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.

Santa Cruz de Tenerife

25 November 2017 | Santa Cruz de Tenerife

We ended up hosting a Thanksgiving meal for Agustín(Spanish, Canarian ), Axel(German ), Lars and Susanne(Swedish) aboard Iroquois. The table was sufficiently crowded to feel like Thanksgiving, even without a few traditional items. We had a chicken cut in pieces instead of a whole turkey due to oven limitations of the boat. We didn't have any sage or cranberries. We did have dressing, squash and wild rice. Also a square pumpkin pie(no pie tins aboard). Agustín brought two Spanish omelets. Axel brought champagne and Lars and Susanne brought Cava. It was a fine celebration.

We decided to leave the next morning for Tenerife because it looked like the best weather opportunity for a while. That turned out to be a great decision. We had a most pleasant sail in perfect conditions, nice broad reach in steady 12-20 knot wind and no swell. We made great time(10 hours), arriving well before dark and were assigned a berth close in and near the office in Marina Santa Cruz. There is some movement due to the strong south winds, but it seems we're in the best spot available. There are quite a few oil platforms hanging around here, as there was in Las Palmas. We hadn't known that the Canary Islands is a staging place for oil rigs. Apparently they sit here until needed somewhere. We met someone who had a relative who was in charge of moving one from Las Palmas to Australia. There are boats here from all over. We have Swiss next neighbors, Russians across the pontoon, Norwegians across the fairway, UK next to them, then Dutch, French and it goes on and on. This is a big marina in a relatively large city. The first city we've been in for a while.

We got up this morning and visited the police station as directed for nonEU boats, but were told we only need to come back to check out when we leave. Then we used the bridge to cross over the tunnel which was built over the highway to get to the city center. As far as we can tell Spanish highways consist primarily of tunnels and bridges. My thinking is that they just couldn't have this open highway so they built a tunnel over it! It certainly makes access to the city from the waterfront easier. We found the central market, which was the best we've seen since Lagos, and plan to stock up there before leaving. Even though we don't need food we got some tropical fruits to sample.

Being the first boat in from the shore means we get a lot of people stopping by. So far, we've met an English couple whose son went to UWMadison, a woman from Montreal who has a Rex-like dog and a woman from New York. We haven't even been here 24 hours yet.

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