Lonnie Dupre and Pascal Marceau prepare for sailing expedition from Grand Marais to the Arctic

On Monday, March 31, a small 36-foot sailboat called ‘Nord Hus’ cast off from the Knife River Marina near Two Harbors, Minn., with a crew of four and temperatures hovering around 11 degrees.

The steel-hulled boat was fully loaded with food and supplies for a months-long expedition bound eventually for the Arctic. The first stop on the journey is Grand Marais.

Grand Marais resident and explorer Lonnie Dupre and his expedition partner Pascal Marceau are preparing for a sailing expedition from Grand Marais to Greenland later this spring.

“It’s an adventure that I’ve been thinking about for a long time,” Dupre said.

Dupre and Marceau met on a ferry boat in Alaska and connected over their common shared interest in mountains, remote places, and exploration.

“We both have a huge drive for just going for things that are more unknown or pushing our limits,” Marceau said. “So it was an easy chemistry.”

WTIP’s M Baxley tagged along for the first leg of the sailing expedition from Knife River to Grand Marais. A video and audio feature of the journey is below.

Dupre will be hosting a one-hour presentation about Greenland and the upcoming sailing expedition on ‘Nord Hus’ on Friday, April 4, at the North House Folk School. The presentation is open to the public and will begin at 6:30 p.m.

M Baxley April 4, 2025