The main bay of Rapa Iti is infamous for tricky anchoring. Cruising guides mention ‘dead coral rubble’ at the bottom, the bay is very deep (20-30 m) and uneven. Many boats have dragged and fouled their anchors and chains here. When we got here last year we found that large areas of the bay are indeed covered in live staghorn coral–especially the shallower parts that… Continue reading »
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2019
11
Jan
2018
21
Nov
Weather forecasts for cruising in and around French Polynesia
I’ve just put a page on our blog that, on the one hand, summarizes all weather forecasts we’re using on Pitufa. It includes weather bulletins, surface-analysis charts, cyclone warnings, El-Niño discussions, and of course how all those can be requested via Saildocs. On the other hand, the page also embeds all those current forecasts, so it may be a convenient all-in-one weather site for cruisers… Continue reading »
2018
30
Oct
Cruising info on Rurutu
We added a small cruising guide about Rurutu (Austral Islands) to our blog, click here to read it.
2018
30
Mar
Gambier’s Pearl Farms Increasingly Become Navigational Hazard
In recent years, the motto in the Gambier Islands seems to be “a pearl farm for everyone.” Many new concessions were granted, and the result is clearly noticeable. Not only were existing buoy fields massively expanded, but also countless smaller installations were deployed (and still are), scattered throughout the lagoon. Some of those new installations are made by one-man companies, lacking man-power, proper material, and… Continue reading »
2017
13
May
Anchoring around Coral
Each year sailboats cruising in the Tuamotus get into trouble at anchor: they get trapped on lee shores after a shift in the wind direction and foul their anchor and/or chain in coral. Having just a short piece of free chain left while pitching madly is a dangerous situation and the results are stressful maneuvers to get the anchor back up, bent bow rollers and… Continue reading »
2017
11
Apr
Location Report WordPress Plugin
Several fellow cruisers asked me whether I can recommend a WordPress plugin for position reporting, that is, a plugin to show the latest position of your vessel on a map and normally also to show the route traveled so far. The truth is I cannot really recommend one. But what do you use on Pitufa.at? On Pitufa.at I use Geo Mashup, or rather a highly… Continue reading »
2016
12
Oct
Sailing with Cats–a Summary after 5 years of Cruising
When we set out from Europe 5 years ago we were slightly worried how our cat, Leeloo, would cope with long passages, whether we’d have problems when clearing into countries with her, if we’d be able to find cat food in remote places, etc. Despite the fact that Leeloo was already 11 years old when we moved to the boat she adapted quite quickly to… Continue reading »
2016
16
Sep
Pitufa’s Wind Atlas and Windrose Browser
Check out our Atlas of Prevailing Ocean Winds! As a convenient alternative to pilot charts, our site provides an interactive wind atlas and windrose browser. Unlike classical pilot charts, this atlas is based on satellite data (uniformly-sampled, unbiased), insofar similar to Jimmy Cornell`s Ocean Atlas (but that one is on paper and pricey…). We visualize world-wide ocean wind data from the SeaWinds scatterometer onboard the… Continue reading »
2016
10
Jul
Simple recipe for delicious pan bread
Another simplified recipe is pan bread a la Pitufa: 2 cups of wheat flour 1 cup of rye flour 1,5 cups warm water 1 teaspoon dried yeast 1 teaspoon salt bread spices (typical Austrian: ground coriander, ground caraway, fennel) Mix dry ingredients in a bowl, add water, stir well with a spoon (no kneading necessary). Pour the dough into an oiled pan (with a lid),… Continue reading »
2016
09
Jul
Yoghurt
Fellow cruisers have been giving us recipes for yoghurt making, offered yoghurt starter cultures, but we always politely refused–it seemed like such a hassle involving either yoghurt making machines, or without such machines the process would take hours, while we’d have to regularly check with a thermometer to keep the temperature at exactly the right degree to keep the bacteria happy and working. We were… Continue reading »
2016
09
Mar
Haul-out facility in the Marquesas
The first haul-out facility of the Marquesas (in the harbour of Atuona, Hiva Oa) is soon going to start operating (April 2016). Vincent Roche, a young French pilot and mechanic who has lived in the Marquesas for the past 15 years, has organized a trailer capable of carrying keel vessels with a draft of up to 2 meters. He thinks he can deal with yachts… Continue reading »
2015
12
Jul
New railing netting
The last couple of days, in-between the hiking trips with more and less luck (we still have not found the track from Paopao to Vaiare…), we replaced the netting of the railing around Pitufa. Sounds easier than it actually was–in total we spent 3 full working days cutting, attaching, stretching, swearing, undoing, reattaching and tightening the bloody thing. The old one had started to disintegrate… Continue reading »
2015
30
Jun
When to go where in French Polynesia
French Polynesia is a wide-spread and diverse cruising area. To make most of the different archipelagos it is essential to pick the right time. We’ve put together info on when to go where in French Polynesia here.
2015
21
May
Cruising Info on Raivavae
As we hardly found cruising info on Raivavae, we’ve summarized our experiences in a small guide.
2015
15
Jan
The environmental impact of cruising
We always found it very unfair, when we heard that states/islands had restricted anchoring for cruising boats, because we’re convinced that cruise ships, freighters, fishing boats and other big vessels do much more damage, but get away with it due to their financial role. Observing the behaviour of cruising yachts for a few seasons now around French Polynesia, we must unfortunately admit that they do… Continue reading »