ende

2022
08
May

Galapagos sharks

I enjoyed hanging out with those cute and nosy sharkies so much that I decided to get one!

2022
05
May

DIY: How to replace sprayhood windows

Birgit Hackl, Christian Feldbauer: Replacing the windows on the dodger, All At Sea Caribbean, May 2022, p. 46–50. Download the whole magazine for free.

2022
03
May

Lack of nature protection in French Poly

Reading and watching the news you’d think French Polynesia was a nature paradise. Almost each week the president, PEW and other organisations announce new protection zones in the Pacific around Fr Poly , rahui areas around islands (traditional bans) and anchoring bans for the nastiest polluters–us cruisers. Turtles have been protected for a long time, the same goes for sharkies.
Unfortunately that’s just theory: protected areas are not supervised (and they exclude “traditional fishing” a term which includes basically everything but international fleets), many rahui are opened too regularly to make a change and turtles and sharks are still killed in fish traps for consumption on the islands (where nobody cares about the protection when mayor and police officer hunt as well) or even exported to Tahiti with nobody checking the supply boats.
Snorkeling in the Societies, many parts of the Australs and even in the Tuamotus you find empty reefs with a few tiny fishies that scatter in panic when they see a diver. With no fish to eat the algae, the reefs that are weakened by pollution (from shore) and global warming (caused by all of us) are soon overgrown. But is that reported on the media? Not at all. Local fisherman assure us that there’s plenty of fish (maybe they’ve never seen a reef with plenty of fish…), fishermen go out day after day and catch the last specimen, tiny reef fish are for sale on the market and next to the road.

We keep sending pictures and reports to the DIREN (ministry for environment), PEW (American organisation) and Te mana o te moana (turtle protection centre in Moorea), so far to no avail. It might make a change if more people pestered them, so please take the time to write an email and send pics if you see something that needs to be reported. Maybe they’ll listen eventually.
direction@environnement.gov.pf, jpetit@pewtrusts.org, info@temanaotemoana.org

2022
01
May

Making friends and enemies

Each morning we read the news and each morning we get upset about how we humans treat our planet. We can’t change those global issues, we can only try to make a small difference starting with ourselves. We tend to go one step further and address behaviour that we witness in our little world (e.g. anchoring in coral, disturbing bird colonies, treating remote places as a free all-you-can-eat buffet, disrespecting local customs, polluting, etc.). Doing so we have made some enemies. Well, we don’t really care as it we don’t want to be friends with people who disrespect mother nature anyway. We have also made friends with people who are well-meaning and acted just thoughtlessly ;-)
Just an example: Last month I had a doctor’s appointment and was horrified to see 5 guppies (little, very hardy fresh water fish) in a tiny vase displayed in the waiting room. Of course I couldn’t keep my big mouth shut and brought up the issue with the doc. She was flabbergasted, the fish had come with the office and she hadn’t given them much thought, so I explained the basic set-up of a fish tank. When I went back two weeks later, the guppies were swimming in an aquarium. A tiny victory, but a big deal for the guppies.
I think it DOES make sense to speak up for issues we care about. I hate it when people say that one person can’t make a change so they have an excuse to not even make an effort. If everybody tried just a little bit, there might still be hope.

2022
30
Apr

Waiting

After we had to interrupt our passage because of the broken track on the mast, the repair was rather quickly done, but we had missed our weather window. We need really stable weather for the 1.900 nautical miles to Fiji and it’s rare to find a weather window that actually lasts 2 weeks and goes all the way. Before Covid we could have stopped in the Cook Islands, Tonga and/or Samoa along the way, splitting the journey into shorter legs that are easier to plan, but unfortunately these countries have still not opened their borders for yachts. It seems absurd that borders are opening for tourists on planes, but remain closed for sailors who are much less at risk to bring a disease as we automatically spend several days (or weeks) in quarantine while underway to a new place.
We don’t want to risk getting trapped in an extended calm area as this would mean burning lots of diesel to motor out of it. The constant comparing of forecast models (“to leave or not to leave”‘s the daily question), keeping the boat (and provisioning lockers) in passage mode to be ready to head out spontaneously anytime is slightly getting on our nerves despite the best resolutions to be patient. We’re more than ready to sail west, into the sunset.

2022
23
Apr

Read Online: Article in Cruising World “Know your Weather”

Christian Feldbauer, Birgit Hackl: KNOW YOUR WEATHER, Cruising World, April 2022. Read the online version of this article.

2022
16
Apr

Damage underway

During a 30 knot squall the track for the genoa pole got ripped out of the mast–incredible with what extreme forces a sailboat has to deal, the big foresail is over 60 m2… No way we could manage the downwind trip without a genoa pole. We have to interrupt our trip for repairs.

