Pitufa.at

I had to fly to Austria for family reasons and just got back to Tahiti. My greatest worry was that French Poly would close the borders again while I was away, so I only dared to stay for ten days in Austria. I was a bit shocked, how careless the majority of people act there: masks only in supermarkets, waiters wear them half-heartedly underneath their chins and I was frowned upon when I did my disinfecting rituals after touching surfaces…

The journey itself was surprisingly pleasant: The Air France flight via Vancouver (they don’t land in the US at the moment, but divert flights via Canada so I was spared the security hassle in L.A.) was almost empty, the few passengers each had a row for themselves and we could leisurly stretch out in the economy class… Boarding was done in small groups (each part of the airplane a separate zone) and people queued with large distances.
Two weeks later on the way back things had already changed: boarding in a big queue, no more social distancing, but still obligatory masks. It’s amazing how quickly the novelty factor wears off and people fall back into old habits–unfortunately our general motto ‘better safe than sorry’ doesn’t seem to be a wide-spread approach…

Before I flew to Austria I asked the Austrian embassy whether I’d need a covid test and they claimed that it was necessary because of the transit stop in Canada (ridiculous, as I did the test in covid-free Tahiti before flying) and I dutifully got one for 250 Euros–nobody ever asked for it. Passengers were not checked in Paris and in Vienna I simply walked out of the airport without finding anyone I could interest in my pretty Covid-test.

I knew I’d need a negative Covid test in order to make it back to Tahiti, but I was almost impossible to find a lab in Austria willing to perform one: I called ten labs and hospitals, was told that they were only testing on certain days (not suitable for my flight) or not at all in August… Finally I found one in Steyr (Upper Austria), where I then had to queue with 30 other people who needed a test–if you planned on spreading a virus that would be the way to go…
In the end I had a negative test in hand, on top of that I needed a French traveller form, an Etis application (online platform for travellers to French Polynesia) and an insurance certificate, all of them were checked in Vienna, Paris and Tahiti again. Additionally I got a self-test kit which I’ll have to hand in in 4 days. I was veeery nervous about my paperwork, but all worked out nicely and I made it safely back to Pitufa, Christian and Leeloo. Home sweet home!

Dlvr.it seems to work! As we blog bilingual, I added another service to share our German posts to another facebook page @Pitufa.at for our German-speaking friends. Another Test…

I am testing a service to automatically share our blog posts on our facebook page. It’s called dlvr.it, and I’m not sure yet whether it works or not. We will know as soon as this post shows up at @sy.pitufa…

Sometime in July our Leeloo turned 20–quite an age for a cat… She’s seen a lot during this long life: she lived in our garden flat with us in Austria, went on a student exchange with me to Madrid as a kitten, roamed Swedish forests, resided in our British ‘long garden’ in Cambridge and when we decided to start sailing in 2009 came along on our very first journey under sail. She’s lived full-time afloat now for 9 years on Pitufa, a truly old salt

Pitufa’s previous owner was German, so she came with many gadgets ‘made in Germany’. One of those is our shaft seal: a ProfiSeal (www.profiseal.com), based on the design of drip-less face seals. Instead of a flimsy rubber harmonica (like on the PSS), it features a solid metal housing that is flange-mounted to the stern tube. Inside the housing, a rotary unit (fixed to the shaft) consists of a massive stainless steel spring and a graphite ring, which is pressed against the forward end of the housing where a stainless-steel ring sits. It has a hose barb for the intake of cooling water, is very compact, only 11 cm (4.3″) long for our 35 mm shaft, making it probably the only face-type option when space is limited.

Our ProfiSeal has kept the boat dry for incredible 23 years and its endurance against the constant galvanic attacks from a much nobler close-by neighbourhood is extraordinary. We only changed the rotating unit and the stainless counter ring after we had to pull the shaft for repairs six years ago. We contacted the company and were astounded by the swift customer support. Spare parts were available without delay and came with professional advice which helped with the re-installation. As the aluminium housing now showed some corrosion, we installed a new shaft seal when we were on the hard last week–of course a ProfiSeal again.

Installing our new ProfiSeal

While no flights were allowed into French Polynesia we observed that people went back to their normal behaviour–no masks, kisses for greetings, etc. We were worried that they would not change these customs when the borders were opened again. Fortunately we were wrong: In town almost everybody is wearing masks now (many in colourful Polynesian patterns), people queue with respectful distance in supermarkets and I was surprised when the cashier at ‘Champion’ disinfected every single coin and banknote when I did my shopping there today. No cases in Tahiti so far, we hope for the best.

Being on the hard means hard work all day long (and a few times into the night–ever tried to apply black antifouling in the dark?). As we live on Pitufa, we cannot walk away from the building site in the evening. We usually need at least one bit from every single one of our many lockers and by the end of the day there’s no free surface available. In order to being able to sit down, we first need to stow away at least the worst of the mess.

Of course such chaos also means searching for bits and pieces and it’s especially annoying when you think you’ve handed down all the stuff that’s needed for a job (by bucket elevator), only to find out that there’s one tiny bit missing–4 m up the ladder, around the deck, 6 steps down into the boat and the same way back again. At least we can’t complain about lack of work-out.

Fortunately we managed to get all jobs done within a single week (antifouling, paint repairs, new shaft seal, new cutlass bearing, new depth sounder in a bigger thru-hull, closing a no longer needed thru-hull, fabricating a platform for a new swimming ladder, having it welded on, installing the ladder, etc. etc.) and we splashed this morning! Hurray!! We spent the rest of the day cleaning up the boat and clearing away the chaos. Oh yes, and Christian of course couldn’t resist finishing the installation of the swimming ladder–a job that turned out to be more complicated that expected needed bits and pieces from hidden storage spaces. Anyway, now we’re done and ready to have an after-work beer!

We needed a new cutless bearing

Toxic stuff...

Birgit's painting the new antifouling

Boatyard chaos

After welding mounts for our new swimming ladder, plenty of fairing was necessary.

Deep draft means working high up on the hard.

After just one week, Pitufa splashes again.

On July 15 international flights are supposed to resume to French Polynesia and we are a little bit worried that this will lead to another covid alarm and subsequent inter-island travel ban. We therefore have changed plans, will head to Tahiti today and try to get a haul-out, some repairs, some doctor’s appointments, shopping (the yearly routine) done before that may happen.

The weather’s not ideal, a rough start then dying winds, so we hope we won’t be stuck with flapping sails in high seas. 420 nm to go!