Whitehall, NY

Things didn’t start out so well on Wednesday, June 23, our last morning in Port Edward.  While Jonny took Archie for a walk and I was washing my hair, the water ran out. I called Jonny, who fortunately had his phone with him, and he rushed back. He tried to short circuit the situation by tying us to the shore water but the bilge started to fill with water so we obviously had a leak in the system. We clearly had a problem but it would have to wait until we reached a marina to address it.  So Jonny dutifully ran up to the market and brought back two gallons of water to tide us over.

After that we took off for Whitehall on a very overcast but mild day. We had occasional bits of rain but only once were we forced to go below and that was just for a few minutes.

We went through locks 7, 8, 9 and 11.  Lock 10 had been decommissioned as it was no longer deemed to be necessary. 

We arrived at Whitehall by 12:55 and tied up on yet another free town dock. We had visited this village on the New York side of the canal previously as it is in a strategic location just before the last lock to the lake. We tied up behind the only other boat there, another trawler. Archie was ecstatic because we were level with the grassy park and we could put him on a long lead attached to Zendo.

Whitehall is a very historical place. It was founded in 1759 and is famous for being the birthplace of the US Navy because  General Philip Schuyler had built a small fleet of ships here that was used by Benedict Arnold in the Battle of (nearby) Valcour Island. The remnants of the Ticonderoga are housed in a shed by the waterfront.

Once we settled in the first thing Jonny did was to go down in the bilge to see if he could repair the water problem.  Fortunately, he found the break in the hose connection quickly and was able to repair it. Hooray - our water problem was over! He quickly refilled the tanks and we are back in business.

We then spent some time working on the MTOA website redesign and reading. Later on we went for a long walk through town. Unfortunately, the village has seen better days. Little had changed since we were here last with many of the storefronts on the main drag closed. Some of those that were still open were of questionable character (in our opinion). Nearby homes were not as well maintained as in many of the other small towns we visited. It’s sad to see a place of such historic significance unable to continue to sustain itself as it once had. 

The one saving grace was a very attractive coffee shop called Historic Grounds that was still open. It had once been the town hall and is still a venerable space.  We had a hearty breakfast there on the morning that we departed. 

That evening we had another quiet night onboard.  We’ll be heading to Chipman Point Marina next where we have some packages waiting for our arrival.