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.

Sailing up a fjord

11 June 2016 | Bjornsund Norway
Debi Dennis Jack Markin
What a day we had sailing today. We went from Alesund to Bjornsund. The wind around here is supposed to be out of the southwest at this time of year but it has been out of the north since we started and there is no change in the foreseeable forecast. The rest of the boats took the shortest route which was against the wind and waves. We decided to go 'inside' which was a little longer but the wind was at an angle and we could sail instead of motor. What a great choice. It was phenomenally beautiful sailing up this amazing fjord and halfway up the wind shifted to come from behind. We sailed almost all day and just turned on the engine at the end to work through the tricksy rocks around the entrance to Bjornsund. The farms we saw today look just like the farms back home except they have snow-capped mountains in the background and the ocean in front of them. I got a little homesick looking at the freshly mown hayfields. The entrance to Bjornsund was hard to see. There is a narrow gap in the rocks and you shoot through it into a pool surrounded by rock. It's a unique spot. The island has not been permanently inhabited since the 1970s when the government offered good incentives to the population to moved to the mainland. But there was such a strong community that they have kept up the properties and every summer they come back to work on them. They also dredged this harbor, by closing off the sea with rocks and concrete then digging it out by hand with wheelbarrows. It's now an all sand bottom 3 meters deep everywhere inside the rock walls. This is the first place we've been where the people don't speak English to us. We went for a walk and ran into a woman who struck up a conversation. It felt like talking to Milo and Gladys Grundahl---she just kept speaking in Norwegian even though I clearly said I didn't understand. In the evening there was a presentation in the 'museum', which looks like a collection of everyone's stuff in the old fish factory. The guy who gave the talk spoke Norwegian and Jan translated for us. It was a great talk. He spoke about the history of the island. People started living here in the 1400s and stayed continuously until the 1970s. They fished and piloted ships. The women worked in the factory salting herring. Also the children went to school every other day and worked in the factory on the off days. The women and children would go to the top of the schoolhouse to look out over the sea for the men when weather was bad. It was hard for the fishermen in WWII because the Germans turned off all the navigation lights. But because there wasn't as much fishing during the war there was a boom in herring fishing in the 50s, which was over by the 70s. The presenter's sons were there with him. One of them works on oil platforms in Brazil but he was working on an oil rig off the coast of Shetland when one of the anchor ships capsized. He lost some friends in it and it was hard for him to tell the story but he did. The island is small but very well kept. There are footpaths around it and gardens everywhere. People come in the summer and work on maintaining it. The speaker said he also comes in the winter to visit and when he walks around he only sees his own footprints in the snow, and the houses when he looks at the windows in the houses it looks like they are crying. In the evening we all gathered on the pier to plan for tomorrow and a woman came by with a cake she had baked for us. Also a small group of young people came by with beers to visit. Throughout the day lots of people came by to take pictures, some by land and some in small motor boats. I've grown so used to having our picture taken I don't pay any attention any more. Tomorrow is another long upwind slog from Bjornsund to Kristiansund. We've revised our itinerary due to the poor weather.
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Iroquois's Photos - Main
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