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Birgit

Author's details

Name: Birgit
Date registered: September 22, 2010
Jabber / Google Talk: admin

Latest posts

  1. Sogar extra-resistente Korallen sterben bei 32°C — February 21, 2025
  2. Even heat-resilient coral dies in 32°C — February 21, 2025
  3. Fisch einkochen — February 17, 2025
  4. Canning fish — February 17, 2025
  5. Glaubt ihr an den Klimawandel? Steigendes Meeresniveau? — February 14, 2025

Most commented posts

  1. The Matuku Marine Reserve and how it came into being — 11 comments
  2. Donations for the Marine Reserve in Matuku — 10 comments
  3. Hilfsprojekte für Matuku — 7 comments
  4. Leeloo 2000–2021 — 6 comments
  5. Survived! — 6 comments

Author's posts listings

2025
21
Feb

Even heat-resilient coral dies in 32°C

Seeing healthy coral in waters around and even above 31°C around many islands in PNG gave us hope that coral might be able to adapt to rising temperatures. In French Poly and Fiji we saw horrible bleaching events at 30°C already, but the coral near the equator that is used to all-year-round hot water seemed to cope. But then around the northern islands of New… Continue reading »

2025
17
Feb

Canning fish

Big fishing fleets empty the Pacific, but we still troll a simple handline whenever we sail between islands and sometimes we get lucky! On the last sail we caught a jack while still in the lagoon–perfect size and timing and Christian quickly cleaned it with Smurfy eagerly watching and waiting for the first bite of sashimi… When we were in the middle of the passage… Continue reading »

2025
14
Feb

Do you believe in climate change? Rising sea levels?

Not sure? Ask Lorraine, she does. The row of houses in front of hers has disappeared over the last years, by now the water is rising into her house at each high tide. She shrugs it off with a smile, while standing ankle-deep in the Pacific, cleaning her island-cabbage. Lorraine has never been on a plane, she doesn’t own an air condition, her family just… Continue reading »

2025
08
Feb

No more Stinklink

Evil Elon doesn’t just meddle with world politics in disgusting ways, he also cut off our internet at the most inconvenient time. (For those of you who aren’t using internet in remote places: Musk is the owner of Starlink (we gave in and bought the gear for satellite internet a few months ago) and as cruisers we move from country to country, some don’t have… Continue reading »

2025
21
Jan

Clem’s Place

Clem’s Place on Tunung Island on the northern tip of New Hanover is a lodge for alternative tourists who really want to experience small-island life, go snorkeling, fishing and camping. Clem doesn’t just make his own guests welcome, but is also happy to receive visiting yachties! We got a tour of the village and Clem explained the different projects he is trying for a more… Continue reading »

2025
16
Jan

Reef check with kids

Last week we visited Tunung, an island on the NW side of New Hanover. Clem’s place is lodge with a good reputation among divers and nature lovers and Clem, who also works on other projects for sustainability on the island, asked us to take some of the school kids from the island into their no-fishing zone to talk about coral and the role of different… Continue reading »

2025
06
Jan

Island kids are just incredible :-)

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 »

2025
05
Jan

Snake Island

Last week we anchored off the smallest inhabited island we’ve ever seen: just a rock with a strip of beach, a few trees (full of noddie terns) and 11 people on it! The 6 boys were thrilled to have a sailboat anchored next to their home (the first one ever!) and kept us company. Usually they paddle to the neighbouring island for school, but at… Continue reading »

2024
24
Dec

Happy holidays!

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

2024
16
Dec

Clearance and shopping in Kavieng

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 »

2024
14
Dec

Finally back in Papua New Guinea!

In 2005 we spent 4 weeks travelling PNG as backpackers, flew to Port Moresby, on to Madang and did some great diving before riding a series of trucks up the highland’s highway. We had a great time (despite travel warnings and expats who told us we’d get killed if we attempted that trip) and vowed to come back soon. Well, it took us a while,… Continue reading »

2024
14
Dec

Book recommendation “Seenomaden”

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 »

2024
04
Dec

Book recommendation

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!

2024
29
Nov

3 months of Smurfy!

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 »

2024
25
Nov

New tattoo

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 »

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