Some impressions of our passage to Rapa Iti:
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2021
31
Dec
2021
27
Dec
What a ride
We never saw less than 20 knots from day 2 on, mostly 25 and always close-hauled… Now Rapa is ahead, just 30 nm to go! Pitufa was shaken and punched, taking off, slamming into waves, but she’s been doing really well. Only a window of our old sprayhood got punched in–resulting in some casualties in the garden before we could put some plastic and masking… Continue reading »
2021
26
Dec
Still blowing
According to the forecast the wind is supposed to turn SW soon. It’s still blowing hard and the seas are quite rough. 120 nm to go
2021
25
Dec
Stormy night…
It’s blowing and we’re still tacking SW before going on a tack towards Rapa. Still 177 nm to go as the Christmas shearwater flies (not us, unfortunately)
2021
25
Dec
Stormy night…
Yesterday we were sailing under starry skies with the big light-wind gennaker blown up high, today we’re bashing into 20-25 knots from the SE and steep, high waves. 180 nm to go as the storm petrel flies, but Rapa is almost upwind, so we’ll need a few more to go there…
2021
24
Dec
Silent Night?
After a good first sailing day in fairly calm seas, the conditions will change today. A front and strong southeasterlies are ahead of us and Xmas eve is not going to be a silent one for us.
2021
23
Dec
Leaving for Rapa
We met plenty of friendly people again in Raivavae, but the anti-cruiser campagne led by the protestant priest here made us somewhat uncomfortable (rumours, nasty facebook comments, fake news) so we decided to leave for Rapa, even though the weather forecast isn’t ideal. Hopefully it’ll turn out okay… 290 nm to go
2021
23
Dec
Happy Holidays!
We wish everybody who’s sailing along on our blog a merry Christmas and a happy, healthy, successful year 2022 with opening borders and some normality after these crazy times…
2021
22
Dec
Pitufino–the multi-talent
I still haven’t grown tired of developing my Pitufino nav gateway–rather the opposite, I have spent a lot of time in improving it and adding new features. A great portion of the work on version V1.4.0 dealt with the networking core: new chip manufacturer SDK, time-out issues, UDP unicast streams, UDP unicast probes as alternative for broadcast, ICMP to close such UDP streams, TCP server… Continue reading »
2021
22
Dec
Our Nengonengo adventure in Latitudes&Attitudes
Our article was published in Bob Bitchin’s (gotta love that name) magazine! Christian Feldbauer, Birgit Hackl: Nengonengo–Wilderness Reclaimed, Latitudes & Attitudes, Issue 37 Winter 2021-22, p. 136–143. Read online.
2021
22
Dec
“Black pearls” come in all shades of the rainbow…
I’ve had a creative phase again, got the dremel out and played with pretty things. I’m not a jewellery person, but the shiny balls that grow here keep inspiring me…
2021
19
Dec
Arrived in Raivavae
After a slow start we had 2 fast sailing days in a stiff southeasterly breeze. We had done enough easting beforehand to have a comfy angle all the way to Raivavae. We could feel the temperature drop with each degree of latitude south. It’s southern summer down here, but the night air is still cool enough to remind us that Christmas is coming
2021
16
Dec
Slow sailing
We’ve only made 70 nautical miles over the last 24 hours, but we’re not complaining, just baked some bread, worked on the laptops, dipped in from the ladder–almost like at anchor. Just now the breeze is picking up, 340 nm to go!
2021
15
Dec
Dipping into the ocean
We’ve had beautiful fair-weather sailing, mostly doing around 4 knots, but with a few hours of 3 knots in between. Not fast, but comfy and we used the calm phases to dip into the ocean–firmly holding on to the swimming ladder. The feeling of several kilometres under your feet and the incredible dark-azure colour all around are quite impressive (on top of being very refreshing… Continue reading »
2021
14
Dec
Flat seas in the shade of Katiu
We have left Katiu at noon with the onset of a light breeze after a calm phase (which we used to explore the remote motus on the S side–some birds, but as many as we had hoped for). Now we are sailing down the SW side of the atoll, close enough to the reef to the see the red rocks in the water and to… Continue reading »