Pitufa.at

Raroia impressed us with its wildlife–it’s among our top 5 atolls between French Polynesia and Tonga. We observed birds around the atoll, tried to estimate numbers and sent those to the ornithologist society SOP Manu in Tahiti. We also got in touch with the school principal and people from the mayor’s office and presented our pictures and findings. The general reaction was surprise and delight–locals… Continue reading »

My Mom was always our biggest fan. I mainly wrote this blog for her, knowing that she’d turn on the laptop each morning, hoping for news or pics to have with her coffee. She was excited with us about wonderful experiences, disappointed and sometimes sad when we discovered harm done to nature. She fiercely defended our alternative lifestyle against whoever challenged her. She visited us… Continue reading »

Bigger atolls like Rangiroa, Fakarava or Makemo have medium-sized supermarkets by now that take credit cards and have supplies freshly flown in from Tahiti. Raroia is too small for that, so the arrival of the supply ship is a big day for the commune here. Today the ship arrived after a break of two months (they stopped their service during the holidays), so everybody rushes… Continue reading »

Jeanne passed through French Polynesia on her single-handed unassisted journey around the world. She checked in on our SSB net, the PolyMagNet and became the star of the net. She gave us an interview shortly before she finished her circumnavigation and became the oldest person to have accomplished this. Sam Jefferson, Birgit Hackl: Full Circle (Interview with Jeanne Socrates), Sailing Today January 2020, p. 58–60.

We still have an old-fashioned kerosene stove, called Bertie the Bertschi, which we praise when other cruisers search for gas bottles, refill opportunities and fittings while we have a year or two of kerosene on stock (after we raided a friendly little airport out on the islands…). Unfortunately there are days when we curse it–today was one of them. Our main problem is that spare… Continue reading »

All clear for those who were worrying about Leeloo’s health with us. She suddenly pulled herself together, started eating again and it looks like she’ll be with us for a bit longer Such ups and downs have been happening before… Today we had a beautiful sail up NE close-hauled inside the lagoon staying close to the outer reef. Christian hopped into the dinghy with the… Continue reading »

Leeloo’s health has been declining over the last years. She can still see, hear, jump (but not high, so we have put handicapped access to berths etc.), has all her teeth and on good days she’s out and about and munching (expensive, imported) diet food, but she also has bad days when she has no appetite and just sleeps a lot. She’s always been a… Continue reading »