Pitufa.at

From July until November humpback whales migrate up to warm waters, where the females give birth in the protection of lagoons, undisturbed by large predators (and hopefully humans). During those months you can often see groups of whales near outer reefs, sometimes in passes or even anchorages. Due to the lock-down we haven’t moved much this year, so we’ve only had our first whale encounter… Continue reading »

With 2700 cases/100.000 inhabitants, swamped hospitals and full ICU units the government has finally announced a new lockdown for 2 weeks. It’s a bit vague though: people are still allowed to go to work or shopping (necessary things), the international borders remain open, inter-island travel is limited to people with “important reasons” (which is a broad term as any business reason or family reason counts).… Continue reading »

We are anchored on a sandy shelf in a protected part of the lagoon of southern Tahiti. In front of us 4 m swell thunders against the outer reef in crazy avalanche-like looking barrels and behind us the deeper lagoon looks like a fast-flowing mountain river with eddies, whirlpools and standing waves… Pitufa gets swirled around by 3 knots of current, but we’re bouncing only… Continue reading »

Usually we have a jungle under the sprayhood, but when we left the boat alone, we had to get rid of the plants. Now I’m replanting and soon we’ll harvest arugula, spring onions, mint, basil and cilantro again! The chilis and bellpeppers will need a few more months though

By 8 o’clock the laundry’s on the line… We’ve done some stretching and exercises… …had a morning swim… …with a few stingrays for company! In the meantime the bread is out of the pan and we can have breakfast. A perfect way to start the day! (We’ll spend most of it in front of our laptops, but that’s another story )

When you sleep in passage mode on the floor and the coffee pot needs to be clasped to the stove, you know it’s time to get out of the Marina Taina anchorage… The reef is not wide and high enough to protect the lagoon from high swell, so whenever the swell gets higher than 1.5 m (yesterday it was 2.5…) it gets seriously bouncy in… Continue reading »

We’ve been in French Polynesia now for 8 years. It’s an amazing cruising area, but this year we felt ready to start a new chapter–a post-ship’s cat chapter with more sailing, more exploring, rougher anchorages, hotter summers (all things we didn’t want our elderly cat to suffer). Due to the Covid pandemic most countries in the Pacific remain closed, but Fiji is open for yachts… Continue reading »

We have just published another book on Amazon: an adventure novel with fantasy elements about a sailing family. For now it’s only in German though… Available at Amazon