Pitufa.at

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…

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

We arrived this morning on the southern side of Tahiti Nui, where we’ll do a stop-over in a quiet area before braving the big city. Last year we perceived the anchorage as quiet (in comparison to Punaauia), today we find the constant droning of traffic on the coastal road deafening

Rapa’s a somewhat tricky place: difficult to get here, difficult to find a weather window to leave again, strong gusts in between, hardly any internet and the supply boat only calls every month or sometimes every two. We still enjoyed the wonderful mountains, the beautiful coral, snorkelling with the numerous galapagos sharks and the wonderful generosity of the islanders. Tongia maitaki Rapa (thank you in Reo Rapa). Today we leave with a weather window that’s not ideal, but we have to go to Tahiti, do some medical check-ups and prepare to leave French Polynesia. 660 nm to go!

Whenever we stay longer in a place I try to visit the schools and do a little presentation about sustainability and environmental issues. At primary schools this means mainly presenting some local wildlife and its “function” for eco-systems to explain why they are worth protecting. E.g. bird droppings are fertilizers for the soil and the lagoon, parrot fish are important as they clean the reef, sharks prevent diseases as they eat sick fish, turtles are worth protecting as they eat jellyfish and are getting rare, etc.
Quite often I feel like fighting windmills, when the little ones assure me that turtles taste delicious (even though stressed looking teachers then explain that nobody actually hunts them–as this is strictly forbidden) and the fish are there for humans to eat.
In Rapa things are different: the local environmental protection group Raumatariki is very active, sweets and everything wrapped in plastic is forbidden at school and even the youngest ones know that littering is a dreadful thing to do. Therefore the visit to the two classes here (the young ones from 6 on and the older ones up to 10 years) was a real pleasure. Katsumi and Jacqueline are doing a great job!

The main bay of Rapa is protected from the long swell that comes up from the S and SW most of the time, but the other bays around the island are open to it. Last week the swell was down, so we took Pitufa exploring. We were rewarded with stunning mountain views, sheer cliffs and beautiful underwater landscapes. Anchoring turned out to be quite tricky, but we managed to manoeuvre into this tight spot between table coral.

Toilet troubles are a cruisers’s nightmare. The plastic base plate of our Jabsco was cracked and we were worried that it would turn into an ejector seat on passage (just imagine the mess, YUCK!). Fortunately the part was on stock in Tahiti (at Ocean2000) and we spent a fun day dismounting and remounting the whole thing (disgusting, but fortunately not quite as bad as expected). As we were already at it we installed a new pump. All good now!