Debi and Jack sailing on SV Iroquois

After Pulpit Harbor we stopped at Warren Island state park for a night before checking into Belfast. Nate came by in his little boat and took us up river which was way cool. We passed some houseboats, one of which was covered in plants. He even had peas growing up the stanchions and lifelines.

12 July 2019 | Pulpit Harbor, North Haven, Maine

Pulpit Harbor

Iroquois is afloat again! We launched Wednesday in Rockport where we stayed all day readying and organizing. We had a nice get together and dinner in Camden with our Rockport friends then yesterday we did a shakedown sail to Pulpit Bay on North Haven. There was a light wind, 8-15 kts, so we put up the [...]

27 July 2018 | Lincolnville Maine

2018 The End

Iroquois is getting the full spa treatment. Every locker, cubby, lazarette, bilge emptied and cleaned. Varnish in and out. Metal cleaned. Winches serviced. Sails washed and repaired. The engine is serviced and winterized. Even the fuel is polished! The boat is going to enjoy a well-deserved rest in a [...]

05 July 2018 | Boothbay Harbor Maine

Boothbay Harbor

Our apologies for the lack of recent posts. We hung around Portland and Handy Boat -- visiting with family and friends and trying to adjust to a more land-based existence. Lily and Anthony came up for a Saturday dinner (oysters and lobster) aboard then sailed to our mooring at Handy Boat. The next weekend Zach and Maura came and we did the same thing. It was a pleasure to have Zach aboard for the first time. Thank you Maura! Hopefully it was enough fun they will want to come again. This past weekend the Garbers came and we did some sailing around Casco Bay. Lily was a good helmsman. She and Hubbard shared the duties. There wasn't much wind, but also no accidents. We had some great food in Portland, including two excellent meals at Fore Street, which did not disappoint. In between all the family visits we caught up with Stephanie and Brian on Detour. We met them on the OCC Norway Rally in 2016. They crossed over the next winter and spent last summer in Maine. They are just getting ready to take off on their next adventure as we wrap ours up. Hopefully they will have an excellent trip wherever the winds blow them. Handy Boat was very welcoming to us. It was fun to come back and see everyone who took such good care of us before our first Atlantic crossing. We also took in a concert by the Frank Vignola Hot Jazz Trio, which was really good and a nice break in routine. Yesterday we motor sailed and motored to Boothbay Harbor. We will stay here a few days and visit with John and Ann who live here. We met in the Bahamas when Ann greeted us with a freshly baked loaf of bread. We were hungry and tired after a six day passage from St Thomas and her bread is amazing. It's hard to repay something like that. Anyway, this is our last hurrah for the season. Saturday we'll stop in Rockland. Sunday we move to Rockport and prepare to get hauled out Monday morning. Then we'll start work on the long list of deferred maintenance and repairs. We plan to be home in Wisconsin by August.

17 June 2018 | Falmouth Foreside, Maine

The Atlantic Circle is Complete

We have completed the Atlantic circle. Today we sailed from Portland to Handy Boat in Falmouth Foreside with Lily and Anthony. Almost exactly three years ago we left here on a transatlantic adventure. It's hard to imagine and even to remember all the places we've seen and all the people we've met. We [...]

14 June 2018 | Portland Maine

BacK in Maine

Jack woke me at 4:20 this morning, claiming that it was light, and we left Portsmouth harbor a little while after along with a fishing boat. It started as a slow day of dodging lobster pots. Every time I get annoyed by them I try to think about how delicious lobster is. There are so many of them, either there are a lot of lobsters or there will soon be none. Somewhere between Portsmouth and Portland we heard a sound we haven't heard for a very long time, it was the call of a loon which brought smiles to our faces. The wind did pick up and it turned into a nice sail all the way to Portland Maine. This is only the second place we've been in four years that we have actually been to before. We also stopped twice in Bergen Norway. Anyway, we have certainly seen a lot of new places and the end of the journey is a little sad. Luckily Jack bought an oyster knife and we are docked near the fish market so we can treat ourselves and enjoy the moment.

The Gulfstream!

19 June 2015 | 42 23.196'N:62 44.655'W,

The winds are still light (< 10 kts), but we are able to more or less steer our course to the south east. Once we get to around latitude 41 or 40N we will head east to skirt along the edge of the ice field before heading north east to Scotland. Last night since there was so little wind and we weren't very close to our waypoint we motored for 10.5 hours due soutn. It's always a difficult decision whether or not to use the engine, but we both feel better about our position this morning. 10.5 hours uses about 5.25 gallons of diesel, so about an eighth of our stores. The calm waters make for good whale watching and we have seen quite a few, not that I could say what kinds they are or anything. They're big and they make a loud whoosh. There was one really big one not that close to the boat that made a huge crashing sound when it broke the water and then a really loud and long whoosh with the big white plume above it. Even if we were talented enough to get photos of them we won't be able to take many pictures because we forgot to charge the camera batteries before we left. It's hard to stay awake on night watch anyway, but when you're motoring on autopilot it's even more so. Last night I dozed off and feeling something hard and uncomfortable under me I thought it was the harness shackle lying on the seat so pushed it away. When my watch alarm woke me (it's set for every 20 minutes to remind me to look around) I realized that I had completely smashed my glasses and one of the lenses had popped out. I was able to get the lens back in this morning in the daylight, but the frames are pretty flat. Overnight the water temperature changed from 59 to 63F (and up to 65 now), and we lost the little pack of gulls that had followed us all day yesterday. So we seem to be just on the edge of the gulfstream. We're watching a front approach from the north. It should bring some more wind but also squalls and rain. I'm not planning to collect rainwater just yet. We stil l have 3 liters of shore water in nalgene bottles and full tankage (around 40 gallons in the hull and 35-40 in flexible tanks). We are sailing close hulled under full main, genoa, and staysail with the monitor steering making between 4.5 and 5 knots.

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