Debi and Jack sailing on SV Iroquois

Vessel Name: Iroquois
Vessel Make/Model: Ohlson38
Crew: Jack Markin, Debi Dennis
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21 July 2019 | Belfast Maine
12 July 2019 | Pulpit Harbor, North Haven, Maine
27 July 2018 | Lincolnville Maine
05 July 2018 | Boothbay Harbor Maine
17 June 2018 | Falmouth Foreside, Maine
14 June 2018 | Portland Maine
12 June 2018 | Portsmouth New Hampshire
10 June 2018 | Jamestown CT
07 June 2018 | New Haven CT
30 May 2018 | Port Washington New York
27 May 2018 | Brooklyn New York
25 May 2018 | Atlantic City, New Jersey
24 May 2018 | Cape May NJ
23 May 2018 | Worton Creek
21 May 2018 | Annapolis Maryland
16 May 2018 | Solomons Island Maryland
13 May 2018 | Deltaville Virginia
11 May 2018 | Cape Charles Virginia
09 May 2018 | Hampton Virginia
06 May 2018 | Hampton Virginia
Recent Blog Posts
21 July 2019 | Belfast Maine

Belfast Maine

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.

BVIs

05 February 2018
We spent a week on Virgin Gorda that went by very quickly. The North Sound is beautiful and practically empty. We moored off of Prickly Pear Island for free, not sure who the moorings belong to but I think it's the beach bar, which a few people were working on-- sifting through rubble, stacking and burning piles of trash, they picked up and stacked all the chairs that were spread along the beach too. Apparently the cruise ships used to dock there. One cruise ship did come into the sound one day, but it anchored near Leverick Bay and we didn't see anyone come or go from it. Leverick Bay is the one open place. There was a lot of work going on there, even though it's open they have a long way to go. We enjoyed swimming and the beach on Prickly Pear very much. A few 'boat boys' came around the mooring area. The first one we met was collecting trash for 5 dollars a bag. He said he used to be the bartender on Saba Rock and he would rather be making us martinis!  Did I already mention that there's nothing left of either the Bitter End Yacht Club or Saba Rock? The good thing about it is that there weren't many other boats there because there are no services.  We went to Spanish Town one day to pick up our friend,  Jenny Striker. She came on the ferry from Roadtown. While we were there we walked to the Riteway supermarket. It seemed like a brand new building and was well stocked. The next morning we motored the few miles down to The Baths and picked up a mooring. There were breaking waves on shore and we debated where we could swim in to. The yellow flag was up and just when we had decided we could make it to a sandy stretch they lowered the flag. Unfortunately, they replaced it with a red one. So we abandoned our plans and went back to North Sound because we wanted Jenny to see it. We discovered that the big fish swimming under the boat was a remora, not a shark. Yesterday we had a nice sail to Nanny Cay Marina on Tortola. We are sort of accustomed to the wreckage in marinas now, but this place has a lot of boats. Half of the marina was newer with taller pylons and it survived the hurricanes. The other half is just gone. People are working to recover and repair their boats as soon as the yard can extricate them from the piles. Of course some of them are totaled with jack stands sticking through the hull and many broken masts. One boat across from us was just launched from the yard here, the owner told us that during the hurricanes a huge Oyster fell over next to his boat and just took the rubrail off the side. A few more inches and his boat would have been crushed, as it is he has pages of lists of repairs but it looks like it will sail again. He's been waiting until now for them to tell him it was freed from the rubble so he could come down and get working on it. We've heard a few of these near miss stories, and one guy told us 'either your boat was totaled or you wish it were'.  Another cruiser was giving me directions to the laundry and he said to go down the road to the right and if you can stand to walk past the ruined boats go to the corner and turn left. On that road I noticed a 'playground ' where a couple of adults were lounging on broken pieces of masts and booms watching kids play on pieces of plywood and swings of boat fenders. On the beach side near the pool there is some actual playground equipment. There is a volunteer group camping near the showers called Hearts and Hands who are helping out the schools here. There seems to be more money and more building supplies here. Anyway we are totally enjoying the luxury of Nanny Cay. We had our first hot showers since leaving Portugal and went to the beach bar to eat, where Jack ordered and consumed a whole grilled chicken. There are some disadvantages to civilization though. We did laundry and in the tiny laundromat was a woman with three young daughters who has the flu, which she said came from the US, where according to her there's an epidemic. Hope those flu shots we got are effective. 
Today Jack 'field serviced' our winches. They were dry and squealing. Field service means he did not completely disassemble them, just enough to clean and grease the gears and bearings. Luckily  he finished just as the afternoon rain began. We also went to the chandlery and got proper courtesy flags for the BVI and the Bahamas. We may get kicked out of here tomorrow because they are using most of the berths for new charter catamarans which are being launched, the cats are big and bigger. We'll see what they tell us tomorrow, and make plans based on that.
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Iroquois's Photos - Main
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