Here are some impressions of the busy times we had in Tahiti and Raiatea and of course some pics of Pitufa in her new look:
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2018
03
Jul
2018
28
Jun
Revealing the piece of art
This morning we wrapped Pitufa in yet another layer of plastic, then the smurf-blue bootstripe was sprayed on and by noon we were allowed to reveal the piece of art–tuh-duh! An almost new Pitufa in white and blue We tore off the layers of foil that we used over the past few days to protect the new antifouling and paint. Negative side effect: we produced… Continue reading »
2018
26
Jun
Colour changes
On Friday the primer was sprayed on, during the weekend we did the first two layers of antifouling, so now Pitufa’s battleship grey and blue. The primer has nicely dried over the weekend, today the painter does some more fairing, tomorrow we’ll hopefully get the paint sprayed on and Pitufa will turn white on the topsides and we’ll do two more layers of black antifouling.… Continue reading »
2018
23
Jun
Creative packaging
Today the first two coats of primer will be (hopefully) sprayed on. In order to protect the rest of the boat we had to spread a layer of plastic all around the toe-rail and up to the life lines. Weirdly enough, there’s never enough proper scaffolding in a boatyard, instead we have to pile up differently sized blocks of wood put planks on top and… Continue reading »
2018
20
Jun
Hard days on the hard
We hauled the boat out on Friday and started work immediately. We want to do a new antifouling as usual, but after more than 10 years the paint on the topsides has started cracking in places and so we have decided to have a professional painter spray it newly to get Pitufa all shiny and pretty again. Of course the old paint has to come… Continue reading »
2018
15
Jun
Arrived in Raiatea
We arrived this afternoon with a squall, but without a fish in Raiatea and are now anchored off the ‘Carenage’ where we will haul out tomorrow. We are quite knackered and it’s grey and cool, so we’ll have a cosy afternoon drinking tea and watching a movie on the sofa.
2018
13
Jun
Sailing to Raiatea
After almost a month of boat projects in Tahiti we’d love to take a few days off, but we have an apointment to haul out in Raiatea on Friday, so we have to set sails towards the Iles sous le vent today. The forecast predicts a stiff breeze, so we count on a rough, but fast ride. Leeloo has already got some seasickness drops and… Continue reading »
2018
10
Jun
Chaos-week
Last Monday we thought it’d be a clever idea to quickly add another battery to have 500 Ah instead of 400. The batteries live under the pilot berth which serves as storage, so all those boxes went into the saloon. It turned out that the additional battery didn’t fit into the plastic box we had intended for it, so Christian decided to custom-make a fiberglass… Continue reading »
2018
06
Jun
No bird protection zone in Tahanea
When we were in Tahanea (atoll in the Tuamotus) we were horrified to see that Copra production had started on some of the few remaining bird motus. Last year we had tried to convince the mayor of Faaite (the neighbouring atoll to which Tahanea belongs) to turn the southwestern motus into a protected zone. No success. This year we met the family who owns and… Continue reading »
2018
06
Jun
Running and repairing
Ever since we arrived in Tahiti we’ve spent half of the time running around to get things and the other half to install them. Nothing’s ever straightforward, usually some little missing bit comes up during repairs/maintenance/installation and the next day is spent hitch-hiking to machine shops to have something altered or made. We’re making progress though, even though Pitufa keeps looking like a building site.… Continue reading »
2018
20
May
2018
19
May
Getting started in Tahiti
We arrived last night at Pt. Venus, were invited for pancakes this morning on SY L’avenir (thanks a lot!!), sailed down to Marina Taina at noon, had our new gennaker delivered in the afternoon (incredible, only 4 days after it was sent from Hongkong…), did some provisioning afterwards, organised a propeller repair for next week and reserved a rental car (it took us 1.5 hours… Continue reading »
2018
17
May
Steady progress
We are steadily sailing along. Because we’re sailing downwind, Pitufa rolls quite a bit, even though the waves aren’t that high. Still no fish, but we have two lures out. If the conditions remain like this, we should reach Tahiti tomorrow evening. Fortunately the anchorage behind the northern cape of Pt. Venus is wide open, so we don’t have to worry about pass times or… Continue reading »
2018
16
May
Yes, no, maybe, why not…
It turned out our decision to stay was a wise one–another boat who did set out had squalls with 40 knots… This morning it was still squally, but according to the forecast we’d have to leave or get fickle winds on Wednesday (which was supposed to be a good day to leave…). We wrangled a bit with the pros and cons, but in the end… Continue reading »
2018
15
May
Postponed departure
This morning we were ready to leave, but then we got the latest weather forecast and started to struggle with the decision: instead of steady winds we’d have a squally night followed by light winds for a day… In the end we decided to stay for another two days and set out with hopefully more settled weather on Wednesday. In the meantime we’ve sailed down… Continue reading »