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.

Moving fast and moving slowly

24 July 2016 | Strusshaum Norway
Debi Dennis Jack Markin
We've stayed three days in the same place for the first time in two months. We've seen a lot of places in that time, so many that we get them confused, but there's something to be said for stillness. It's especially nice in a peaceful spot like Strusshamn. We took the bus into Bergen and while there walked around the harbor and looked at the boats rafted four deep and the concrete quays covered in tires that you have to scramble up and down, the crowds and the noise, and decided not to go back in there after all. There are plenty of options nearby that are less stressful. Strusshamn is full of families with kids and dogs. It's fun to watch them running around in their lifejackets playing in the dinghies and catching things in the water. One teen boy entertained the whole harbor by falling off the dinghy into the water. Norwegian kids move around boats like it's the normal way to live. I guess to them it is. We are both realizing that we may not have enough warm weather clothing. Luckily you don't need as many clothes in warm weather, especially in Norway where people, both men and women, typically just take off their shirts when it's warm, it might be because of the heat or it might be to absorb as much vitamin D as possible. The first time we ran into a woman in her bra on a hike I was a little surprised, now it's commonplace. There are some things about warm weather that aren't so nice and were easy to forget, like flies and wasps who fly into your beer. Riding in the bus was the first time we have moved faster than 7-8 knots since the first week of June, and really we have only been in a car or bus or train a few times since the beginning of May. Moving quickly is something we normally take for granted as it is so common place yet living on the boat it is the exception. There is nothing specifically good about only moving slowly, but nothing too awful either. The question is if it changes other aspects of how you view the world. The romantic might say that it is easier to be centered or more patient, but that might be optimistic. One could say that in the modern world it is just plain foolish to move so slowly, or perhaps a realist might say that it is possible only with a wealth of time not available to most people. What is absolutely true is that we have traveled great distances which are great only relative to the speed we have moved and the geography involved. This place, Strusshamn, seems to have been one of the homes of Hauge of the Town of Perry Hauge Log Church fame. Here (Norway) he is somewhat infamous. Not really here in Strusshamn, as he seems to have established a mill, but in Norway as he was a religious fundamentalist with a deep distrust of organized government, much like the people who are the fly in the Town of Perry ointment. It is a sort of political Karma rebound that prompts in us the questioning of how correct one's stands might be. The irony that the Tea Party in Perry are the intellectual descendents of Hauge and those of us who have rallied to the defense of the church and the farmland around it by using the power of government to do so, to say nothing of protecting the legacy of a man opposed to the means of that defense, is at least humbling if not perhaps comical.
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Iroquois's Photos - Main
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