Sequitur

Michael & Edi have headed out on a slow, thorough exploration of the globe.

Vessel Name: Sequitur and Zonder Zorg
Vessel Make/Model: 2007 Hunter 49 and 1908 Wildschut Skûtsje
Hailing Port: Vancouver, Canada
Crew: Michael Walsh & Edi Gelin
About: For our current location click, on Map & Tracking, then on the Google Earth logo.
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13 January 2014
26 April 2013
24 April 2013
27 October 2012 | Harlingen, Friesland
29 September 2012 | Sneek, Netherlands
19 September 2012 | Hoorn, Netherlands
13 September 2012 | Aalsmeer, Netherlands
20 August 2012 | Sequitur: St Augustine, USA - Michael & Edi: Vancouver, Canada - Nieuwe Zorg: Aalsmeer, Netherlands
11 August 2012 | Sequitur: St Augustine, USA - Michael & Edi: Vancouver, Canada - Nieuwe Zorg: Aalsmeer, Netherlands
10 August 2012 | Sequitur: St Augustine, USA - Michael & Edi: Vancouver, Canada - Nieuwe Zorg: Aalsmeer, Netherlands
08 August 2012 | Nieuwe Zorg: Aalmmeer, Michael & Edi: Vancouver
28 July 2012 | Nieuwe Zorg in Aalsmeer - Michael & Edi in Vancouver
26 July 2012 | Nieuwe Zorg in Aalsmeer - Michael & Edi in Volendam
17 July 2012 | Michael & Edi in Leeuwarden, Netherlands
07 July 2012 | Edi & Michael in Vancouver, Sequitur in Saint Augustine
27 June 2012 | Saint Augustine, USA
07 June 2012 | Saint Augustine, Florida, USA
20 May 2012 | Fajardo, Puerto Rico
11 May 2012 | Terre Le Haut, Les Saintes, Guadeloupe
01 May 2012 | Carlisle Bay, Barbados
Recent Blog Posts
13 January 2014

Another New Book Released

I am delighted to announce that my new book: Carefree on the European Canals is now in print and is available on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca [...]

26 April 2013

New Book Released

The proof copy of my new book arrived by courier today. I have approved it and it is now listed on Amazon for pre-order, with a publication date of 30 April. It is a rather large book at 680 pages in an 8.5 by 11 inch format with 315,000 words illustrated by over 2400 colour photos, charts and maps. [...]

24 April 2013

One Year Out of Brazil

One year ago today we sailed Sequitur out of Brazil after enduring more than six weeks in the least-friendly country that we had experienced during our three-year voyage. In the early evening of 24 April 2012 we crossed the line on the chart dividing Brazil from French Guyana and breathed a huge sigh [...]

27 October 2012 | Harlingen, Friesland

Planing a Metamorphosis

We have added a new post to the Zonder Zorg blog at: Planing a Metamorphosis.

29 September 2012 | Sneek, Netherlands

Onward to Friesland

We have arrived in Friesland and have added a new post to the skûtsje's blog at: Onward to Friesland

19 September 2012 | Hoorn, Netherlands

North From Aalsmeer

We have moved northward from Aalsmeer and I have added two new posts: Heading North From Aalsmeer and North From Amsterdam

13 September 2012 | Aalsmeer, Netherlands

Taking Possession

We are back in the Netherlands, and I have added some new posts to the ZonderZorg blog at: Taking Possession and Settling-In and Making Plans

20 August 2012 | Sequitur: St Augustine, USA - Michael & Edi: Vancouver, Canada - Nieuwe Zorg: Aalsmeer, Netherlands

Added a New Website

We have added a new website: Skûtsje ZonderZorg. Zonder zorg in Dutch means without worry. Our intention with the site is to provide a place to share some of the history, geography and culture of the skûtsje as we discover it. We will also use this place to document [...]

11 August 2012 | Sequitur: St Augustine, USA - Michael & Edi: Vancouver, Canada - Nieuwe Zorg: Aalsmeer, Netherlands

Still More Skûtsje History

We continued to attempt to track-down Douwe Albert Visser, who was the owner of Nieuwe Zorg in 1941 when she was re-registered. One of the problems we repeatedly encountered in our online searches was the effect of currently having Albert Visser and two Douwe Vissers as very competitive skûtsje racers, [...]

10 August 2012 | Sequitur: St Augustine, USA - Michael & Edi: Vancouver, Canada - Nieuwe Zorg: Aalsmeer, Netherlands

Some More Skûtsje History

While I was researching the history of Nieuwe Zorg, I finally found her first registration details obscured by an apparent typographical error in a transcribed online spreadsheet. She was listed as having been built in 1901 instead of 1908. I emailed the webmaster of the [...]

El Faro de Mazatlan

19 February 2010 | Mazatlan
Michael
It rained very heavily on Wednesday morning. It was a real tropical downpour, the type that lasts half an hour and then clears. Except this one continued to pour for more than an hour, before it slowed down to heavy rain for another long while, and then eased to light rain. It continued to rain on and off until mid-afternoon. So much for the 5mm total February rainfall statistic quoted by one source, or even the 12mm quoted by another!

