snorkelling, but most of them are deeper down, so it really makes sense… Continue reading »
2017
12
Nov
Big atolls
We usually avoid big atolls, because when the wind shifts you suddenly have a few dozen miles of fetch ahead and getting to the protected side in nasty weathers means hours of motoring against the wind. Fakarava is more than 30 miles long and doesn’t offer many protected corners (no protruding reefs to hide behind). Its attraction is the South pass where hundreds of Grey… Continue reading »
2017
06
Nov
Some impressons of our last stay in Tahiti
Better late than never, we just uploaded some pics of our recent stay in Tahiti and Moorea.
2017
04
Nov
Article on Watermaker installation in All-at-Sea magazine
Birgit Hackl, Christian Feldbauer: Watermaker on a small boat: It can’t be modular enough!, All At Sea Caribbean, November 2017, p. 36–38. Free download from allatsea.net.
2017
04
Nov
New article in Ocean7 magazine
Christian Feldbauer, Birgit Hackl: Navigation in Korallenatollen, OCEAN7 06 (November/Dezember) 2017, p. 28–33
2017
04
Nov
Fakarava
Yesterday we left the lovely lagoon of Toau and sailed over to the neighbouring atoll Fakarava. We had a nice breeze, calm seas and only took 3 hours for the 13 nm ‘passage’. Unfortunately we weren’t lucky fishing this time, but Fakarava has one of the bigger villages in the Tuamotus (also quite some tourism) and so we stocked up on luxuries like tomatoes, eggplants… Continue reading »
2017
01
Nov
Beautiful Toau
Looking at a chart of the Tuamotus you’d think that many of the atolls (especially those without passes) would be uninhabited wilderness. Unfortunately almost all of them have at some point been ‘cleaned’ (the shrubs burnt down) and the natural vegetation was replaced with coconut plantations. Therefore it’s rare to find motus with bird colonies and we’ve been disappointed in many places. In Toau we’ve… Continue reading »