Nord Hus crew navigates leaks and icy waters in the Gulf of St. Lawrence

Kirsten Wisniewski | June 30, 2025

For Pascale Marceau, getting into harbor aboard Nord Hus last week came with a lot of relief. She told WTIP, “We finally had the release of not being a sinking ship.”

Lonnie Dupre and Marceau, the expedition leaders, told WTIP that the past two weeks have not been relaxing for the crew of Nord Hus, the arctic-bound sailboard that launched from Grand Marais on April 10. After sustaining damage to the stuffing box, the boat began taking on water.

Dupre said the leak was allowing about two gallons of water into the boat every ten minutes.

Because the damage occurred while the boat was between ports where repairs could be done, the crew faced a choice – go back about 100 miles, largely running the motor against the current and possibly exacerbating the leak, or sail for 300 miles, hoping the bilge pump held until they were in a harbor where the boat could be pulled out safely.

Dupre, Marceau, and the third member of their crew, Ashe Berton, decided that sailing the longer distance and minimizing their engine use was the safer option. Once they made it to Blanc-Sablon, Quebec, they were able to have the boat lifted out of the water to assess and repair the damage. This portion of the voyage was through cold waters as they head north, along a shore with a tundra-like landscape populated by small, remote villages, many only accessible by plane or boat.

Dupre and Marceau said they will take a short break as the boat is repaired, and as they switch out their crew. The pair has been joined by a rotation of crew members over the past several months. During this break from the voyage, Dupre said that they are taking advantage of the time to connect with the community and sample the local fare. Both sailers commented on how welcoming they found the shore communities, especially during this stressful time on the expedition.

Marceau said they are also taking this time off the boat to rest up, saying that the preceding weeks were hard to sleep during. She said, “Although the trickling sounded a bit like a zen fountain, it certainly wasn’t zen. And you know, the little hum of the bilge pump every eight minutes kind of put a smile on your face, because you knew it was working. But it was also hard to sleep.”

The next part of the expedition will include crossing from Canada to Greenland. Dupre said they are preparing for this next phase, making sure that they are ready for any number of eventualities. “From this point forward, we’ll be pretty much on our own,” he said, adding that they are aiming to, “have some redundancy built into our plan, you know, extra safe harbors that we can duck into if the weather’s bad, or just making sure we got enough provisions on board if we get stuck in a place for quite a while, and so on.”

WTIP’s Kirsten Wisniewski spoke with Pascale Marceau and Lonnie Dupre to get an update on the expedition. Audio of that conversation is below, along with photos shared by Marceau.