Pitufa.at

We were worried sick when Leeloo suddenly had a haemorrhage in the vitrious body of her left eye five weeks ago–just after we had arrived in the Tuamotus… We tried to get a long distance diagnosis from different vets and ordered drops to lower the eye pressure from Tahiti. After a dozen phone calls to different vets, pharmacies, a money transfer via the post office… Continue reading »

On our second visit to the village we already have the feeling that we know most of the faces here (no wonder, only 65 people live on the atoll) and we were greeted like returning friends. We talked with the mayor and the policeman again, praising their efforts to protect the untouched motus, trying to emphasize how precious and rare such wilderness is. Then we… Continue reading »

We’ve now spent three weeks here and our experiences are a bit mixed. We were very happy to find about 50 nesting couples of brown boobies (more than anywhere else in the Tuamotus, which is a sad fact by itself) and a few endemic sandpipers. Most of the little motus in the biosphere only have shrubs and some trees, but on a few coconut trees… Continue reading »

I’m sure we’ve mentioned our bubbly experiments a few times already, but as there have been questions recently and an article from us about that topic in Cruising World I thought it was time to write a new blog entry. Alcohol is horribly expensive here in the South Pacific, so many locals brew their own ‘komo’ (fermented sugarwater with yeast, that’s how we got started… Continue reading »

Yesterday’s blog entry triggered the following comment from Joachim (SY Atanga). We cannot put it online without internet, but would still like to respond to it, clarify and give more background: “Comment: Why do you think that you are disturbing nature less than anyone else. If you really wanted to preserve the environment, you should fight for: rigid ancoring restrictions , closure of atolls for… Continue reading »

We are currently in an atoll we have not visited during our previous seasons in the Tuamotus and we are in LOVE and truly happy. It wasn’t easy to come here: we had to navigate through an uncharted, tricky pass and get a special permission to explore the lagoon. All the effort was fully worth it: dozens of untouched motus with endemic vegetation and bird… Continue reading »

We sailed to Aratika a few days ago, sailed along the western outer reef (the biosphere protected zone) and were already disappointed to see only very few birds in the air. We arrived with easterly winds and after going through the pass, we altered course to sail across the lagoon to the SE corner (close-hauled pointing as close to the wind as possible), when a… Continue reading »

Here in French Poly it’s ‘tradition’ to burn islands to ‘clean’ them from shrubs, so it’s easier to pick up coconuts and make copra (and a few bucks). Of course this way no humus can build up, birds lose their habitat and what remains is a barren rock with some palm trees on it. Whenever we go ashore and find a burnt motu we come… Continue reading »

Fakarava and its neighbouring atolls are a UNESCO biosphere reserve: a program for ‘conservation of biodiversity with its sustainable use’. Unfortunately there’s not much wildlife left ashore that could be protected–copra industry and a rather large population have shied away most birdlife. Fakarava’s famous for its many grey reef sharks in the south pass and several dive operators and of course the ‘pensions’ ashore depend… Continue reading »

Rapa Iti, the southernmost of the Austral Islands, has no airport and only one supply ship a month. When the Covid crisis started, they very reasonably decided that they couldn’t take any risk and closed their bay for all ships (except the Tuhaa Pae supply ship). Only family returning to Rapa Iti was allowed to travel on that ship and they have to stay in… Continue reading »

French Polynesian officials have announced the first 2 deaths: an elderly couple (both 81) died at the hospital in Papeete this week, more than 800 cases have been registered since July 15. Of course those numbers are still very low in comparison to many other countries, but it’s still alarming… The majority of the sailboats that were either here before or have arrived this year… Continue reading »

There is a haul-out place in the SE corner of Apataki, so we did not expect much wildlife there–surprisingly enough the bommies were quite lively with relatively healthy coral and some small fishies. There were even a few terns flying around. Sailing up the eastern side we were happy to see lots of endemic shrubs, so we expected nesting birds–but nothing. The motus are silent… Continue reading »