Today, living in Mexico's Yucatan, they travel mostly by bike

This article by John Lundy appeared on the front page of  Duluth News Tribune, today, June 4, 2010.
 

Back in 1972, folks hung the nickname “Noah” on John Grimsrud.

It was a bit off the mark. John and Jane Grimsrud, both Superior natives, were building a 46-foot boat in the backyard of their Billings Park home. But they weren’t expecting a flood, and they didn’t plan to carry livestock.

Like the biblical sailor, though, the Grimsruds attracted skeptics, scoffers and the just plain curious.

It might have had something to do with the fact that they were using cement to build the boat. And that they planned to live on it.

“People couldn’t believe anybody’d be crazy enough to build a 46-foot boat and then have plans to go off and live aboard,” John Grimsrud said in a telephone interview from Mexico’s Yucatan, where the Grimsruds live today. “Two ladies came by in a car one day and wanted to report us to somebody because they thought we must be absolutely nuts to be going to live on a boat.”

John Williams, who lived next door and still lives in the same house on Wyoming Avenue, didn’t think the Grimsruds were crazy.

“No,” Williams said on Thursday. “A lot of people did, but I knew the guy. The man was very clever.”

His daughter, Julie Williams Le Bard, remembers the boat growing in the backyard between their houses. “That was the biggest thing in my childhood,” she said. “We talk about this all the time.”

It took three years for the Grimsruds, with help from the Williamses and others, to build the boat. They learned about building with cement — they’re called ferro-cement boats, or ferroboats — in a boating magazine.

“It is quite reasonable to build, but it’s very labor-intensive to build these things,” Grimsrud said. “We built everything. We … made all of our own fittings and we put the hull together ourselves.”

The Grimsruds called their boat the Dursmirg — Grimsrud spelled backwards. While they were building the boat, the Grimsruds also took classes from the Duluth Power Squadron to learn the ins and outs of boating.

Suffice it to say, there was interest when the Grimsruds launched their boat on June 22, 1972, from the Superior Shipyard. Barney Barstow, who was part owner of the shipyard, urged the Grimsruds to launch their 20-ton boat in a place that wouldn’t make it a navigational hazard when it sank.

“Over 2,000 people showed up to witness the sinking,” Grimsrud said. “And a lot of people were disappointed, I think (that it didn’t sink), because the wagering was pretty heavy.”

Not only did the boat float, but John and Jane Grimsrud lived on it for the next 15 years, traveling across the Great Lakes, to New York City and to the Florida Keys. They’ve written about their adventures at length. Their “Travels of Dursmirg” runs to four volumes, with the first two volumes available at Amazon.com.

John and Jane were 32 and 28, respectively, when they began their voyage. John Grimsrud was in the wholesale grocery business, and they were debt-free by the time he was 28, he said. Every spare dollar went either into the boat or into the bank. Once they launched, there wasn’t much overhead, he said. They never considered turning back, although one time during a bad storm on Lake Superior they returned to port.

The Grimsruds continue to travel today, but now they do it by bicycle. They have a website devoted to bicycling the Yucatan. “Now I am 69 and Jane 65 and still dreaming,” Grimsrud said.

And what of the Dursmirg? They sold it to a London stock broker who in turn sold it to a Canadian veterinarian. The Grimsruds don’t know where it is now.

All three books are now available on Amazon.
Travels of Dursmirg, Volume 1 
Travels of Dursmirg, Volume 2, Summers at Daufuskie
Travels of Dursmirg V-3, Volume 3, Down in the Florida Keys

Our Bicycle Story - 40 Years

This story began when Jane’s doctor told her she had to change her life style.

Jane had a painful leg condition complicated by her job. She spent her workday at a computer terminal. The prescription was to find work that would let her move around without too much standing. The best recreation would be bicycling and tennis.

This is where the story gets interesting.

It turns out that at this time our ambitious five year boat building and escape plan was nearly complete.

With Jane’s last paycheck, she headed to the bicycle shop and I tagged along with no intention of a purchase. That evening we both came home with new Schwinn bicycles equipped with lots of bolt on extras.

This prescribed therapy opened a door to a wondrous world neither of us had envisioned.

In 1972 Jane and I set sail.

Our worldly positions including our new bicycles were aboard our new floating home Dursmirg. You can read about that adventuresome epic voyage of escape in the recently published books.

Travels of Dursmirg Volume 1 by John M. (Bing) Grimsrud

   This true adventure story is told in the first person. It began as an idea and unfolded into a rich and fulfilling dream come true.

   A lifelong obsession of escape materialized in 1972 with the building and launching of the dreamboat Dursmirg when the five year bailout plan was consummated.

   John and Jane went over the horizon and out to sea on a voyage of escape.

  Departing Duluth-Superior on the western terminus of the St. Lawrence, they crossed the Great Lakes, the Erie Canal and Hudson River to New York City. Then they headed south to Florida, stopping at Annapolis, Chesapeake Bay and Savannah along the way to the Oldest City of St. Augustine. In an active winter of exploration; Jacksonville, Marineland, Daytona, Disney, Miami, Key West, Tampa and Tarpon Springs were a few of their diversionary side trips. 

   This love story began with desires and aspirations and was molded into reality.

Highly recommended for all those free spirited dreamers out there that have the drive and desire to live life to the fullest. This is one of four volumes in a series.

Travels of Dursmirg, Volume 2 by John M. (Bing) Grimsrud

Summers at Daufuskie

   Beyond their wildest expectations a new life of independence laced with exciting discovery and good fortune opened a wealthy world there to be savored by those who take the time to enjoy it to its fullest.

   John and Jane spent their first season living aboard Dursmirg in the Old City of St. Augustine and found more fascinating attractions, new friends, southern cooking and exciting diversions than they could be packed in. They were enticed to return again and again.

   Springtime arrived and the Sea Islands beckoned. Fernandina Beach, Brunswick, Savannah and Charleston were visited. Living at anchor opened a new realm and they learned to live out of the sea.   Exploration took them to places Cumberland Island, Daufuskie Island and more.

   Discover the best southern cooking from the Sea Islands, humorous encounters, tricks of harvesting seafood and living with nature that were all part of a dream come true.

   This book is recommended reading for determined adventurers yearning to find a place in this world to live free. This is the second of four volumes in a series.   

 Travels of Dursmirg V-3, Down in the Florida Keys, Swinging in a Summer Breeze, Volume 3

“I am going where the wind blows, when the spirit moves me and the price is right.”

  These were the driving forces, the goals and aspirations that would be fulfilled beyond their wildest expectations. Quality of life and standard of living were to be far above anything imaginable. Yes, they did it!

   Using the Oldest City of St. Augustine as a home base, winter sojourns south always included the Indian River where lifelong friendships were cemented, bountiful seafood harvested and anchorages a slice of paradise.

Miami and Biscayne Bay was a cruising boaters dream come true. Anchorages abounded at Dinner Key, Biscayne Key plus Sand, Elliot and Rhodes Keys in the Biscayne National Park. Venturing south the Hawk Channel took you to Marathon, Boot Key, Non Name Harbor, Key West the Marquesas and Dry Tortugas were part of the best cruising, fishing, and exploring to be found anywhere. 

   Dodging the bullet that wounded the nation and slipping off into a utopian paradise while the world was in turmoil and upheaval, they migrated together with like-minded sailors into a new dimension.

   More than a life story this was a love story where husband and wife were also the best of friends and pals.  This is the third of four volumes in a series.