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.

A few anchorages in the ICW

04 May 2018 | Snode Creek North Carolina

8am found us underway from Morehead City in tandem with our friends on Barracuda. They cleared customs with no problems yesterday and we took the marina car to the Harris Teeters where we all stocked up on food. Interesting that while Jack and I were choosing fresh fruits a woman asked us if we were on a boat. Jack asked how she knew and she couldn't quite say what it was except that she had spent much of her life with sailors. Maybe we should do something else for a while just to avoid being so easily typed. Anyway, both boats left fully provisioned, watered and fueled for the ICW northbound to Norfolk. Today we came 45 NM to what appears to be a very quiet anchorage, but we think it could get buggy when the sun goes down. It's quite warm today and there's little wind so it was a long hot boring motor up the Neuse River. Maybe that's better than some of the alternatives. It has a reputation for discomfort. We stopped at a fish market and picked up some shrimp and flounder. We could have stayed on their dock overnight but decided the anchorage would be more comfortable. The flounder came from the Pamlico River nearby. She said they still have guys who catch them on longlines. Graham is going to clean the flounder and bring it over to cook. I'm about to peel the shrimp. It looks to be another excellent meal aboard Iroquois.
And it was! The new potatoes were perfect and for dessert we had fresh strawberries. Graham and Kate brought a game called Sequence, which is fun. Then we taught them to play euchre, which was as confusing as you would expect. Many things go wrong on a boat and you learn to adapt or fix them, but there was a catastrophe last night from which it will be difficult to recover. As I was scraping the pan overboard I dropped the spatula. It disappeared so quickly there was no time to grab it and the water is so dark here you can't see through it at all. That was the one utensil I used for practically everything I cooked. It remains to be seen if I can cook without it.
This post is a few days old but we didn't have service for this remote stretch of North Carolina.

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