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 [...]

Back to Vancouver

01 July 2011 | Sequitur: Puerto Montt, Chile -- Michael & Edi: Vancouver, Canada
Michael
We had arrived at Club Nautico Reloncavi in Puerto Montt shortly after sunset on Wednesday, the 22nd of June at the tail-end of a short spell of fair weather, which had enabled our passage from Valdivia. Overnight, the weather window had slammed shut with a frontal system that brought torrential rains and winds over 25 knots.


On Thursday morning it was still very windy, and the rain was blowing sideways as I walked up the floats to the office. I arrived shortly after 0900 to learn that the office didn't open until 1000, so I braved the gale and slanting rain and made my way back to Sequitur, where the Espar furnace was keeping us warm and cozy in the not-much-above-zero weather.

Shortly after 1000 I went back out into the storm and up the floats to visit the office. The women there spoke less English than I did Spanish, so through a halting and disjointed conversation, I learned they knew nothing about our haul-out, and that Alexandro, the office manager would be in at 1400.

Two more walks through the afternoon's pelting rain brought information from Alexandro that the Club has never before had so many boats hauled-out. The yard was overflowing into neighbouring areas, and while they could just fit us in, they had no stands, and were scrambling to fabricate some for the two boats ahead of us in the line. He said it was unlikely they could haul us until Monday, or even Tuesday. I explained our wish to head back to Canada as soon as possible, and he said he would do everything possible to speed the process.


By Thursday evening the storm clouds were retreating to the east, and the winds had abated. Friday morning was calm and mostly sunny, but it remained cold, and the Espar continued to keep us comfortable. Mid-morning Alexandro informed us that they could haul us at 1000 on Saturday. There were no boats scheduled after us, and the travel-lift could simply remain in place supporting Sequitur until the stands can be fabricated.

In the early afternoon the contents of our main fuel tank fell below the intake level for the furnace, and the furnace shut-down. Since we were being hauled the next morning, I decided there was no need to do a jerry can bucket brigade from the gas station; there was still sufficient fuel in the tank to run the engine to motor over to the haul-out, and the Fischer-Panda generator could still be run to power the electrical heaters.


The crossbar on the travel-lift was just high enough to accommodate Sequitur, if we removed the wind generator and lowered its mast. Unfortunately, the mast had been constructed without the ability to be lowered. We saw this as a good opportunity to modify it to make it easier for the next times we are hauled.

When I began dismounting the wind generator, I found that the installer had saved a few cents and had left only about five extra centimetres of wire. The generator could not be lifted out of its mounting socket because of the tight wire. There were no quick disconnects installed, and I was left with no option but to cut the wires in the cockpit locker and to attach a fish line to them. This allowed me to pull the generator out of its socket, lay it on edges of the solar panels, cut the wires and attach another fish line. Had I installed the generator, I certainly would have done it differently to this Specialty Yachts "get-the-job-done" approach, which showed no concern about future use, care and maintenance. While I was in the locker, I found two more unidentified, unlabelled and unprotected wire ends; we'll have to track-down what Specialty Yachts foul-up this is.

After we had finished with the wind generator, we took a bus into town to the bus depot to begin organizing our return to Vancouver. For a total of 36,000 Pesos, we bought semi-cama tickets to Santiago on TurBus for their 2000 departure on Saturday night. Then we walked across the street to Supermercado Bigger to pick-up a barbequed chicken for dinner; our fridges and freezers were nearly empty.


Back aboard in the early evening, we turned on the oven to 550 degrees to bake flat bread for Saturday's breakfast, olive focaccia for Saturday's lunch and pizzas for Saturday's dinner and sustenance on our trip to Santiago and wait for standby seats at the airport. The hot oven assisted in keeping Sequitur a bit warmer, though with the near freezing temperature and high humidity, it needed augmentation from the generator and electrical heaters. We had already shut-down a fridge and a freezer, and after the baking depleted the last of our vegetables, cheese and meat, and we shut-down the other two.


Shortly before 1000 on Saturday morning a yard worker came onboard to assist with our move to the haul-out slip. The slip is 5 metres wide and Sequitur's beam is 4.47 metres, so backing in to it would be a bit tricky, particularly since there are no floats or guides inside it, just widely spaced concrete pilings. On my first attempt, I misjudged the cross wind and the tidal eddies and arrived at the mouth a tad askew. I aborted the second attempt almost as soon as it had begun, and on the third go we slipped flawlessly in.


