Pitufa.at

When we got back from snorkeling off Snake Island, the boys from the island paddled by, just as Christian was grabbing a brush to clean the rudder. “Do you want to help him?”, I asked. “Yes, we want to help!”, came the immediate answer in a choir. No hesitation, no discussion among themselves, no asking for money. I got out some more goggles and brushes… Continue reading »

We wish you all a merry Christmas (or other festivity) and a happy, healthy, adventurous and exciting year 2025! Thanks for reading and travelling along with us for another year We send you slightly sweaty kisses from summery hot Papua New Guinea, Birgit, Christian and Smurfy

Checking in in Kavieng is a pleasure: we had done our online-evisa (50 USD per person) and sent off an email with a prearrival notification beforehand, so when we arrived in Kavieng we simply anchored in front of the friendly Nusa Resort (they take separated rubbish, so make sure you keep burnables, recylable plastic and cans separate!!), took a taxi boat over to town and… Continue reading »

Before we even went sailing for the first time we were already inspired by Doris’ and Wolf’s stories and photos. After watching their presentations about the magical places they visited with their SY Nomad we were even more determined to go cruising… Of course I read Doris’ book then and loved it! In the meantime we have met Doris and Wolf out here in the… Continue reading »

A fellow sailor has written and illustrated a super-sweet book about an octopus and his adventures. It’s for very young readers from 2 to 7 years old. German only though… “Olli Oktopus findet eine Taucherbrille” is the first part of a series and available on Amazon!

During his third month aboard, Smurfy turned from a savage, but sweet kitten into a rebellious teenager with severe anger issues ignoring all boundaries and testing his limits daily. We tried all the usual tricks we had learned with our previous cats and also did some reading in cat psychology studies: never play with hands but toys, offer punching balls to get rid of aggression,… Continue reading »

I was quite unhappy when I spotted some spider veins on my boobs last year (of all possible places…). I had them lasered, but they quickly reappeared, so that wasn’t a solution. Planning our journey to Europe last August, I had the idea of a cover-up tattoo, got in touch with an artist in Turkey and liked her sketches. On the way back we did… Continue reading »

Falling over board and drowning is the biggest danger for a ship’s cat. Smurfy’s a reckless climber and we could not persuade him to be careful–he insisted on climbing on solar panels, balancing on the railing and other crazy stunts. We were eagerly waiting for him to finally fall in, so he would learn his lesson in a safe anchorage instead of on passage (where… Continue reading »

We love to linger in remote places, but of course you can’t just go shopping for fresh herbs, salad or veg on an uninhabited island… Therefore it’s great to grow some and we usually have basil, mint, spring onions, parsley and sometimes even bellpeppers, chilis, pak choy or tomatoes growing in pots underneath the sprayhood. They are placed on a non-skid mat and secured with… Continue reading »

Smurfy is growing up so fast! At barely 4 months he already weighs 2 kilos…