Marike Van Zyl

Author's posts

Rust Warriors – by Marike

Shelter Bay Marina I will now tell you about our rust warriors. =) One thing that the boat did extremely well in Panamá, was RUST! Apparently, Panamá has just the right combination of salty breeze, humidity, and temperature to make your most well-behaved metal object turn orange. We had SO MANY places break out in …

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From Bahamas to Panamá – by Franci

It was by far the worst trip so far on our circumnavigation. We knew that we were actually leaving our departure from the Bahamas a little too late and that most of the favourable weather windows would be closed by the time we left. That is why we took the weather window we did, even …

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Long Island – by Marike

Long Island – Bahamas Long island is exactly that – a long island. After Christmas at San Salvador we moved on to Long Island, because we had heard of a ‘blue hole’ on the island which my dad really wanted to dive in. “Dean’s blue hole” had until recently held the status of ‘deepest blue …

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San Salvador – by Marike

It wasn’t easy to get to the Bahamas. There was a strong wind and only afterwards did we find out the rough journey had cost us our windvane-rudder and wind-generator. -_- That wasn’t so great, but not a shattering loss either. Our poor wind-generator wasn’t the best out there and we haven’t used our windvane …

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The Bahamas Experience – by Karin Jr. & Sophia

Karin    Our Bahamas experience was awesome   Sophia    Awesome? I would say it was more than awesome. It was Awesomearistic! We did some seriously awesome dives there. We got rich with Sand dollars and we saw an Eagle ray. Marike and Dad swam briefly with dolphins next to our boat and you wouldn’t …

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Rebel Marina – by Marike

Close your eyes.   Now open them. We’re hurrying down the dock in the light of the late-rising sun and you can really feel the cold in the air. I’m carrying a bag stuffed with shower things and Franci has her towel over her shoulder. I’m wearing the white hoody we got in Cape Breton. …

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The sideways feeling – by Karin Jr.

Have you ever had the feeling that the whole world was tipping to one side? It’s called the sideways feeling, for those of you who have never heard of it. Having recently arrived in Norfolk, Virginia, all of us on Shang Du had been graced with the opportunity to experience the thrill of this feeling. …

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The second great dingy adventure – by Karin Jr.

I was instructed to write about something heroic. I can make up a couple of wonderful stories, but the truth would be better. And to be completely truthful, I wasn’t really instructed to write about something heroic, but I’m going to anyhow. Norfolk, Chesapeake bay. While we were still in New York, the great Dingy …

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It is HARD to leave New York! – by the Mom

As we fastened the dingy and neatened the deck, we were preparing our hearts for the wrench of leaving the “City that never Sleeps”. We understood so well that the chances of any one of us ever visiting here again, were extremely slim. What we were not preparing for, was the hold that the Hudson …

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Photos of NY – Part II – by Marike

So many things done and seen, yet we still had explorer passes we needed to use! The month that had seemed so long before, was very quickly disappearing.. I had fun sorting out the options, to see what we really wanted to do out of the remaining options and of those, which ones we would be able …

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