July 9, Sunday, Burlington Vermont

Missed posting for a few days once we decided to take a quick trip home from Burlington Vt.  Here’s the catch up…

July 5,  Wednesday- Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, Ferrisburg, Vt

We traveled north east up the lake to visit the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum and enjoyed the varied displays and historical information.  There was a building dedicated canoes and small boats of all sorts, another to the revolutionary battles on Lake Champlain, and a replica of a ship the fought in 1776 was really fascinating. Forty-four men living on a ship smaller than ours with no roof, and battling the British. Very hard to imagine.

 

July 6,  Thursday- Burlington, VT

We decided to head to a marina or mooring and go home for a few days to check mail and  see Wesley. To save a bit of money, we decided to opt for a mooring ball in Burlington harbor, although that was still $40/night! As we moved along Dirk noticed the depth – amazing! Four hundred plus feet!

We were somewhat surprised by rough waters and wind which weren’t too bad while moving north but were challenging when docking to get fuel. And even more exciting as we headed to mooring balls in the Burlington Vermont harbor.

How do you catch a mooring ball? Lean over boat railing while extending a boat hook (gaff pole) to catch a mooring flag, while holding a bow line, while wind blows and boat bounces up and down, while missing all the other moored boats that seem too close. Try and miss 8+ times.  Get help from very kind and older and energetic Canadian sailboat neighbor who jumped in his dinghy, took my rope, passed it through the mooring ball loop, and threw the rope back to me. Thank-you!

(Examples of other boaters trying to grab the mooring ball…)

Next: Our dinghy. The dinghy is never easy to get set up for a journey because Dirk has to lift the heavy 5hp motor and place on the wiggling dinghy  transom, but in spite of the bouncing surf he got it ready. We loaded the dinghy with items to take to Stow (dirty clothes, some food that would go bad), motored over to thank our neighbor and headed to the Burlington Boathouse dinghy dock. More fun! We were tying up to the dock and a tourist schooner came in and almost mowed us down. After that we moved the dinghy to another area, secured it and called Enterprise car rental. Four hours later we were home!

July 7, Friday to July 9,  Sunday: Caught up on bills, visited people, spent time with Wesley and the dog and cat, washed clothes, enjoyed Sunday’s summer church service and packed up to return to the boat. We arrived around 6 pm, bailed out the dinghy, traveled to the boat and are gently rocking in our boat again.  Burlington harborside is quite lovely tonight.

July 4, Tuesday, Day 85, from Whitehall to Port Henry, NY

Four cruisers left the Whitehall town wall a little after 7 am this morning heading north.

Dirk and I delayed a bit and then waited for a old schooner and it’s tug to go through the lock. We learned it is on a tour and carries at least one young musician, because we met his teacher near the lock the day before.

After going through the lock we docked right away at the lower New Whitehall Marina to straighten our mast again and put our sundeck cover frame back up.  Since we have no need for an 8 foot ladder on the boat, we had offered it to Phil who helped us yesterday. He and his wife Linda joined us on the dock and Phil helped Dirk get the mast back up too. We waved goodbye to them and our ladder, worked a little more on the sundeck  (in the heat and sun) and were on our way.

As we traveled up the Champlain River towards the lake we could see signs of the heavy rains. Trunks of trees were resting in the river, the water was very muddy, and we saw  a picnic table that is normally on the land partially covered with the river.

The river is beautiful as we head north and start to see signs of mountains to come as well as pasture land as the river became less muddy. As we came to lower Lake Champlain the view opened up. I think we chased that sailboat all day!

We had considered visiting Fort Ticonderoga but found out there is nowhere to dock. We’d have to anchor out and take the dinghy ashore, and we  didn’t have the energy for it after the morning’s fun (?) with the sundeck. It was too bad we didn’t stop because our daughter’s in-laws were only 10 miles away at their home on Lake George and we would have liked to visit with them.

