Pitufa.at

Today my Mom had to start her return-journey to Austria. We anchored Pitufa just in front of the airport, took the dinghy into the little airport harbour, checked in the luggage, went all back to the boat, had lunch, went for a swim and only returned to the airport once the plane had landed. Security consists of a friendly lady asking the passenger whether they’ve packed something dangerous and there isn’t even a fence around the runway. If all airports were like this traveling by plane would be quite enjoyable

Unfortunately only the first leg to Tahiti was that relaxed, tomorrow she’ll start the 26 hour marathon via LA and Paris to Vienna…

Other mom’s may enjoy white, sandy beaches of the lagoon-side of motus, mine prefers the rough outer side facing the ocean. Yesterday we took a walk along eastern side of Puaumu (the motu in the north of the Gambier where we’re anchored now) where the ocean waves crash against the outer reef, which is strawn with big pieces of coral that were broken off and tossed up the shore during past storms. I felt like walking through an art gallery, with my mom marvelling at every single naturally formed sculpture (we didn’t make it far, but we enjoyed each metre .

Every piece of staghorn, table or brain coral has indeed its unique beauty and walking on the small fringe of land between the protected lagoon and the mighty ocean is a humbling experience. The amount of plastic trash that ends washed up on the reef is a bitter reminder of how little we humans cherish mother nature.

I took the plane to Tahiti two weeks ago to pick up my Mom at the airport. After three days of intensive shopping (I hitched 10 rides in 3 days) we flew together back to the Gambier. After getting over the jetlag (a heat wave here in the Gambier didn’t exactly help with adjusting to the climate) my Mom has nicely settled in and enjoys the diverse nature of the Gambier. She spends half the day swimming in the turquoise lagoon, but somehow we can’t persuade her to stick her head under water and join the fishies snorkeling

In the past two weeks the weather has shown once more that the Gambier are just the most pleasant place during the cyclone season. A convergence zone has been sitting west of us, bringing lows with nasty weather to the Cooks, the Societies, the Australs and even the Tuamotus. While the poor people there sit in strong winds and pouring rain we’ve had perfect summer weather here.

We’ve used this calm period with blue skies, light breezes and almost no swell to explore a corner of the Gambier archipelago that we’ve never managed to visit before: the islets Kamaka, Makaroa and Manui in the southern part of the lagoon. As the barrier reef is submerged in the South the swell that comes up from the South each time a low passes by in the roaring 40s and screaming 50s makes it almost unhindered into the lagoon. Therefore landing on these black, volcanic islets is only possible during really calm periods.

On the way South we anchored off Makaroa and went diving on the pristine reef in crystal clear waters. Later on we spent two days anchored in front of the only sandy beach in the area on the biggest of the islets, Kamaka, and took the dinghy over to Manui for another beautiful dive. Our friends on SY Pakia Tea are marine biologists and dive masters, so it was great to go diving together with them and hear their opinion of the coral here, that seem to be weakened by recent El Nino periods, but still in comparatively good shape.

All three islets are uninhabited (the owner of Kamaka, who lived there has died recently and the other two islets are too rugged to attract settlers) and there have recently been efforts to get rid of rats and goats to make them more attractive as nesting colonies again. We were really happy to see white terns, noddies, tropic birds, frigate birds, herons, but also red-footed and even brown boobies roosting on the rocks and shrubs. In the evenings when the birds come home and settle down for the night the jungle sounds of so many species sounded over to the anchorage. It’s simply wonderful to find such a wilderness just a few miles from the main town Rikitea

A weather window to sail to the Gambier has come up and we leave lovely Rapa Iti tonight. We are a bit sad, because we had such a great time here, but it’ll also be nice to sail towards warmer weather. 570 nm to go!