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2014
11
Jun
Time flies by and today we celebrate another cruising anniversary: we’ve already spent 3 years cruising the world on our floating home and we still haven’t grown tired of it 
This year’s statistics don’t look as spectacular as the last ones, as we’ve ‘only’ been around French Polynesia:
Visited country: 1
Islands: 11
Nautical miles: about 3000
Days on passage: 30
Expenses: EUR 18,680, of which EUR 8,960 (48%) for boat repairs and new equipment.
2014
06
Jun
… means back to work. Yesterday we spent the day working on someday elses boat for a change. A Swiss couple who stop cruising and have their boat shipped back to Europe asked us to help with the packing, taking rigg off, wrapping up the boat, etc. Now their boat is standing in the container terminal waiting for the ship and they’re already on the plane.
We’ll use the chance to catch up with some old acquaintances here in the anchorage during the weekend and next week we’re back on boat projects and we’ll organise a ‘big service’ four ourselves using the good medical services here in the capital.
2014
01
Jun
Hiking with surprise effect
After finishing the watermaker project (we produce potable water again!!), we did some more hiking on Moorea. There are many paths all over the island, clearly marked, well kept, but lacking one essential feature: signs that reveal the destination of a path. The descriptions in the tourist brochure are also vague and we suspect that tourists are encouraged to do something for the economy and hire a guide… We rather explore without paid company, even though that’s a bit risky. Yesterday we walked up to the Belvedere again and then into a path on the right. It took us down into the valley and then steeply up to the ridge of the mountain chain which is the remainder of a huge caldera all over the island. We got an impressive view of the northern and southern coast with the fringing reef. Up there, a sign informed us that we were at the 3 coconut’s pass. Hmm, a pass? That should mean that continuing down the other side of the ridge would take us to the southern coast. Right? We gambled and walked down the steep path always fearing that it could lead to yet another ascent instead, but we were lucky and reached the south coast through a wonderfully lush valley with several streams and waterfalls.
The return way along the coastal road was 22 km, too far too walk and it seems no buses run around the island that direction (just to the ferry terminal in the east), so we just stuck out our thumbs, hoping to catch a ride as quickly as on other Polynesian islands. But despite the heavy traffic nobody stopped. White faces, local faces, all staring at us, most alone in the car, but none of them interested in helping a tourist out. After almost an hour a little car stopped. The retired schoolteacher was sad to hear about her unfriendly fellow islanders, told us about the school system (there’s 7 primary schools, older pupils take the ferry to Tahiti at 4 o’clock in the morning and get back in the evening) and took us all the way back to Opunohu, despite the fact that she lived on the other side of the island. So we were lucky in the end
2014
27
May
When we arrived in Opunohu Bay (a huge bay on the north side of Moorea) we dropped the hook right behind the outer reef where about 15 boats were already swaying in the turquoise water. After doing some snorkeling (cute eagle rays, but coral in a bad shape), we decided to get away from the buzzing dinghies and roaring generators and anchored 1.2 miles further in, at the head of the bay.
Here we’re surrounded by breathtakingly steep mountains, the sea’s as calm as a lake, the forest looks lush and tropical and only the sounds of cars and buggies from the coastal road that leads all around the bay disturbs the tranquility of this place. It’s a good, calm bay to work undisturbed on projects and a perfect starting point for hikes into the mountains. At the moment we try to walk one day and work the next one 
Yesterday we beached the dinghy, hiked up a steep road into the Opunohu Valley to the Belvedere Lookout that gives a nice view over the two big bays of the island (Cook’s bay and Opunohu bay) and the steep Rotui mountain that separates the two. Huffing and puffing up the road we were overtaken by lots of rental cars and tour buses–Moorea’s quite a touristy island. We then hiked along a trek to another lookout with an even better view. This one we had all to ourselves, as no road leads there and it seems the other tourists don’t stray that far from their cars or buses
This morning started with a big load of laundry and freshly baked bread, now we’ve already cut an opening into a floorboard where the boost pump for the watermaker’s supposed to dwell from now on. Installing it and changing the membranes will take the rest of the day (or maybe tomorrow, too). When this project’s finished we’ve earned another day off and we’ll do some more exploring!
2014
25
May
In April 2014 we caught a rope in the propeller in the Gambier and damaged the thrust bearing. Without use of the engine we had to sail directly to Tahiti without stopping in the Tuamotus. We hauled Pitufa out in Papeete and spent 15 days on the hard repairing the bearing, cutting open and cleaning the diesel tank and renewing the antifouling.
(19 photos)
2014
25
May
Yesterday we sailed the fifteen miles downwind to Tahiti’s little neighbouring island Moorea. Incredible what difference a smooth new antifouling makes–Pitufa was flying along with 7 knots…
Moorea’s a beautiful place with steep, green mountains and we’re planning on doing some exploring, even though it’s a bit hard to take time off for fun with still a lot of outstanding projects and (even worse) a leaking shaft seal… It’s nothing dramatic, but some water trickling in whenever the propeller’s spinning is still annoying and something to work out. It may stop by itself, if not we might have to take out the boat yet again.
