Burlington, VT

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A quick two hour cruise brought us to the wonderfully cool and vibrant city of Burlington, Vermont.  Unfortunately, it poured rain the entire trip.  We took a mooring ball at the Burlington Community Boathouse thinking that because we were arriving on July 1 we would be able to stay through the 4th and see the fireworks.  We knew that the marina was booked for the holiday but hoped that the first come first served mooring balls would do the trick.  No such luck – it’s the only time of the year that the mooring balls are reserved – so we would have to find another place to stay on July 3, the night of the fireworks.

Jonny had two doctors’ appointments in Burlington so our plan was to dinghy in, take the free bus to the University of Vermont Medical Center and explore the town. Nature did not agree with our plan since it continued to pour.  As we donned our “wets” we decided that it was ridiculous for us to dinghy in the pouring rain, come back to a dinghy full of water and take it back to the boat at 7 p.m. when we were done.  Why not just stay at the marina?  So we took off our rain coats and headed into the marina. Wouldn’t you know that as soon as we arrived the sun came out!

That evening and the next day we explored Burlington on foot. It’s a great town with lots of cool outdoor sport stores, great restaurants and a thriving craft beer culture.  The downtown area has great architecture and a pedestrian-only street a la Lincoln Rd. in Miami Beach. The people are very friendly and diverse. There are several colleges in Burlington so the presence of lots of students also adds a youthful vibe to the city.  

This is also the home of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, which of course we had to sample.  Ben and Jerry’s is such an institution in town that there’s a street named Cherry Garcia!

 

On Tuesday, we met Michael Goldfield for a beer.  Michael is an old friend of Lynn’s who she’s known since junior high.  They hadn’t seen each other in years so it was a real treat to catch up with each other.  Michael invited us to meet him and his girlfriend in their home in Acadia National Park in Maine when we get there. Definitely something to look forward to!  While we were waiting for Michael we saw a seaplane land and dock at the marina  - a first for us!

We ate at two very good local restaurants in town and look forward to returning in just a few days when we have to pick up the new chain to replace what we lost with our anchor.

The next morning we headed out for more explorations of beautiful Lake Champlain.

Essex, NY

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We left the Westport Marina after lunch on Tuesday June 30 heading for a marina in Essex, NY.  It was somewhat rainy and as we got closer to Essex, we decided that rather than stay at another marina, we would anchor in nearby Converse Bay which was a highly recommended anchorage.

Upon arriving in Converse Bay, we tried to set our anchor three times at the spot that was recommended.  But the anchor wouldn’t hold and each time Jonny pulled it up it was covered with weeds the size of a Christmas tree!  So we moved to another part of the bay and dropped our hook there.  It seemed like it was going to hold but to be on the safe side, Jonny asked Lynn to put the engine in reverse  and rev the motor to a high level of RPMs .  All of a sudden we heard a loud POP!.  The line and chain that that held the  anchor broke with a bang.   Our new  anchor  was now lying  at the bottom  of the bay 20 feet deep along with 75 feet of chain!

Shocked, we hit the man overboard button on the GPS to mark the spot and headed back to Essex, this time to stay at the marina there.  Actually, there were two marinas in Essex. Lynn called the one that had slightly better reviews but they told us their docks were underwater due to all the rain and advised us to go to the other marina which we did.  They kindly accommodated us while we tried to figure out our next steps.  These included a decision to see if we could find a diver to retrieve the anchor and chain.  After making a few phone calls, we needed a drink and went to the one local (and quite good) restaurant in town to recover. 

Our plan evolved over the next few hours which takes us back to Chip at Chipman’s Point Marina.  Chip is also a diver and he agreed to dive for the anchor but couldn’t do it until Sunday or Monday. We were also able to order our new chain through him.  Jonny had been wanting to transition to all chain for the anchor but hadn’t done so yet.  This was all it took to convince him to do so. We are particularly concerned to have chain as we travel through the deep waters of the St. Lawrence Seaway where we’ll be in many more remote areas with fewer services than we have in the states. 

So we finalized our plans for the next few days which included heading up to Burlington, VT to see that great town, visit an old friend of Lynn’s and get Jonny in for a couple of doctor’s appointments.

Westport, NY

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A short two hour cruise up Lake Champlain brought us to Westport, NY on Monday, June 29.   Here we stayed at an anchorage near Westport Marina.  We had a nice dinner of leftovers on board.

The next morning we took the dinghy into town and spent a few hours exploring.  This town is tiny but very pretty and well-maintained with beautiful older homes on the main and side streets. 

We met a friendly realtor who has a home in Florida and she encouraged us to visit the local library.  The library was in an historic stone building with a still functioning clock tower.  The librarian invited us to climb the stairs to see the clock from the inside.  She didn’t seem to have any qualms about sending people up an extremely narrow and steep staircase.  It was fun! And the library was in a gorgeous setting overlooking the lake.

The town was getting ready to celebrate its bicentennial over July 4 so it was festooned with red, white and blue bunting (sorry no pix)!  We walked along a rapid brook that wound through the downtown area and under one of the main streets.  A walking path had been created that we could use to follow it as it flowed through the town. 

We stopped at the ship’s store at the marina and Jonny bought himself a jacket he’s been wanting.   Afterwards, we had lunch at the marina’s waterfront restaurant.  That night I swear we saw what looked like a sampling of the northern lights!

