Pitufa.at

The weather here’s still overcast and changeable, which is a bit disappointing as the grib had announced the arrival of summer with fanfares and excitement-building-up-drum rolls–only to call it off last minute. Hmpf. We still used a sunny spell to find our way up to the northernmost motu, Puaumu, navigating through uncharted areas and coral heads and are happy to be in yet another new… Continue reading »

Protected anchorages, golden palm-fringed beaches, pine-clad mountains in the background, pristine waters and remote motus–yes, we’re happy to be back in our favourite corner of Fr. Polynesia!

It seems Pitufa’s having a great time rushing along and ploughing the deep azure of the Pacific with her bow. With just the main in the second reef, the tiny inner foresail and a piece of yankee we’ve still had a daily run of 130 miles. We can’t wait to reach our favourite islands in French Polynesia, just 160 miles to go, no worries about… Continue reading »

This trip’s not exactly fun, but then we didn’t expect it to be. We’re sailing as close to the wind as possible which sometimes shifts more easterly and then more northerly again, so we manage to stay on course. It’s steadily blowing between 15 and 20 knots (doesn’t sound like much, but feels like more when it’s on the nose) and the waves are high… Continue reading »

Usually an ocean passage resembles a journey through a more or less hilly blue desert, but this time our course goes right trough the Tuamotus, just last night we passed 3 of them within a few miles, so we have to constantly adjust the course. The passage started quite rough yesterday with changing winds and high, confused waves. We soon had a huge mahi-mahi (dorade)… Continue reading »

Yesterday we moved further south into the ‘duck’s breast’ and found a pretty anchorage in front of two uninhabited motus. This morning we were contemplating the weather predictions, trying to decide whether the predicted easterly winds would be strong enough and last long enough to take us the 175 miles to Amanu. In the end we decided to stay here and do a boat project… Continue reading »

We were first eager to get away from Makemo after we’d done all the shopping, as the village anchorage lacks protection and privacy, the water inside the lagoon’s a bit murky and navigation’s really tricky with tons of little bastard-bommies that are hardly visible (no turquoise sand to mark them, just dark coral coming up). But the north-easterlies obviously haven’t looked up the wind statistics… Continue reading »

Surprise, suprise, after postponing the departure from Tahanea (or should I say Smurf Island?) so often, that we didn’t really believe anymore we’d actually leave at some point , we used a perfect looking weather window (light breeze from the southeast with calm seas) to sail out yesterday. Of course the passage wasn’t as easy as expected, instead of gliding majestically under full sails on… Continue reading »

Yesterday we returned to Tahanea’s beautiful south, as the weather’s turned excellent again: blue sky with puffy cumulus and a light southerly breeze. Before we had a couple of overcast, oppressive days while the fringe of a front became stationary over our area and brought northerly winds. So we had to stay in the (in our opinion) boring northern part. Now, the fine weather is… Continue reading »