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 [...]

20N 30W

11 January 2017 | Puerto Tazacorte, La Palma
Alan
The weather in the southeast North Atlantic seems to be settling back into a more normal pattern after the recent disruption caused by a depression to the west of the Canaries. That unusual feature began to fill and move slowly westwards a couple of days ago. A re-establishment of winds out of the northeast quadrant is now underway. And like swallows in late summer crews here are beginning to feel restless, and many are busy readying themselves and their boats in anticipation of migration. We are among them, and today looks like being our last full day in these islands for a while.

A number of boats are already, or will be, making for the Cape Verde Islands, some 800 miles to the SSW. There they will rest, and top up tanks and stores before crossing to the Caribbean. A few are, or will be, making directly for the New World. We are in the latter category.

The southern islands of the Lesser Antilles are south of the latitude of La Palma, and of course a good way west; the total distance to Grenada for example is about 2800 nautical miles. However, since Columbus showed us the way all those centuries ago the large majority of navigators don't sail the direct course from the Canary Islands. Like Columbus they shape a course initially to the SW where they hope to find the northeast tradewind belt that blows westwards across the Atlantic north of the equator. It follows therefore that in normal times these 'trades' give a downwind run to the Caribbean (which Columbus, after four voyages and until his dying day, was convinced were the fabled East Indies). This rationale and routeing, for what they are worth, are the theory.

So Kiviuq's navigators will initially set a southwesterly course from Tazacorte, and to that end a well-used waypoint of 20 degrees north and 30 degrees west was entered into the navigation system this morning in preparation for a likely departure tomorrow 12th January. Because Kiviuq is a sailing vessel, this provides only a rough interim objective. In practice we will sail the best courses we can towards the southwest. 20N30W is well to the northwest of the Cape Verde Islands. From there, probably after a little more running southwest, the passage plan is to begin shaping a more direct course for the Lesser Antilles, with those tradewinds hopefully pushing us along.

We will try to post blogs and positions periodically.
Comments
Where is Kiviuq?
Kiviuq's Photos - Main
4 Photos
Created 1 June 2019
4 Photos
Created 23 August 2016
16 Photos
Created 23 August 2016
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Created 22 August 2016
5 Photos
Created 22 April 2016
11 Photos
Created 22 April 2016
10 Photos
Created 21 April 2016
4 Photos
Created 20 April 2016
13 Photos
Created 22 October 2015
13 Photos
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.