The Ringgold Islands were a big disappointment: rolly anchorages, overfished empty reefs and the unfriendliest locals we’ve met so far in Fiji. .. Then we stopped for a few days at the private island Matangi (good hiking and snorkeling and wonderfully friendly folks–thanks a lot for all the hospitality!) and now we’re in Taveuni. The third-largest island of Fiji gets lots of rainfall, so it… Continue reading »
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2022
31
Dec
2022
30
Dec
In unison into the new year!
We wish you all a wonderful year 2023 with lots of health, fun, energy and adventures–and of course fair winds and following seas! Keep sailing and paddling along with us on our blog
2022
26
Dec
Photos of an island paradise
Many islands here are private, some were sold cheaply 200 or 100 years ago to be exploited as plantations (the islanders displaced or used as cheap labour), others were sold recently to be holiday homes or resorts for the super-rich. Dietrich Mateschitz owned one, another one belongs to Mel Gibson… We anchored close to a bird island that was bought by an Australian in 2004… Continue reading »
2022
22
Dec
Ringgold Islands
We wanted to explore more tiny islands north of Wailangilala, but northeasterly swell made that seem impossible, so we changed plans and headed westwards to the Ringgold Islands instead to have protected anchorages–or so we thought. 6 emerald islands inside a barrier reef, only one tiny village–on the sat images the place looks perfect. In reality the swell makes it unhindered into the lagoon–in fact… Continue reading »
2022
19
Dec
Bird Island for sale!
Wailangilala is home to a few hundred red-footed boobies, a few hundred noddies (most common in Fr Poly, but rare here), some white terns and–much to our suprise and delight–about 20 couples of brown boobies! Those ground-nesting birds have become a rare sight, even though according to our Wikipeda they are listed as “least concern”–makes you wonder when somebody bothered to count last… It’s wonderful… Continue reading »
2022
17
Dec
Wailangilala
Wailangilala is a strange atoll: not a single coral head inside the lagoon and hardly any on the oval-shaped barrier reef. We went snorkeling in the pass, but even there we found only rocks with isolated, sparse coral growth and only a few fishies (at least a couple of grey reef sharks came by to check us out). We are puzzled by the lack of… Continue reading »
2022
16
Dec
Going exploring!
The weather looks settled enough, so we’re sailing to some little islands north of the Lau group. Looking at sat images we hope for some pristine nature, but we’re also worried that we may find uninhabited islands that get exploited by neighbouring islands and are therefore in a bad state. We’re hoping for the best and will keep you posted! From now on you’ll see… Continue reading »
2022
15
Dec
Forest fires
In so many places on earth forests are burned down to make space for cattle, agriculture, etc. Here on Vanua Balavu every second hill features only blackened tree stumps, the soil is getting washed away and erosion is clearly visible. We have talked to people and apparently there’s no plan behind the fires that are devastating the island–just carelessness and stupidity. We talked to the… Continue reading »
2022
14
Dec
New Pitufino hardware model
We’d like to proudly announce Pitufino’s new hardware model! Besides a few smaller changes (like the addition of a reset button or a status LED), the new model V1.1 features an alarm buzzer. This brings the advantage that mobile devices can go into a sleep mode or offline and alarms are still reliably raised. This further enables Pitufino to be used as a repeater (or… Continue reading »
2022
13
Dec
Noisy neighbourhood
Our anchorage here on the East side of Vanua Balavu is very calm and protected from the current NW winds, but still we’re woken up at each morning at 5–it’s the noisy neighbours returning from their foraging in the forest. A big colony of fruitbats (flying foxes) live on the island next to us! They spend their days hanging upside down and supposedly resting, but… Continue reading »
2022
11
Dec
2022
09
Dec
grib files
Whenever we’re underway and the weather’s not acting according to the forecast, I complain about the grib files… So here’s what they look like: this is today’s American GFS model of the SW Pacific. While NZ is squashed between two nasty weather systems, Fiji (top middle) is having a little branch of the convergence zone that gives us oppressively hot and humid weather with thunderstorms… Continue reading »
2022
05
Dec
Fruit and veg!
Even though Vanua Balavu has a weekly flight, the shops only have basic supplies and there is no local veg market. We asked around and got plenty of fresh veg and fruit from friendly women here! Today we’ll make preserves
2022
03
Dec
2022
02
Dec
Interview on the radio
We met with Ursula Burkert for an interview in August and on Sunday it will be on air on Ö1, the Austrian station for classical music, news and culture Here’s the link!