The Captain. The Boat.The Dolphin.
Captain Jon Keller
Jon is a U.S. Coast Guard licensed sea captain with decades of experience on boats of all kinds. He grew up sailing on Lake Winnipesaukee, fled to Montana for college and grad school, and worked as a wilderness guide before the ocean pulled him back east.
He arrived in Downeast Maine looking for work as a sternman and found a job, and a friendship, with a top-tier lobsterman. From him, Jon learned the local waters, the ecology, the history, and the culture. He later trained as a NOAA At-Sea Monitor for the Gulf of Maine groundfish fishery, adding a stack of maritime safety certifications to a life spent living aboard, working on, and writing about boats.
That writing is real: his first novel, Of Sea and Cloud, depicts life in a small working harbor, and his essays have appeared in Cruising World, Down East Magazine, the Island Journal, and Good Old Boat. In 2023 he founded Polaris Ocean Charters to combine all of it: the coastline, the knowledge, and the telling.
S/V Polaris Jack
A true blue-water classic, Polaris Jack is a 26-foot Bristol Channel Cutter designed by Lyle Hess and built in North Carolina. The BCCs are famed for their simple beauty and their remarkable seaworthiness.
For most of her life she belonged to A.O. Halsey, a Charleston pilot-boat captain. After A.O.'s death in 2008, his good friend George Heyward took her on, and in December 2021 George passed her to Jon with one hope: that she would be loved and sailed. Jon sailed her south to the Bahamas for the winter, then north to Maine in the spring.
Mavis, first mate
When room allows, Mavis joins for the sailing. She has spent months living and traveling aboard Polaris Jack, though these days she rates chasing squirrels slightly above sailing. Feel free to request that she does, or does not, come along.
The legend of Pelorus Jack
Polaris Jack is named for Pelorus Jack, a Risso's dolphin in New Zealand who spent a quarter of a century guiding ships through the dangerous waters between Pelorus Sound and French Pass. Sailors trusted him with their lives. It seemed like the right name for a boat whose job is to show people safely through remarkable water.