Pitufa.at

On Friday we came back to Mangareva for the annual cultural festival. This festival’s the most important event of the year here, it lasts two weeks, there are lovingly decorated food stands and each day some event is scheduled. The two competing dance groups of the island have practiced every day for two months (we heard them drumming every night and checked on their progress… Continue reading »

2013
07
Jul

Photos of Taravai

Taravai is our favourite island in the Gambiers so far, so we put a more extensive gallery together. Though, uploading it took quite some time…

2013
02
Jul

Back to Taravai

The Gambier Islands are an ideal site to overcome the reef navigation anxiety that we’ve developed in the San Blas. With the help of crystal clear waters, accurate charts and GPS tracks from other boats we’re slowly gaining confidence. Satellite images from Google Earth are a great help, too. Despite all that we’re still nervous before setting out to a new destination, we can feel… Continue reading »

2013
30
Jun

Photos of Aukena and Totegegie

2013
29
Jun

Aukena

After leaving Rikitea we briefly visited the low, long island of Totegegie. It’s just a part of the outer reef that sticks out of the water with some pines and palmtrees growing on half of it, the ocean crashes against the beach smashing the corals to pieces. The other half has been cleared to make way for the airstrip. Two days later we moved on… Continue reading »

2013
13
Jun

Up the mountain!

We’re still in the Baie Angui on the little island of Taravai. It’s windy again, but at least we’re partly protected here (some gusts make it over the hills) and it’s been sunny for two days. We’ve learned that the weather changes so quickly here that one really has to take advantage of good weather to go snorkeling/hiking – if you try to finish a… Continue reading »

2013
12
Jun

Our second cruising anniversary

Exactly two years ago we set out on our adventure from Croatia with the aim of reaching the South Pacific as quickly as possible–it took us two years in the end, but now we’re here We celebrated this special day with a picknick on a remote beach on the island of Taravai (Gambier, French Polynesia) with our friends from s/v Irie, contemplating how lucky we… Continue reading »

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2013
28
May

Our first impressions of French Polynesia

Mangareva is the main island of the Gambier archipelago in the south-east of French Polynesia. Due to their location at the southern fringe of the tropics they have a mixture of tropical and temperate vegetation. The outer reef encloses these handful of islands and protects them from the ocean swell. The lagoon is calm as a lake — an incredible oasis in the middle of… Continue reading »

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2013
24
May

Garmin GPSmap 4xx — How useful is a mini (4-inch) chartplotter?

On a small sailing yacht, power consumption is a real issue, particularly on passages. A wind generator is typically useless on a downwind course and often the sails shade the solar panels and there might be days with a thick cloud cover. Some electrical devices can be assumed to be running 24 hours a day: the fridge, some instruments (e.g. log, wind, …), a VHF… Continue reading »

2013
23
May

Photos of our long passage

2013
21
May

Pitufa in French Polynesia

Finally we are where we long dreamed to be. We’ll spend the rest of the year exploring the Isles Gambier, maybe some atolls of the Tuamotus, and the Marquesas.

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2013
18
May

Arrived!

Arrived. Champagne & tapas. Sooo happy!

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2013
15
May

Rushing downwind!

The whole last week a weak, slow moving front (according to the NOAA forecast) followed us, resulting in fickle winds from different directions and complete calms in between. In the beginning we were glad to get some rest, be able to clean the boat, bake bread, etc., but after a while we got extremely impatient. Being becalmed means either crawling along with flapping, banging sails… Continue reading »

2013
14
May

350 miles to go

For whatever technical reason we could’t post on our blog for a while, but the problem is solved again. Thanks Thomas! After almost a week with light and fickle winds, it seems, according to the forecast, we’ll have good sailing conditions for our remaining 350 miles to go.++++++ Wir konnten fuer eine Weile keine Berichte auf unseren Blog schicken — aus welchem technischen Grund auch… Continue reading »

2013
10
May

post-by-email

It seems our post-by-email feature stopped working. of course exactly then when we’re in the middle of the pacific ocean… all is well onboard.