During our repairs we’ve made some experiences with yacht services in Tahiti and the Societies, which we’d like to share with other cruisers. We cannot recommend the haul-out facilities at Technimarine in Papeete. It’s expensive, the personnel was unfriendly to rude and Pitufa still bears the rust marks from the sanding of rusty fishing vessels in this boat yard. The only advantage of Technimarine is… Continue reading »
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2014
15
Sep
2013
03
Dec
Shadowmail for Winlink and Satphone users?
Sailmail offers a service called shadowmail to their subscribed clients. It allows users to monitor their land-based, non-Sailmail e-mail accounts via low-bandwidth Sailmail and to forward messages when requested. It even integrates nicely into the Airmail software, showing theses shadow folders like normal mailboxes. (See the official info page for more information.) For cruisers such a service is definitely a useful thing. I am not… Continue reading »
2013
16
Oct
Cruising info on the Gambier Islands, French Polynesia
Find our cruising info on the Gambier Islands under Destinations in the Menu or click here.
2013
24
May
Garmin GPSmap 4xx — How useful is a mini (4-inch) chartplotter?
On a small sailing yacht, power consumption is a real issue, particularly on passages. A wind generator is typically useless on a downwind course and often the sails shade the solar panels and there might be days with a thick cloud cover. Some electrical devices can be assumed to be running 24 hours a day: the fridge, some instruments (e.g. log, wind, …), a VHF… Continue reading »
2013
18
Apr
Cruising Info on Panama
Check out our notes about Cruising in Panama (Anchorages in Kuna Yala, Las Perlas, Darien; Navigation Dangers, Tips, etc.) under Destinations in the Menu or click here.
2012
31
Aug
Ready for the rainy season
Cruising in the tropics during the rainy season can be unpleasant. There may be not much of a breeze so it can be steamingly hot and oppressive and in some regions strong thunderstorms are frequent. When it pours down you are forced to shut the hatches so no fresh air comes into the boat. And sometimes it pours down for a longer period of time… Continue reading »
2012
18
Jun
Review: WiFi antenna “BAD BOY Xtreme”
Long-range WiFi antenna “BAD BOY Xtreme” (bitstorm inc., www.bitstorm.com) We bought a BAD BOY Xtreme three months ago and have had it in use almost permanently since then. We haven’t installed it permanently (yet), but only hoist it with a halyard about 10 m high and take it down for passages. Short description The BAD BOY Xtreme consists of a high-gain antenna directly attached to… Continue reading »
2011
24
Aug
Amateur radio aboard Pitufa
On Pitufa we have a ham radio station that consists of a Yaesu FT-857 transceiver, an SCT PTC-II USB pactor modem with pactor 3 license, a CG 3000 automatic antenna tuner, and a 13m-long isolated segment of the back stay as antenna. The CG 3000 tuner is mounted on deck underneath the radar arch in a separate watertight box (see picture below). So it is… Continue reading »
2011
31
Jan
Gale Probability KMZ File
Pilot charts are certainly of great help for planning ocean routes and fortunately, the U.S. Defense Mapping Agency makes their Atlas of Pilot Charts available for free (get it here. you may find their server somewhat slow and rather try it here). I’ve recently generated kml/kmz files that show the prevailing ocean winds (get more info here). Viewing them with Google Maps (as in our… Continue reading »
2010
05
Dec
Prevailing Ocean Winds
Recently, I have discovered world-wide ocean wind data collected over ten years from the ‘SeaWinds’ scatterometer onboard the ‘QuikSCAT’ satellite on the Internet at Oregon State University: COGOW. The site offers an interactive atlas to view prevailing wind maps and wind roses. For blue-water cruisers, the site is definitely a great source to aid route planning. In my opinion, usability of the wind atlas at… Continue reading »