Pitufa.at

Most outer reefs here in the Lau Group don’t give much protection and the anchorages are accordingly rolly, so we counted ourselves lucky yesterday to find a calm bay on Namuka. We were a bit disappointed about the lack of wildlife (no birds ashore, nothing to be seen in the water). At sunset the local wildlife got up: a cloud of mosquitoes descended on the… Continue reading »

Instead of blowing from the North (we would have tacked to the NE) and then shifting to the SE (we would have tacked east) the wind kept shifting between slightly north and south of east–never enough to help us with proper tacks. End the end we arrived in Namuka. Even though we’ve only sailed a short distance it took us one and a half days,… Continue reading »

The wind remains from the NE to E, so we keep tacking up and down… We had about 90 nm to go when we set out Wednesday morning, now we have 40

Tacking in light fickle winds is annoying and Totoya is still in sight this afternoon, even though we left this morning… Distances are small in Fiji, so we’ll get somewhere, eventually. Hopefully

After a rolly night anchored off Totoya, we’re heading out again into an uncertain weather window. We’ll see where the wind lets us to

We set out this morning with a forecast predicting first SE winds for a few hours and then NE, so we thought we’d be sailing east with a tack. Well, an hour after we set out the wind already shifted NE with a squall, only to turn east later on. Hard to decide what to do, maybe we’ll just stop on the nearby island Totoya…

We’ve been in Fiji now for a while, but we haven’t visited too many places, we enjoy lingering and getting to know the people and see all sides of an island. It’s also great to return to a place: We already spent two weeks here in Matuku last July, so when we returned we were greeted by familiar faces like long-lost family, we brought some… Continue reading »

Over the last three days a trough passed over Fiji. We briefly considered to set out with the front, but the NW wind prediction looked quite violent with lots of rain, so we decided to wait for the wind shift to W instead. It was a good decision: We set out yesterday afternoon, found the westerlies a few miles south of Suva–and they were still… Continue reading »

The Fijians drink the ground up root of Kava like we drink beer, just as a social thing in the evening. Kava used to be highly ritualised and mainly for men, but nowadays it’s served casually among friends or family. We were anchored in Vaga Bay on the West side of Beqa Island, when our shore neighbour Albert (Pati) stopped by and invited us for… Continue reading »

Warm weather, calm seas–summer in the South Pacific is the best time for cruising. Unfortunately it’s also the cyclone season, so most yachts are already leaving westwards, but we have decided to stay. Instead of leaving the boat in a cyclone pit or marina, we are checking out different, protected anchorages, so we’ll know where to run and hide when a cyclone is approaching. It’s… Continue reading »