SV Kiviuq

A journal of the sailing vessel Kiviuq and her owners Marilou Kosseim and Alan Teale

Vessel Name: Kiviuq
Vessel Make/Model: Van de Stadt Madeira 46
Hailing Port: Inverness
Crew: Marilou Kosseim and Alan Teale
About: Marilou is a Canadian national, retired physician and Consultant Obstetrician/Gynaecologist. Alan is a British national, retired veterinary surgeon and animal molecular geneticist. Both are currently UK-based and members of the Ocean Cruising Club.
Extra:
Kiviuq is a van de Stadt Madeira 46 in alloy, with round bilge and deeper draft options. The 46 is the scoop stern variant of the van de Stadt Madeira 44, the scoop being developed by the builder, Alexander Beisterveld of Beisterveld Jachtbouw in Steenwijk, Netherlands. Kiviuq is rigged as a [...]
13 September 2019 | Shining Waters Marine, Tantallon, Nova Scotia
05 September 2019 | St Margaret's Bay, Nova Scotia
22 August 2019 | Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia
13 August 2019 | LaHave Islands, Nova Scotia
04 August 2019 | Yarmouth, Nova Scotia
28 July 2019 | Head Harbour, Campobello, New Brunswick
11 July 2019 | Belfast, Maine
07 July 2019 | Belfast, Maine
06 July 2019 | Belfast, Maine
13 June 2019 | Belfast, Maine
01 June 2019 | Burnside Lodge
15 September 2018 | Belfast, Maine, Nova Scotia
30 August 2018 | St Peters, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia
18 August 2018 | Bay La Hune, Newfoundland
10 August 2018 | Isle aux Morts, Newfoundland
04 August 2018 | Baddeck, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
30 July 2018 | St Peters, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
26 July 2018 | Spanish Ship Bay, Eastern Shore, Nova Scotia
14 July 2018 | Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia
06 July 2018 | Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
Recent Blog Posts
13 September 2019 | Shining Waters Marine, Tantallon, Nova Scotia

Dorian and the aftermath

We rode out Hurricane Dorian at anchor in Schooner Cove together with four other foreign boats that came in for the same purpose. All the boats rode safely to their best bower anchors, I suspect on long chain scopes of 10:1 or more. We certainly did. It seems that the latest consensus among the cruising [...]

05 September 2019 | St Margaret's Bay, Nova Scotia

Waiting for Dorian

It was going to happen sooner or later. A hurricane is heading our way. After devastating the Abacos and Bahamas and brushing Florida, Dorian is now close E of the coast of the Carolinas, and the current forecast is that it will go right over Nova Scotia on Saturday/Sunday moving quickly in a NNE'ly [...]

22 August 2019 | Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia

Downward and upward

I realise there is quite a lot of catching up to do since my last post, which left us in Grand Manan, so apologies if this becomes something of a travelogue.

13 August 2019 | LaHave Islands, Nova Scotia

Boarded!

After St Andrews it was time to begin making our way across the Bay of Fundy towards Nova Scotia. This we decided to do in two stages. The first involved retracing our wake across Passamaquoddy Bay and around the southern end of Deer Island, then up Head Harbour Passage to the northern tip of Campobello [...]

04 August 2019 | Yarmouth, Nova Scotia

Things that go bump in the night.

From Campobello we sailed southabout Deer Island, an area renowned for its cetacean populations (and thus also populated with whale-watching boats), into Passamaquody Bay and up to St Andrews. Here we picked up a mooring just 150m or so off Market Wharf, the large and well-appointed town wharf.

28 July 2019 | Head Harbour, Campobello, New Brunswick

Going Downeast

We left Belfast just over a week ago on Saturday 20th July to sail down Penobscot Bay with the intention of spending a night at anchor in Seal Bay, Vinalhaven. Seal Bay is beautiful, well protected and not that far from the popular yachting centres of Camden and Rockland. Perhaps for this reason it was [...]

