Pitufa.at

Today, June 11th, is an anniversary for us. Exactly one year ago we set sail towards the horizon. Browsing through our log book of this first year reveals some interesting numbers: 6746 nautical miles. 120 days at sea, of which 49 daysails. 9 countries. 65 anchorages. 36 islands. 15 days in a marina. 21 days on the hard. 406 engine hours. 638 litres of diesel.… Continue reading »

2012
28
May

Bonaire photos!

The promised pics are online now:

2012
26
May

Land of the cactus

We hired a car (or rather something in-between an SUV and a truck) yesterday and visited the Washington-Slagbaai National Park in the Northwest of Bonaire. We didn’t expect too much at first since the island is rather dry and barren. Then we were surprised how stunning, bizarre, almost overwhelming the landscape of this island can be. Pics will come soon so you can see for… Continue reading »

2012
19
May

Crystal-clear water

Crystal-clear water, healthy corals, and plenty of reef fish make Bonaire a diver’s paradise. We went diving yesterday and again today; had quite splashy dinghy rides to get there and back

2012
17
May

Bonaire ahead

It’s always magic when an island appears on the horizon after a few days on the blue disc. It seems we’ll make landfall before sunset.

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2012
16
May

160 nm to Bonaire

We’re sailing along with 6 knots on now rather calm seas, staying about 25 nm north of the Venezuelan Antilles. Initially we wanted to spend a while exploring these islands, but unfortunately we’ve heard plenty of piracy reports + rumours around them recently and decided not to take any risks. As only 160 nm of 400 nm remain, we hope to reach Bonaire tomorrow before… Continue reading »

2012
15
May

Sailing westwards again

We left Grenada yesterday in the evening for Bonaire. First few miles not much wind, but then it freshened up and we are making about 6 knots. It’s a quite rolly passage with the seas from abeam/astern.

2012
08
May

Splash!

We’ve made it—Pitufa is in the water again!

2012
28
Apr

Bad news

Yesterday we thought we were almost ready to launch Pitufa again and eager to get away from the boatyard and the mosquitoes. The last job was to change the upper shrouds, but when the rigger fixed them on the mast he discovered a crack at the very top of the mast. A catastrophe. On Monday we’ll have to pull the mast and then hope to… Continue reading »

2012
14
Apr

St. David’s Habour

Today we moved a few bays further east to St. Davids Habour. We didn’t bother hoisting any sails and motored the 6 miles upwind (we had to run the watermaker anyway). Navigating Grenada’s southern coast is somewhat scary because there are reefs everywhere. The anchorage is a bit rolly so we dropped also a stern anchor to keep us aligned to the swell. We then… Continue reading »

2012
13
Apr

Mount Qua Qua

We wanted to hike up Mount Qua Qua, partly because Lonely Planet recommends it and partly because of the cool name… So we took a minibus up to Grand Etang Forest Reserve only to discover that dozens of buses from a cruise ship had arrived before us. Stalls had popped up because of them, musicians, traditionally “decorated” ladies–far from the peaceful area we had been… Continue reading »

2012
14
Mar

Photos of Tobago

We updated our photo album today and added a gallery of Tobago.

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2012
14
Feb

Land ahoy!

The island of Tobago appears out of the haze 25 miles ahead of us. The passage from Suriname took us three and a half days with daily runs of 136, 132, and 145 nautical miles. The Guyana current helped with a steady knot all the way up. The first two days were pleasant with flat seas and light winds, but strong enough to push Pitufa… Continue reading »