We hunkered-down onboard and did some Internet shopping. Edi ordered some more books, and I ordered a replacement battery for my laptop. I also finalized Sequitur's insurance renewal; it is amazing what we can do so easily now over the Internet. I asked for, received and reviewed quotes, read terms and 'fine print', decided on a broker and a policy, received an application to fill-out online, printed it, signed it, scanned it and emailed it back. From the time of making the decision to having insurance bound took less than twenty minutes, and this was while sitting on a boat in Mexico using a free WIFI connection and dealing with a company on the east coast of the USA.


The solid overcast began to break-up a bit in the late afternoon. By the end of the day there were wonderful rippled cloud formations, which coloured to deep oranges and reds as the sun set.

On Thursday it was still cloudy, but at least it wasn't raining. The forecasts talked of a possibility of showers until mid-afternoon, then a clearing for the next few days. We gambled on the forecast being wrong, and didn't take an umbrella when we left Sequitur in the mid-morning and caught the bus into the centre of Mazatlan. We stayed on the bus to the end of its run, along the commercial wharves, and we then walked along to the beginning of the trail up to El Faro.


After half a dozen switchbacks, the broad gravel trail gave way to concrete steps, which continued almost without interruption for 335 steps to the top. On the top of the hill is a very plain two-storey concrete building with a lighthouse tower growing out of its western end. The bland building is painted in Greek blue and white, or at least it was Greek to me.


Hanging by a wire on a nail pounded into the wall of the structure is a plaque, which declares the lighthouse to have "una altura de 157 metros, sobre la marea alta media, y esta considerado como el faro natural mas alto del mundo", which translates as: "a height of 157 metres above mean sea level, and is considered as the highest natural lighthouse in the world". I had elsewhere seen mention of it being the second highest, so I needed to find out which was correct.

After a bit of googling, I found out that Mazatlan's boast might be a tad overwrought. From the limited searching I did, I found that the lighthouse atop Lover's Leap in Jamaica at 530 metres is well over three times as high. The Gran Almirante Grau lighthouse in Peru, at 309 metres is nearly twice as high, as is the lighthouse on Deal Island, Australia at 305 metres. I also found Australia's Tasman Island lighthouse at 276 metres, Chacachacare lighthouse in Trinidad at 251 metres, the lighthouse at Morro Calvario, Peru at 242 metres, Table Cape lighthouse in Tasmania at 180 metres and the lighthouse at Ancon, Peru at 172 metres to be higher than Mazatlan's El Faro. With this many so easily found, there must be lots more that are higher.

While searching, I also found a claim that Sugar Pine Point on Lake Tahoe at 1,898 metres is the highest lighthouse, in elevation, in the world. This led me to think of navigation on Lake Titicaca; surely there are lighthouses there. The list of Peruvian lighthouses shows four. These range from 9 to 12 metres above water level, or 3821 to 3824 metres above sea level. I found reference to a lighthouse on the highest point of Isla del Sol, on the Bolivian side of the lake, which is given as 4096 metres. Sorry Lake Tahoe!


Whatever the height, we enjoyed the view back over the city, with the deep-sea ship harbour and small craft anchorage on the one side and the beaches along the malecon in the background on the other. The lighthouse sits atop Cerro Creston, which used to be called Isla Creston before the causeway was built to form the small craft anchorage and to add protection to the inner harbour.


There was a Carnival cruise ship alongside as well as a huge slab-sided vehicle transporter. As we headed back down the stairs and the trail, the transporter left its slip and headed out through the tight harbour entrance. The gap is quite narrow, and from our vantage point, it appeared even narrower than it is. For a while we almost expected to hear the screech and squeal of crushing steel plates as she slid through.

We walked across the causeway and caught the bus back into Plaza Machado, where we paused to enjoy fish tacos and Tecates under the trees on a patio facing the square. A short stroll past city hall and the cathedral took us to the market. There, we bought a kilo of large prawns and a nice assortment of fresh fruit and vegetables, before catching the bus back out to the marina.


Thursday's dinner was prawns sauteed in garlic and butter with green beans almandine and steamed basmati rice, garnished by sliced tomatoes and tomatillos and washed down with a Chilean chardonnay.

On Friday we relaxed onboard and did chores. Edi emptied our laundry hamper through the machine in preparation for our continuing south on Sunday. I gave notice to the marina office that we will be leaving, and asked them to prepare our departure papers and invoice for Sunday morning. This 48-hour notice should give them ample time. There is a Yanmar service agent in the marina, so I bought two 3.78 litre containers of lubricating oil for the engine and an oil filter to add to the spares.

On Friday evening we gave the ship's chef the night off, and we went out to dinner. We walked along to Fufo's Cantina, a waterside seafood restaurant in the Marina Mazatlan complex, and just 200 metres from Sequitur's slip at Singlar. However, the 200 metres was as the pelican flies; we had to go nearly four times that distance to get there because of the security fencing around the Singlar complex.

Sitting on the patio was a musician blowing a saxophone to the accompaniment of canned background music. He was playing oldies from the 50s and 60s, and when we arrived, there were half-a-dozen couples dining and listening to him. We both had a rather nice mahi-mahi stuffed with shrimp and crab in a creamy white wine sauce. This came with a plain scoop of mashed potatoes and some flavourful coconut-covered cubed beets that tasted like they had been cooked with pineapple. Our dinner for two, including three Coronas, nachos and salsa, a plate of garlic bread and a generous tip, came to 350 pesos, a bit over $28 Canadian.
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