Manrique's Lanzarote

31 October 2016 | Marina Lanzarote, Arrecife
Alan
For me one of the most impressive of the natural features of Lanzarote that we have visited to date is the Jameos del Agua site in the northeast of the island. This popular attraction is a small section of a 7km long lava tube that extends from the La Corona volcano to a point a kilometre or two beyond the coast under the seabed to the east. In a few places the roof of the tube has collapsed (such openings being the Jameos) allowing both light and people to enter. Once in the tube a fascinating environment is revealed, where light is limited where it manages to penetrate at all, and temperature and humidity are very stable at levels that are quite pleasant for visitors. There are few resident species, but one among them is a small white blind crab, about 1-1.5cm across, that occurs nowhere else in the world other than in a small still pool in the lava tunnel at the Jameos del Agua site. The crab is a natural wonder, but the site is a superb example of what sensitive and intelligent human involvement can achieve in harmony with nature. In this case the human involvment was provided by Cesar Manrique and his collaborator Jesus Soto. It is hard to overstate the influence that these two artists/architects, but most especially Manrique, have had on Lanzarote, the most obvious being the absence of high rise tourist development on the island.

It was Manrique with his deep sensitivity and feeling for his native Lanzarote who campaigned, largely successfully, for development of a type of tourism that would respect what he felt was a uniquely beautiful place. Tourism was always going to impact Lanzarote once inexpensive international travel became available to almost all. Its near ideal climate and location in a warm blue ocean a few hours flying time from the European winter would ensure that. The developers eyed quick and massive profits to be had from building and running mile upon mile of large hotels and holiday apartments in an unbroken chain along the coastline. It was Manrique who mobilised opinion to thwart them; an effort that some people say eventually cost him his life.

So who was Cesar Manrique? At the private/personal level I find it hard to know, other than he was a visionary who felt a closeness to the environment that most people could never achieve. He was energetic in his pursuits and his enthusiasm for his projects was infectious for those around him. He must have been a powerful personality. Born in Lanzarote he went to Spain for his education in architecture where he was greatly influenced by the contemporary art movement that was thriving there at the time, centred around personalities such as Picasso and Miro among others.

After returning to Lanzarote Manrique threw himself into combining architecture and art, but in a unique way that drew on, and drew out, the beauty of the natural world. Jameos del Agua is a good example of the product of his genius and energy. The natural crab pool is the central feature, but on either side of this in the lava tube he created rest and refreshment areas with a mix of artificial and natural lighting, and gardens in the more open western section. There is also a subterranean concert hall and a volcanism exhibition centre that I found even more informative than the one at Timanfaya. For me our visit there was a high point in our touring.

We visited and greatly enjoyed other natural features that Manrique managed to make accessible in his typically sensitive manner, and to the huge benefit of those who choose to see them, such as the Cueva de los Verdes (another section of the La Corona-created lava tube) and Mirador del Rio (a spectacular viewpoint overlooking the islands of Graciosa and Alegranza to the north of Lanzarote). However, it would be wrong to think that Manrique only worked on displaying natural features. He was also an accomplished artist and sculptor, and it is in his first home at Tahiche near Arrecife where one can see all of his talents brought together. His former home is now an exhibition centre built on, and out of, the lava field in which it is situated, where one can see examples of Manrique's artwork, his draft designs, and his collection of the works of other artists. It is very well done indeed.

If you have inferred from this account that Lanzarote is to an extent a product of Cesar Manrique, I think I would agree with you. The island is beautiful in its stark volcanic way, and thanks to Manrique it is largely unspoiled and unscarred by reckless development. Cesar Manrique is the guardian of Lanzarote's soul.
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Where is Kiviuq?
Kiviuq's Photos - Main
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Created 1 June 2019
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Created 23 August 2016
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Created 22 October 2015
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Created 21 May 2014

About & Links

IMPORTANT NOTE: In Map &Tracking above you can see where Kiviuq was located when we last reported a position to the blog. But please be aware that position reporting sometimes goes down. This can be due to a technical problem on board, to a problem with the satellite system or to a problem with the blog site. Therefore...... PLEASE NOTE THAT IN THE EVENT THERE IS NO POSITION REPORTING THIS SHOULD NOT ON ITS OWN BE TAKEN AS AN INDICATION THAT KIVIUQ AND/OR HER CREW ARE IN DIFFICULTIES. Technical/electrical problems are by no means rare at sea in relatively small vessels.