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 [...]

Belfast, Maine and the FSS

07 July 2017 | Front Street Shipyard, Belfast, Maine
Alan
A small town in a beautiful part of the world, with hints of artiness, baseball caps over greying pony tails, flowered frocks and granola, peopled by friendly and kind folk with the sea and boating of all kinds in their blood. A town at the mouth of the Passagassawakeag River one can walk across in 30 minutes or so, with small restaurants everywhere and a microbrewery. This is Belfast, self-styled "Biggest small city in Maine".

There are none of the big stores here. They were barred some years ago in order to preserve the relaxing and quiet feel that attracts many summer visitors. And tourism is important to the economy. This, along with a major Youngs lobster pound and boating-related industry are what the town's economy is based upon.

With regard to the boating-related industry this is dominated by the Front Street Shipyard (FSS) where Kiviuq is now based. It is quite an operation, built six years ago, and built with ambition. This may be a small town, but I am told (and not by a local) that the FSS 440 ton boat hoist is the biggest to be found on the US east coast until one gets down to Florida. When that hoist crawls out to the seaward end of its runway it literally towers over Kiviuq in her berth close by.

The yard is presided over in an understated manner by JB Turner, a relatively young, softly spoken, casually-dressed and outwardly relaxed individual who came here with his shock of blond hair from Lyman Morse. JB is a sailor himself who served his time with Lyman Morse building, restoring and maintaining boats of all kinds. His air of quiet competence and 'can-do' is reassuring. In addition to JB we have already had contact with a few other yard employees, all of whom have impressed. I suspect people like JB attract those like themselves, or perhaps those who don't come up to their standards don't stay around.

The yard gets to work at 0700hrs and the multiple large sheds quickly become homes to industry - painting here, woodwork there, metalwork, engineering and composite work, each in their allotted locations. And of course the big hoist and its smaller sister are soon on the move. The relaxed small town of Belfast has a strongly beating heart, and Kiviuq and her crew are right in it.
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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 21 April 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.