As Sequitur was lifted, I monitored the gap between the bottom of the crossbar and the top of her boom while comparing it to the amount of keel still below the sill of the haul-out slip.


There seemed to be more keel below the sill than space above the boom, which had been lowered onto the top of the arches.


Finally, with the boom just brushing the crossbar, Sequitur was wheeled out over the hard with less than 5 centimetres to spare under her keel.


My first concern was the condition of the zincs. The one on the hub of the VariProp was almost completely eroded, with just a ring of crumbly metal remaining in place. The two shaft zincs were about half gone. All three of these zincs had been replaced in early December in La Punta, Peru, and the erosion seems to me to be excessive for less than seven months of use.


I wondered whether the mooring field in La Punta has a stray current problem. There are dozens of buoys there with 220 volt power outlets, and an extensive nexus of underwater electrical cabling to supply them. Our zincs had been eroded completely away when we were lifted there after five months on a mooring half a cable or so from the edge of the electrified buoys. When we went back in, we had sat connected to an electrical buoy for a week before we left for Chile. However, I cannot dismiss the thoughts that our rapid zinc erosion might be the result of yet another faulty installation by Specialty Yachts in Vancouver. This might explain our steady battery drain of 2.8 amps with all systems shut-down.


I was very pleased at the condition of the bottom. The anti-fouling paint had lasted very well during the 26 months since it had been applied, and we had only a small layer of slime, which came off easily with a power-washing.


Sequitur was very slowly moved through the crowded yard with her keel barely off the surface while crew walked ahead to remove pebbles and flatten irregularities in her path. The previous day we had seen no available space in the yard sufficiently large to accommodate Sequitur, but Alexandro had told us they could fit her in. She was taken through the yard and into an adjoining property, which also appeared filled to capacity, and there shortly after noon, she was settled onto a thick plywood pad.


Almost immediately, workers and a welder began fabricating a custom support system while Sequitur remained supported by the travel-lift. We returned onboard to continue preparing Sequitur for our absence and to pack for our trip.


One of the things I needed to do was pickle the watermaker. This is a very simple procedure, which is clearly laid-out in the Spectra manual, and involves removing a hose at its quick-disconnect fitting and clicking into place a service hose with its quick-disconnect fitting.


Last year in Peru when I had done the storage procedure, I had discovered that the Specialty Yachts installer had not installed the quick-disconnect fitting, so I had had to unscrew the hose clamp he had installed in its place, wriggle the hose off the barb, remove the other part of the fitting from the service hose and wriggle it onto the barb. I had then forgotten to buy a quick-disconnect fitting while we were in Vancouver, so this year I had to do the procedure the awkward way again. I hope the people at Specialty Yachts Service are enjoying our quick-disconnect fitting. Hopefully, this year I will remember to pick-up a fitting in Vancouver, so that the storage procedure will be as easy to perform as Spectra had intended.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon organizing, cleaning and packing. Among the things we did was place containers with Bolseca dehydration crystals in the two showers, the three sinks and in a bucket in the pantry. Hopefully the nine kilograms of crystals will keep Sequitur's interior dry.

At 1840 the taxi we had ordered arrived under our stern ladder, and for 5,000 Pesos it took us to the central bus depot. The bus departed on time at 2000 and we laid back in the very comfortable reclining semi-cama (half-bed) seats for our 13.5-hour overnight trip to Santiago. From there an 8,000 Peso taxi took us to the airport, where we settled-in shortly before 1000 to wait to see if our standby reservations would yield seats on the 1830 Air Canada flight to Toronto. The flight showed full, but knowing there are nearly always no-shows, we crossed our fingers and waited.

We didn't make it, so we headed out to find a hotel for the night. We took a free shuttle to a nice four-star hotel five minutes from the airport, checked-in and weighed our options. We wanted if at all possible to avoid having to connect through the United States, with its over-the-top paranoid security, so Air Canada to Toronto was our only option. After being bumped again, and seeing that the next few day's flights from Santiago were heavily oversold, we decided to bail-out and fly to Lima, where the Wednesday night flight to Toronto showed some open seats.

We made it onto the flight from Lima, found connecting seats in Toronto and mid-afternoon on Thursday the 30th, we arrived back at our loft in Vancouver. It will take us a bit of time to adapt to the change of scene and to adjust our thinking from third world to first.
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