2014
21
May
The past days have been quite an emotional rollercoaster. Monday morning the bearing arrived at the shop (yippee), but then Christian and Adrian spent a frustrating day hanging head first in the engine compartment, trying to wiggle parts together. Imagine the scene: two sweating, swearing guys lying on the floor, each one stuck with head, one shoulder and one arm in the engine, barely able to reach the things with one hand. (There’s never enough room around engine on sailing boats. Adrian suggested that every boat should carry a gnome taped to the end of a long stick…) There was lots of dirty talking going on (stick it in! harder! no, stop, put more vaseline…), but in the evening they were running out of time with the connection still not done. Knowing that we had an appointment to get the boat into the water in the afternoon, work started at 6 o’clock in the next morning. By ten the thrustbearing and its housing was in place, but the CV joints wouldn’t go in–there just wasn’t enough space. Fearing that we’d have to remove the engine to get them in we fixed a pulley to the mast trying to pull the engine block far enough to get them in–still a few millimetres missing. They undid the engine mounts, pulled again–and finally all parts were in. At 1 o’clock Pitufa was hanging in the belts under the crane, at 2 we got into the water–quickly, check under the engine: no water coming in, hurray! Then we started the engine and suddenly water trickled in from the exhaust. Shit! Tell the crane people we need more time, fasten the hoseclamps even more (always fearing to break them) and finally the flow stopped. Another scary moments followed when we put the engine into gear, but everything held and Pitufa could finally float into freedom again
2014
17
May
We’re still on the hard, waiting for a sparepart that was promised to arrived last wednesday, then friday, now postponed to next monday… Everything else is finished: new antifouling, we cut the dieseltank open and cleaned it (what a mess), made all kinds of small repairs and Pitufa’s basically ready to splash. Let’s hope the part arrives, because we can’t wait to get out of the dirty, noisy boatyard.
2014
10
May
Sanding, painting, repairing, despairing when yet another complication comes up, running a marathon between chandleries–working in a boat yard’s takes us to our limits (and beyond), but we’re making progress.
2014
08
May
The first part of our article about the Gambier Islands has just been published in the May/June issue of the Austrian sailing magazine Ocean7.
Birgit Hackl, Christian Feldbauer: Iles Gambier — Südseeparadies am Rande der Tropen. Teil 1, OCEAN7 03 (Mai/Juni) 2014, p. 24–27. download PDF (in German only)
2014
06
May
Last night the cosy anchorage turned out to be an area where anchoring was prohibited, as a port sheriff informed us late at night. He insisted we had to move away, not considering our protests that we weren’t able to move without an engine. It took us half an hour of discussion and setting a stern anchor to move a few metres further away from the channel to satisfy him… This morning we had another few nervewrecking moments being towed by a tug to the far too narrow seeming concrete bay of the travel lift. But we made it unharmed and now Pitufa’s sitting on the hard, awaiting belly scratching (sanding), new make-up (antifouling) and of course shaft bearing repairs.
2014
05
May
A small accident forced us to sail to Tahiti earlier than planned. After doing repairs in a boatyard we’ll take the chance to explore the island a bit.
2014
05
May
We’ve had a bit too much excitement for our taste during the last 24 hours, but now we’re safely anchored in Papeete, Tahiti. We arrived yesterday at night and had to sail along reefs right into an (to us) unknown anchorage right behind Point Venus at the northwestern corner of Tahiti. Usually we never enter an anchorage at night, but as this one’s very open and easily accessible we decided to sail in. Hearing the breakers on the reef without seeing them in the pitchblack night wasn’t exactly comfy, but we dropped the hook without problems and enjoyed a good night’s sleep after the passage.
Today we had to change the anchorage though, because a shift in the wind was predicted, that would have put us on a leeshore without protection. Right after we had lifted the anchor the wind dropped down to less than 5 knots, leaving us stumbling along with speed around 1 knot… After 3 hours we had finally managed the 2.5 miles and exactly when we entered the channel through the outer reef a squall started. From 5 to 25 knots of wind within a few seconds… Pitufa accelerated, we just made it round the first buoys and dropped the hook. Unfortunatley it turned out that the spot didn’t give enough protection, so we had to sail out the anchor again and drop it a bit further in once again. Adrian (SY Attila), whom we had briefly met in the Gambier, offered assistance and it was very reassuring to have an experienced sailor on board for the tricky manoeuver…
Now we’re happy to be snug in a protected spot and soon we’ll haul Pitufa out for repairs.
2014
02
May
For a few days we’ve been fretting about a change in the weatherforecast. Instead of the predicted steady easterly trades we saw before setting out, the forecast suddenly showed a strong blow from the NW when we’d be approaching Tahiti. Strong winds on the nose when navigating close to shore in a boat without an engine worried us more than a bit. So we were happy when strong winds let Pitufa fly towards our destination yesterday (despite the meterhigh waves that even managed to spit into our usually dry cockpit), but they didn’t last long and soon we were stumbling along with 3 to 4 knots again. This morning we got out the gennacker (a lightwind sail that we usually don’t touch, because it’s really annoying in handling) and after an hour of work the blue bubble was flying high up and pulling Pitufa with 5 knots. Hurrah! The joy ended with a loud WHOOOOOOOOOSH barely an hour later when a seam ripped in the thin old fabric. Shit. Getting it down was a hassle as always, but in o ur uncommon sense of urgency we got out the sewing machine to mend the problem. The sewing itself just took about 15 minutes, the rest of the 3 hours of repair was changing threads, needles, adjusting tension, etc. on our Pfaff that obviously wasn’t happy with the sticky sailtape we had put on the rip before sewing over it. At the end of this shitty day we were exhausted and hardly dared looking at the new weather report. But what a suprise, the NW blow has been called off! It seems that hard work and efforts sometimes do get rewarded by the universe
2014
30
Apr
After a quick start we got into funky weather yesterday. The sailing’s been quite varied, with wind shifts, squalls, rain and lots of work with the sails. We even had the chance to experience a calm period with still standing high waves–real fun being tossed around with flapping sails and without the temptation to just turn on the engine and motor for a few hours, now we know what sailing was like in the good old times . Now the weather’s sunny and breezy again, so we’re back to our routine of cooking and eating a lot, reading, entertaining Leeloo and hoping that the trip will go on uneventful.