Heading north we passed a number of possible anchorages, but decided to try the one mentioned in the Waterway Guide in Bulwagga Bay – great name! It was in view of the Lake Champlain bridge. We stayed near the top of the bay near a summer trailer park. It worked out fine.

 

July 3, Monday, Still in Whitehall one more day

The Champlain Canal locks turned out to be closed again today – all day. We had hopes they’d open by noon, but they held back due to river currents that were still deemed too strong to be safe.  Understandable but still – we want to move on. So we relaxed into another day after a normal breakfast on the boat (instead of the yummy, high cal, wonderful waffles!).  After doing a few things around the boat, Jan from Adagio and I went into the park to play music. She plays the dulcimer very well and her current instrument requires songs in the key of D. Fortunately that isn’t a problem for the ukulele. So we played a few songs I brought along and a number of songs using her tablet. I am definitely going to move to playing from the ipad  after today’s experience.  It was fun to make music with Jan, and Dirk seemed to enjoy it too (he was our audience).

We also walked around the park and up to the lock to check the water levels. The owner of the downstream marina was quite upset with the fast waters churning out of the dam since logs had swirled back into his docks and done a lot of damage.

In the afternoon Dirk and I decided to use the “little red” vacuum cleaner to remove some sitting water under the aft cabin floor. We’ve had some repairs done to prevent more water from getting in, so hope this will finally solve the wet floor problem. Well, ‘little red’ sucks up about a gallon at a time at best and we must have collected about 20 gallons or more – lots of stopping & starting.  But then Dirk couldn’t remove a small panel from the floor until Ron (from Adagio) helped with it. After all their prying of the wood it was splintered and misshapen and if it was forced back into it’s spot on the floor, not likely to come out the next time – it needed work.

The story of the Floor Board Repair

We started calling and walking around to find a place that could sand the 1 foot by 9 inch plywood  down a bit so it would fit the floor again, and had no luck with the first two places. We were going by a open barn near the river and it looked there was a workshop inside, so a little to Dirk’s chagrin, I walked up, said Hello, and asked if by any chance the man (working on building a boat as it turns out), could help sand our small piece of wood.  He looked surprised, but looked it over and gave it a go, but in the end was unhappy with the poor quality of the wood (and he wouldn’t take any payment for his help.) In the meantime, we talked about wooden boats, how he moved to the area, and the amazing barn he had built.

Phil (our new friend’s name)  suggested he replace the wood and a had just the piece to do it. We didn’t want to put him to more trouble, but he felt strongly about it and said he’d probably be by later in the afternoon. Well, he stopped by twice, once to to fit it and once more with the final result, which was perfect!  He gave us his card and asked us to stay in touch.  What a nice person – we’ve met so many good people in this town. We looked at his card tonight – he is the mayor of  this town of Whitehall! Philip Smith. I’d be glad  to live in a town where someone like Phil is the mayor!

We got the word that we can leave first thing in the morning. I really enjoyed being part of the town for a while. I helped promote the Skene Manor on the hill to every tourist I saw, and word got back to us how their business has strangely picked up this week! (They need marketing help!)  I walked to a number of stores and restaurants and the laundry and talked many friendly people, and kinda feel a tiny bit of belonging. But off we go…

 

July 2, 2017, Monday, Day 83 still in Whitehall, NY

Since thunder & lightening was forecast for the area yesterday, we decided not to travel – rain and storms were predicted for most of the day. And boy did it rain. It rained so much that we are still in Whitehall due to flooding of the Champlain Canal, and we only have one more lock to go through before we are done! Because of the massive rains yesterday, the canal water rose about 2 feet, so the state has closed all locks along this canal and the Erie Canal as well.  To give you an idea of the water… The out flow of the dam is on the right – usually just smooth faster running water and now a churning mess.

We’d like to move up to Lake Champlain, so hope we can continue our journey tomorrow, but until then, off to breakfast and errands.

