Pitufa.at

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 »

2014
05
Dec

Never start a passage with a hangover

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 »

2014
22
Nov

Projects

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 »

2014
20
Nov

In the duck’s beak

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 »

2014
16
Nov

At last, our photos of Tahanea!

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2014
13
Nov

Makemo

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 »

2014
06
Nov

Decisions

I know it must sound ridiculous, but at the moment we’re faced with more decisions than a stressed out stock broker. We were trying to find a weather window for our next destination Makemo which lies just 60 miles northeast of here (or 75 to the other pass, or 100 going round the western side). We spent hours pondering different options looking at grib files… Continue reading »

2014
28
Oct

That’s Magic

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 »

2014
25
Oct

Another Article in Ocean7 Magazine

There is another of Birgit’s articles in the current issue of Ocean7. This time it’s about general cruising life. Birgit Hackl, Christian Feldbauer: Cruisen — Leben unter Segeln, OCEAN7 06 (November/Dezember) 2014, p. 30–35. download PDF (in German only)

2014
21
Oct

Not bored at all

We’ve already been a month on Tahanea, and we’re still not getting bored. Even though we get up at sunrise at 6 the days are not long enough to fit in everything we’ve got (and want) to do. Those of you who know us personally won’t be surprised that many of our activities circle around food and its preparation. Baking bread, tending to the boat… Continue reading »

2014
16
Oct

Gone fishing

We usually don’t fish in lagoons. First, because we enjoy watching colourful reef fishies more than eating them and second, in many parts of the tropics reef fish and their predators have ciguatera, a nerve poison that accumulutes in fish, is harmless for them, but harmful to mammals. Some atolls are said to be free of ciguatera, some kinds of fish too (at least small… Continue reading »

2014
15
Oct

Sharks

Neighbouring islands like Fakarava attract tourists with drift dives through ‘walls of sharks’. We suppose that the resorts feed the sharks to get such numbers, because here without fishermen cleaning their catch or other attractions we see some sharks on every snorkel or dive, but never big groups. In the passes we saw some black-tip and grey reef sharks and a white-tip reef shark resting… Continue reading »

2014
14
Oct

Sounds of a motu

This morning dawned completely calm (dawn’s around half past four, we’re in a funny time zone…). Without the constant noise of the wind and just the far thundering of the outer reef (the reef’s so broad here that the breakers are about half a mile away) we could clearly hear the sounds of the awakening motu next to us. The chirping, squeaking, cackling, shrieking and… Continue reading »

2014
12
Oct

Swimming Pool

Yesterday the situation we had prepared for ocurred: a sudden 180-degree windshift to the south, the wind picked up to 20-30 knots within minutes and a cloudy sky that made the reefs invisible–luckily we just had to put on our rain gear and follow our GPS track to get safely back over the 8 miles to the sheltered anchorage on the southern side of the… Continue reading »

2014
09
Oct

Not just round and flat

Most cruisers hop quickly through the Tuamotus, only spending a few days on one atoll before heading to the next. We imagine that when they see the first one they think ‘wow, it’s round and flat with coconut palms!’ at the second one ‘aha, round and flat’ and the third ‘hmm, suprise, round and flat’ and so on . We’ve been in Tahanea now for… Continue reading »