Orwell, VT

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Our first stop in beautiful Lake Champlain was Chipman’s Point Marina in Orwell, VT on Saturday, June 27.  It was only a two hour cruise from Whitehall and our first time on Lake Champlain.  What an amazingly beautiful body of water! It is a long (north/south) lake and the sixth largest body of water in the U.S. after the five great lakes.  On the west is New York State and on the east is Vermont.  As we go further up the lake we see the Adirondacks in the distance in the west and the Green Mountains in the east. Both appear to be bluish grey outlines of varying heights and distances against the horizon.

Chipman’s Point Marina had been recommended to us by fellow cruisers and it proved to be a great stop. It is located at a point on the eastern shore of the lake.  Two four-story stone buildings from 1810 and 1812   prominently mark the point and are the marina’s office and ship store.  During the colonial period, the buildings were used as storehouses for the commerce that occurred along the waterway.  Chipman Point is owned by a mother-son team (Chip – no relation to the historic name of the point and his mother Pat).  Interestingly, Pat grew up in the same town as Lynn (Fairfield, Conn.) so they had fun recalling what is was like to grow up there.  More on Chip in a later blog….

In the afternoon, we took a walk to check out our surroundings.  Just up the hill from the marina, we began to see the beautiful Vermont countryside and met a couple of these contented creatures.

That evening, we were invited for cocktails with fellow cruisers Floyd and Linda on Tumbleweed who had arrived earlier in the day. We met them at the Rendezvous and have seen them in passing at a couple of marinas.  This was the first time we were really able to chat and get to know each other. They are from Wichita and this is their second time doing the Great Loop so they had lots to share with us and it was a very pleasant evening.  When we returned to Zendo,  we had a late but delicious dinner of one of Lynn’s new favorite recipes called Nona’s chicken and pasta with zucchini and anchovies – yum!
It rained the next day and Jonny had pulled out his back so we gave ourselves the day off and had a cozy day reading and relaxing. That night we watched The Last of the Mohegans which we had been wanting to see again since we are in the historical  land of the Mohegans.  When watching the  closing credits we discovered that the movie was actually filmed in North Carolina! 
One of the benefits of staying at Chipman Point Marina was the use of the courtesy car which we borrowed to go to Fort Ticonderoga the next day.  The countryside in this part of Vermont is a classic rural landscape  - just what you would picture with rolling hills, dairy farms with inviting farmhouses and lots of cows.

Fort Ticonderoga was just a short ferry ride across the lake on the New York side.

The grounds  included beautiful flower and vegetable gardens that were planted by the Pell family who purchased the land that the fort was built on and build a hotel and home  there.  They were also instrumental in leading the entire effort to reconstruct the fort itself.   

Touring the fort was fascinating.  High school and college-aged kids were dressed in period costumes and going about the business of running a fort.  They were making shoes in the cobbler’s shop, cooking pea soup over an open fire to feed the “troops”, providing musket demonstrations, etc.  They were even required to sleep in the barracks on the mattresses made of matted straw!  Each of them was enthusiastically portraying their role whiled educating the visitors on the history of the fort and their town.  We were very impressed by the quality of the restoration especially since it was done through private donations. 

When we returned to Chipman’s, it was time to leave for our next stop on the lake, Westport, NY.

Whitehall, NY

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On the way to Whitehall, NY, we went thought the last series of locks on the Champlain Canal which connects the Hudson River with Lake Champlain.  The last town on the canal is Whitehall, NY.   When we arrived on the afternoon of June 26 after a seven hour cruise, we tied up to the free floating dock which is maintained by the town. It was located next to a display of the actual wreckage of the Ticonderoga.  This seemed like a nice quiet place to spend the night and the price was right! 

Whitehall has seen much better days.  As with many of these towns on the river, it used to thrive when the waterway was a major transportation route.   But it is now quite depressed with many closed businesses and a declining population.  Even amidst this trend, the people we met were proud of their town’s history and wanted to make a good impression on visitors. 

Whitehall has definitely had a place in American history.  In addition to housing the Ticonderoga that fought in nearby Lake Champlain, it considers itself to be the home of the American Navy.  Our first naval fleet was built here in preparation for the Battle of Valcour which took place on Lake Champlain.  Benedict Arnold build this fleet and led the battle against the British.  Although the Americans lost this battle, it caused the British to be delayed from moving south until the following spring.  It’s interesting to learn of Benedict Arnold’s heroism and fame in so many references in this part of the country.  We often remember him as a traitor but he was a very successful and respected patriot  before he became disillusioned with the American cause and turned to “the dark side.”

So we thought we had found a good dockage until we woke up the next morning to find ourselves hard aground.  The floating docks were no longer floating and neither were we!  (See the before and after pictures below). Jonathan called the lockmaster to find out what happened as there are no tides and only minimal currents in this area.  It turned out that the regular lockmaster had the previous day off and when he went to adjust the river height in anticipation of predicted rains, he lowered the water levels two feet instead of four inches!  The “real” lockmaster apologized profusely and proceeded to raise the water levels.  But of course, it took another five hours before we were floating and able to leave Whitehall.  In the meantime, we had breakfast at a real nice restaurant in a converted bank and walked the town which extends on both sides of the river.

Instead of leaving at 9 as planned, we finally were able to leave by 1:00 and headed north to our first stop on Lake Champlain,  Chipman Point Marina.