Pitufa.at

After a week of stormy, rainy weather we now have stable conditions again, so we set out today at noon for the Tuamotus! 15-20 Knoten aus ONO, Fahrt 5-6 Knoten

After a long period of stable weather we saw a convergenze zone with rain and wind afterwards approaching, tucked in and prepared the rain collection system. During breakfast we heard heavy rain pounding on the island next to us and minutes later bucket-loads of water splashed on us. We could see hasty preparations on neighbouring boats–nobody wants to accumulate wet clothes, so people tend to… Continue reading »

It looks like we won’t have another weather opportunity for at least a week, so we decided to exchange our broken old wind instrument for a new one. Christian’s been up and down the mast 5 times in the past 2 days, getting the old wind instrument off, new one on, pulling cables, etc. Of course that means I’m on duty all the time as… Continue reading »

After a few hours of clanging and banging with the gennaker collapsing and filling in high waves and little wind we gave up and tacked back to the Gambier. No use damaging material with an unsettled forecast ahead. After 2 days of preparation and 1 day of sailing we’re back where we started from

The weather forecast promised a light, but do-able weather window to reach the Tuamotus. We had a preparation frenzy yesterday, sailed out after dark, drifted around for a bit and motored back into the lagoon–no wind. This morning we try again, the gennaker’s up and flying, but not much wind. We’ll see…

Today my Mum would turn 80. She dreaded that ‘horrible number’ and said she would not celebrate that birthday… I could not fly home for her funeral, but I had a flight booked in May to be at her grave today. Now with the ongoing Covid-19 crisis there are still no flights going to/from French Polynesia and nobody knows when and it what form (with… Continue reading »

French Polynesia has recently allowed boat traffic between archipelagos again (no flights yet). Therefore everybody here in the Gambier is eager to leave, because winter has arrived with a strong, cold Southeasterly (mara’amu) howling over the islands. Even though the direction of this mara’amu would be good to sail to the warm Tuamotus, conditions are a bit too rough to be fun (4 m waves),… Continue reading »

On May 17 2013, exactly seven years ago we arrived in French Polynesia for the first time after a 24 day passage from Galapagos. Misled by popular sailing guides we had thought it prudent to wait until the end of the cyclone season, not knowing that this meant the end of summery weather here in the Gambier Islands. We stuck around until August and then… Continue reading »

Due to the Covid-19 crisis all inter-island travel was forbidden in French Polynesia and boats arriving from Panama/Mexico/Chile/etc. have been ‘piling up’ in the Marquesas and Gambier. It looks like some inter-island travel may be allowed soon and then a fleet will head for the atolls of the Tuamotus. As we’ve been around the area for 7 years now (and we move a lot and… Continue reading »

Cruisers traditionally have a strong sense of community, but big anchorages are like big towns–you don’t know your neighbours and you don’t greet people on the streets (e.g. in Tahiti, Marina Taina). In the Gambier there are usually not too many boats around during cyclone seasons, so we tend to know most of them, but with new boats arriving and leaving it’s hard to meet… Continue reading »

We are at anchor at a motu on the outer reef at the moment, where locals regularly swing by to forage, but the birds, fishies, shells, snails and crabs have nothing to fear from us–we only hunt for pics. Our daily menus consist of the local veg and fruit that are readily available: papaya, bananas and (still) breadfruit). We creatively cook around the world with… Continue reading »

Tahiti and Moorea (where 56 cases of covid-19 have been recorded so far, with only very few severe cases) are still in lock-down until the end of April, but the outer covid-free islands have been allowed to ease the restrictions. Now alcohol is sold again (only wine and beer in limited amounts though) and people are officially able to do ‘water activities’ again. Only large… Continue reading »

We have tried a few different sailmail and winlink stations and have found some reliable connections to get weather, emails and even the bbc and reuters newsfeed. Additionally we informed boats over in the main village that the mobile phone network was down–maybe that helped or it was just a coincidence, but the network’s back up! That’s nice for us, but vital for the handful… Continue reading »

I usually get up in the morning, put the coffee on the stove, turn on the computer and get weather forecasts, news and emails with a wobbly internet connection via the local mobile phone network while the water in the espresso-pot bubbles up (every other day I whip up a bread dough with my third and fourth hand simultaneously, but that’s another blog entry). This… Continue reading »