June 1st - Lake Champlain in Rouses Pointe

Summary

·      Current Location – Rouses Pointe on the Canadian Border

·      Latitude 44° 37.7 N; Longitude 73° 24.5 W

·      Total Miles From Connecticut - 393

·     Stops since the last post - 

•         Albany, NY – End of the tidal zone on the Hudson.  Has the state capital and history museum.
•         Schylerville, NY –  Sleepy little village on the Champlain Canal near Saratoga.
•        Whitehall, NY – South end of Lake Champlain – Sad town where we walked 5 miles for a pizza
•         Chipman Point, VT – Fort Ticonderoga.
•         Mallets Bay VT – Mid Lake near Burlington – 
•         Valcour Island – Mid Lake on NY side – Beautiful anchorage
•         North Hero Island – Rural marina in mid lake VT – Nice place to hide from high South winds.
•         Rouses Pointe – Very north end of Lake Champlain – Totally full of French speaking Canadians with big fancy boats

Striper Fishing on the Hudson

Hello Friends and Family – 

We travelled over 140 miles North from New York City on the Hudson River and there was STILL 4 feet of tide.  The striped bass were running and there were lots of fisherman but unfortunately it didn't include me.  The fishing boats look a lot like salmon boats in Puget Sound with downriggers and what not.  People were fishing from boats, docks and even the banks.

It’s hard to believe that in the last 15 days we left the upper tide lands of the Hudson River, went north through the 12 locks of the Champlain Canal and all the way up Lake Champlain.  The first lock was only a few miles north of Albany and is the “Federal Lock”.  After that, you have the choice to either go left (West) or right into the Champlain Canal.  On our 2010 trip, we went West into the Erie with our deckhand Bob Liebling.

Left to the Erie Canal and Right to Lake Champlain

This time however we were heading north so we went to the right into the Champlain Canal.  It is about 60 miles long and has 11 locks.  We bought a pass from the state of New York that was good for two days of “locking”. 

Beautiful Schylerville Marina

Typical Lock Entry on the Chaplain Canal

Our first day we went through 4 of the 11 Champlain Canal locks which took us about half way through the Canal system and to the beautiful little town of Schylerville.  We took a cab into Sarasota for the afternoon and evening.  It has the famous horse racing track and a very historic main street.  I was looking at a pair of mens shorts killing time shopping with Linda and noticed they cost $189.00 plus tax.  Holy Crap!  It is a very fancy, expensive town that is ready to separate people from their dough.  Back at the marina/rv park, we met a couple who were living in their 18 wheeler tractor.  They got loads from their dispatcher (Texas?) and travelled all over the US.  They were our age and met a few months ago.

Staying Out of the Way

The next day we went through the other seven locks dodging big barges involved in the famous (infamous?) GE Reclamation Project.  It is one of the biggest super fund sites because GE put TONS AND TONS of PCBs into the river for a few decades.  The fish, water etc are now toxic and they are trying to clean it up.

We spent the next week travelling up Lake Champlain.  If you haven’t ever looked at it on a map, it is huge.  It is over 100 miles long and is sometimes called “The Sixth Great Lake”.  It goes straight north-south and so does the wind.  We have been out in 20 mph winds with waves over two feet high and in marinas while it was blowing 40+ mph with four foot waves in the center of the lake.  It’s an ocean!!.  The spots we stopped on the lake started at the sad little town of Whitehall on the very south end and ended at Rouses Point which is the very north end of the lake and the entry to Canada.  

Some Lake Champlain Highlights included:

This would be BAD TO HIT!

•          Hitting a log with a loud “clunk” but with no obvious damage (so far).
•         Fort Ticonderoga – Very cool history lesson.  In the 1700s Lake Champlain was a major highway for goods and armies.  Fort Ti was built at a narrow point to control the lake boat traffic.  It was alternately manned by the French, the English and the Americans.  The marina we stayed at in Chipman Point Vermont (East side of the lake) loaned us a car to take over the ferry (to the West side of the lake in NY) and tour the fort.
•         A 60 mile High Speed cruise up the lake one day to Burlington Vermont

Just Cruising Along - Ahhhh!

•         Visiting Ben and Jerry’s first factory.
•         A drive through the mountains near Burlington.
•         Vermont is GREEN, the people are green, the water is green the…Well, you get the idea.

At Anchor Off Valour Island - Nice eh?!

•         A great night at anchor off of Valcour Island.  It was like being in the San Juans with no other boats and fresh water – NICE!

·      The weather has been all over the map but mostly very nice

Issues on the trip - 

STORAGE!!!

There is a reason (other than to impress others) that people buy big houses when they can.  In addition to our “marine queen” bed, we have about 100 square feet of indoor living space.  That includes our “kitchen”, our “bathroom” and a dinette table.  Most of you live in at least ten times this much space per person. 

Storage space is our life.  We have clothes for all seasons, lots of tools, BBQs, fishing gear, boating stuff, charts, equipment manuals, spare parts for FOUR motors (two diesel Cummins main engines, a Westerbeke generator and a Honda Outboard), food, dishes, electronic junk (iphones and chargers, kindles and chargers, computers and chargers, ipad, etc., etc., etc).  Of course we also have food, plates and all that jazz.  Add to all that personal stuff like toothbrushes and storage is a focus every day.  I’d be glad to share the lists of stuff that we brought, bought or had shipped here.  You store stuff in every possible place.  You store stuff inside other stuff that your are storing.  You carefully roll up and compress your underwear.  When we got here we figured out we just didn’t have room for some of the clothes and boat parts we brought so we shipped it back home.  I was gleeful when I found that I could store my straw hat outside up in the hardtop structure.  Just imagine the room that freed up inside – incredible!

GNATS!!! - 

There are billions of these critters around here.  We have been washing the boat down several times a day to keep things sort-of clean.  If you sense a negative vibration in the force it's because I am killing many of these little bastards every day.  Oh well, I guess it's better they are gnats and not rattle snakes.

We will enter Canada tomorrow to practice our French. The Canadians here at Rouses Point think it’s pretty funny when I say “bonjour”.   

More on the 15^th.

Bye for now.