2022
13
Apr

Like an Atlantic crossing

The Pacific is so huge that the distances are mindboggling. The passage to Fiji alone is almost as far as an Atlantic crossing…
Despite a forecast for steady winds, we were slowly sailing along with flapping sails and the whole boat clanging and banging–very annoying on a downwind course. During the night the wind fortunately set in and we’re nicely sailing along now. 1800 nm to go!

2022
12
Apr

Nana (good-bye) French Polynesia!

After wonderful nine years year we are on our way to new adventures–Fiji, we are coming!
Watch video here on www.pitufa.at
winken_drohne

2022
06
Apr

Pitufino

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Pitufino banner

2022
31
Mar

Read Online: Our Article on Anchoring Around Coral in Cruising World

Christian Feldbauer, Birgit Hackl: SEARCHING FOR SAFE SPOTS–Anchoring around Coral, Cruising World, March 2022. Read the online version of this article.

2022
31
Mar

Update: Checking out of French Polynesia

We just did our check-out from Tahiti and had some hiccups along the way. It seems the different offices that deal with pleasure crafts don’t talk to each other ;-)
Even though it the Capitainerie sent us an info sheet claiming that we had to send the check-out application to traffic maritime AND we got an email from them replying that we were free to pick up our clearance papers from immigration at the airport, immigration did NOT have our clearance ready.
They told us that clearance had to be obtained via DPAM instead, so we had to start the whole process all over again. DPAM were very helpful and granted the exit permission within 2 hours–instead of the usual 72…

So here’s what we learned: Clearing out from Tahiti you have to:
- write to DPAM and fill out the application for clearance permission 72 hours ahead of departure
accueil.dpam@administration.gov.pf, escales.dpam@administration.gov.pf, affmar@affaires-maritimes.pf, remi.quilliot@affaires-maritimes.pf
- go to immigration (Police aux frontieres) at the airport and customs in Fare Ute at the day of departure

—————————–

So please UPDATE the info below that we gave you a few days ago. It’s no longer traffic maritime you have to write to, but DPAM…

Outdated info 31.3. 2022: There’s been some confusion among cruisers about clearance formalities. As we are about to clear out we have first-hand info to share with you:
Clearing out of French Poly can be done from any port of entry again (no more restrictions like during Covid).
- If you clear out from any other port than Tahiti you just have to write an email to the harbour master trafficmaritime@portppt.pf 72 hours before to ask for the “permis de sortie”. At the day of your departure you go to the local gendarmerie office for the rest of the paperwork and to get your exit clearance.
- If you clear out straight from Tahiti things are more complicated. Again you have to write an email to the harbour master trafficmaritime@portppt.pf 72 hours before to ask for the “permis de sortie”, phone no. (+689) 40 47 48 82. But at the day of your departure you have to personally visit the immigration office at the airport +689 40 80 06 05 and the customs office +689 40 50 55 87 on Motu Uta (island off Fare Ute, same where you get tax-free diesel form). It does not matter whether you go to immigration or customs first.

2022
29
Mar

Watermaker worries

Just as we were patching up the dinghy yesterday, the watermaker suddenly quit. Horror scenario. We carry a spare pump head and installed it today–fortunately the pump is running now again! A more serious issue would have been a big problem before a long passage.

2022
29
Mar

Wobbly

We’ve had our dinghy for one and a half years and it’s been leaking from day one, that’s why it’s called “Wobbly”. It arrived with a transport damage: a hole was punched through the hypalon on the bottom, so the first thing we had to do was glue the damn thing in a very tricky spot. It continued leaking just a little bit (enough to pump it up every two weeks or so), but recently considerably faster.
Yesterday we started another attempt at a repair–this time with three layers of patches to seal off the bent area and to add a chafe-protection on top. We couldn’t help laughing when we read the instructions on the glue: only do the repair out of direct sunlight (yeah sure, on deck) and away from water (no problem on a boat), ideally with less than 60 % humidity (hello, we’re in the tropics??) and let the glue cure for 6 days (and be stuck on the boat in the meantime???)
Well, we did our best and we’ll see how long Wobbly stays plump and tight this time…

2022
23
Mar

Preparations

Before a long passage the boat needs to be thoroughly checked and prepared:
We have checked the rigg and changed the headsails to have the big genoa downwind (and repaired some seams as we were at it). Then the Yanmar got some attention: we cleaned the sea strainers, changed the engine oil, new coolant and yesterday a new impeller. Some engineer at Yanmar thought it was a fun idea to have the impeller on the hidden backside of the engine. Christian already cut an inspection hole to be able to reach it all after we bought Pitufa, but you can still either look in to see the damn thing, OR get a hand in. Only one hand at a time of course… Well, we managed somehow and cleaning the bilge afterwards was of course also a messy business ;-)

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