Pitufa.at

One of our aluminium watertanks (250 litres volume) started leaking a while ago. No big deal as we have a second one and a watertank, but now that we’ve settled into the little house on Taravai we have started the repair project.

The tank is built in underneath the sofa (the rounded wound covers it partly) and the inspection holes we cut into the aluminium after we bought the boat to clean the tank for the first time in 20 years (before that it was completely closed) are not big enough to work through them. Therefore Christian cut open the wood that covers the tank with a jigsaw yesterday and today he starts cutting the aluminium. The next step will be to clean the tank, sand it inside and get the corrosion out of the craters in the material.

Last week we worked every day in the garden, got rid of the metre high weed in the veggie garden behind the house, removed fallen over trees from the garden, mowed the grass on the big property, got rid of old rubbish, etc.

On Sunday we hosted a house-warming party with 25 people (6 boats and some Polynesian neighbours), a BBQ and a big potluck buffet. After all that noisy business was done (power tools as well as party) we moved in with the cat yesterday. Our house is the only one on the Southern side of Taravai, the next neighbour lives across the bay on the little island Agakauitai, so it’s as quiet here as it can get. Our last house-sit where we had no fridge, no bathroom, a privy in the forest, lots of insects inside the house and rats on the roof was a bit hardcore, so having an inside toilet, a tiled shower, running water inside the house, a big freezer and a fridge feels like the height of luxury. The only downside is that we have no mobile phone reception here (and therefore no internet), but we certainly won’t complain about a minor problem like that.

We have 5 lemon trees full of big, juicy fruits in our garden, a mango tree with loaded branches and two papaya trees that we can harvest from every day. Leaving the fruities to rot under the trees doesn’t feel right, so we do our best to make use of them. Today we made 3 litres of papaya-mango sorbet (we have a gigantic freezer in the house) and then Christian spent the afternoon squeezing lemons and we made 2 litres of lemon sirup (with a kilo of sugar )

It seems that always when things are just a little bit too perfect, something annoying has to happen. These nuisances usually involve either the engine, the fridge, the watermaker or the kerosene stove–the big 4 that worry us in remote places where there’s no professional help available in case of a problem.

This time it was Bertie’s turn (that’s the name of our malevolent kerosene stove) to quit on us. Yesterday we had a cold dinner and this morning Christian opened up the stove and started searching for Bertie’s ailment. It turned out that several problems had come up at the same time. One burner was blown with several holes in it, but the other two burners were clogged up. We used an airpump to get rid of the clogging (or rather constipation…), installed a new burner, Bertie is happy again and so are we.. Kerosene stoves are oldfashioned and most yachts nowadays use gas stoves instead, but we like the fact that our stove is very efficient. It uses only 2 litres of kerosene a month (even though we bake bread every second day), so the 40 litres we carry in jerry cans last a very long time. At least the climate in the Gambier is so pleasant that such an annoying job (dirty, hard to reach) doesn’t involve too much sweating.

2016 has been a year with plenty of passage making. Much more than originally planned. Starting from the Marquesas where we spent the last cyclone season we sailed westwards via Tahiti and Niue to Tonga. Unlike the majority of the cruising boats crossing the Pacific we did not sail on to Fiji, New Zealand or Australia, but decided to sail back to French Polynesia against the prevailing trade winds.

It was an interesting year with many new places and people. Sailing in the wrong direction turned out to be easier than expected, but we still sailed way too many miles (more than 5,500 nm) for our taste and life style. Only during our first year after leaving Croatia when we were in a hurry to reach the South Seas did we sail more miles (over 6,700 nm). We are happy to be back in the Gambier islands where we started our South Pacific adventure in May 2013.

1220 nm Marquesas, Kauehi, Tahiti, Raiatea, Maupihaa
1290 nm Maupihaa to Beveridge, Niue, Tongatapu
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2510 nm sailed westward in 20 days

1850 nm Tongatapu to Niue, Beveridge, Palmerston, Rarotonga, Tahiti
1145 nm Tahiti to Fakarava, Tahanea, Hao, Amanu, Gambier
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2995 nm sailed eastward in 28 1/2 days

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5505 nm sailed in 2016 (without miles sailed inside lagoons), 48 1/2 days on passage

Dear readers and virtual travellers,
we wish you all a merry Christmas and a healthy, happy, interesting new year! We hope you’ll keep on travelling along with us on our blog in 2017

We have returned to the Gambier islands for the fourth time, where we’ll spend the cyclone season 16/17. It’s good to be back in our favourite archipelago after this eventful year.