CASTINE — It took the U.S. Customs officer about 15 minutes Saturday to complete his inspection of the schooner Bowdoin, but it took the Arctic adventurers aboard only about 15 seconds to jump onto the dock and hug family members and friends who welcomed them home from their two-month voyage.

The salty adventurers, including a journalist, physician, college students and crew, left Castine in July on a trip that would take them to Upernavik, Greenland, approximately 500 miles north of the Arctic Circle.

The adventure offered the sailors experience in meteorology, maneuvering under sail, navigation, heavy weather sailing and related subjects.

About 100 family members and friends greeted the Bowdoin. There was spontaneous applause when the sailboat rounded the docked training vessel State of Maine, whose massive steel structure towered over the smaller craft.

All 10 students and six crew members were on deck as the boat was tethered to the dock. The adventurers were eager to debark, but they had to wait while a U.S. Customs officer inspected the boat.

Some on the dock, who apparently had made similar trips, commented on how such boats get smaller and smaller with each day of a long sail.

The 88-foot schooner was designed by William Hand and built by Hodgdon Brothers Shipyard in East Boothbay in 1921. It made 26 voyages to the Arctic between 1921 and 1954.

The Bowdoin was named Maine’s official sailing vessel in 1986. In 1988, the Maine Maritime Academy purchased the vessel from the Schooner Bowdoin Association, and in 1989 it was designated a National Historical Landmark.

Capt. Elliot Rappaport, wearing a jaunty cap with “Arctic Cruise Lines” printed on it, is master of the Bowdoin.

He guided the vessel along the west coast of Greenland to the remote Inuit village of Upernavik, the northernmost permanent settlement in the region. From Greenland, the cruise track crossed Davis Strait and returned by southern Labrador.

The 4,500-nautical-mile trip included port visits in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.

Rappaport described the trip as wonderful.

“It did not go without its hitches, but then that is pretty near impossible. It was more than what I could have hoped for,” he said.

The captain was accompanied on this voyage by his father, Steve, and brother, Joshua. He said his brother served as cook and a good one at that.

“He has worked for us as a cook in the past,” he said. Rappaport said his father had enrolled as a student at the maritime academy and worked alongside the others.

The captain admitted there were a few anxious moments between Newfoundland and Greenland when the 88-foot craft was tossed by 30-foot seas and 50-mph winds.

“That was about as bad as I have ever seen it,” he said.

Rappaport said there was no attempt to make forward progress in the storm.

“Generally you give up trying to get anywhere. Basically you stop the vessel using the sails or the engine or a combination of the two and just wait it out. As it turned out it was from the north and that was the way we were going, so turning around and running away from it, which is a time-honored technique, wasn’t really viable,” he explained.

Chad Maguire, a full-time MMA student, described the trip as “cold,” but said it was a great adventure.

“We learned a lot, got to see things that most people probably will never see, but it is good to be back,” he said.

Maguire said the 18-hour storm that bounced the ship about had been disquieting, and another sailor, Ilka Davis of Washington D.C., agreed.

“My first thoughts were `Oh God, here I am in the middle of the sea on this boat, and if this boat gives in, I am done with,’ but after a while I was actually pretty comfortable,” she said.

“Later, when there were only 20-foot seas, we thought, `Oh this is nothing,”‘ Maguire said with a laugh.

Both of the sailors agreed that the voyage also had tedious moments.

“There is a definite routine, standing watch in the middle of the night. It was good to get to the places where we were going. It was fun at sea, but it was also interesting when we got on land,” Maguire said.

Davis described some of the remote ports they visited as barren.

“I was surprised how depressed Greenland was. They try to get a lot of adventure tourism there, but when you come into the little towns, they are very depressed. The people don’t seem to be very happy, there was a lot of alcoholism, and I was frustrated with that. When you are on a boat for two weeks, and you pull into a place, you want something happy,” she said.

Would they be up for a similar adventure in the future?

Maguire said he would, but Davis said, “Not anytime soon.”