Whitehall has a lovely breakfast/lunch restaurant named Historic Grounds and I’ve had the best waffles ever there – now 2 days in a row. They are topped with a banana foster sauce and fresh fruit – yum. Jan and Ron on the Adagio also enjoyed breakfast here the last 2 days. This town also has the nicest laundromat – decorated with an old town theme, both by the owners and donated from others in town as well. (Sorry to go on about laundromats – we spend a lot of time in them on this trip!)

Dirk’s knee is bothering him so I did most of the walking in the last two days. Here he is biding his time…

I walked while waiting for laundry to be done, walked to another hardware store about a mile away and to the local CVS, and we all walked this evening to dinner and to check out the dam and high waters. Eight of us got together for dinner – 6 loopers and 2 friends. We ate at the Liberty Eatery and Marina which just reopened after renovations, but it looked a little flooded earlier today – the yellow building on the left.  The food was very good and company was great.

Last night (after the rain stopped for a while)  I walked down to the Tavern where we ate our first night because there was a band playing and it has been a long time since I’ve heard live music. The band and crowd were having a great time and there was a mixture of country, folk and rock, with some good dancing numbers led by a younger woman in the  group. I joined in the dancing a few times before heading back to the boat.

And a couple evening pictures for tonight including our boat, and the last low bridge we need to go under before leaving the canal.

 

 

June 30, Friday, Day 81 Whitehall NY

Today’s canal trip included 4 more locks before we tied up to the free Whitehall town wall. Our last Champlain canal lock is tomorrow. Sometimes there is a long wait at these locks and we waited at the first dock today for about 20 minutes and then out came a barge pushed by a tugboat. I think it filled the entire lock. Some of the NY locks  provide free overnight tie-ups.

Rain was predicted for this afternoon, but we had sun for most of the day.  Between two  of the locks the canal is at or above the height of the land, allowing some nice open views. The canal runs very straight for quite a way as well.

We continued to be nervous about the height of the bridges even though we had lowered our mast and had been told that the water was always about 17.3′ which is at least a foot lower than documented on the maps. But then we only cleared one bridge (C9) that should have been easy by only 6 inches. A lower bridge was coming up so I called ahead to the next lock master. “Oh”, he said. “We raised the water level a foot(!) between  locks C9 and C11 so a barge could get though. It’s still a minimum of 17′ and after the next lock is back down a foot.” So when we came to the next low bridges after the Lock C11 we had clearance, thank heavens. Meanwhile, I climbed up the ladder to make sure we could actually clear the bridges. Here’s a few lower, fixed bridges.

When we tied up to the Whitehall town wall we saw a familiar vessel – the Adagio. We met Ron and Jan at the town dock in Brick NJ and looked forward to seeing them again.

We headed to an historic manor up on the hill across the river and met them coming down, chatted a while and figured we’d talk more later. Dirk and I walked up the steep roads and were able to tour the Skene Manor as well as have a late afternoon snack there. A  non-profit group from the town raised the money to buy the 1864 manor so it wouldn’t be torn town and are working to restore it.  We enjoyed seeing the historic home and the views from the hill as well.

We went for a light dinner at a recommended Tavern near by, and walked around the town a bit. Historic, interesting homes are everywhere, but the region is not doing that well economically and it is sad to see so many homes in disrepair.  Back at the marina we sat on the sundeck a bit and talked to some boat neighbors. Here is the Adagio on the canal as sunset approaches.

Still June 29, Thursday, Fort Edward, NY

The New York State canal system includes the Erie Canal, the Champlain Canal and many more that lead up to Lake Ontario and down to the Finger Lakes. Today was our first experience of the New York Champlain locks and it was very positive. The lock masters are friendly and helpful and the locks have ropes we can grab to make it easy to ride the water up (and later down) the canal.

 

The locks along the Champlain Canal also have park areas on top, and sometimes boaters tie up before or after the locks and enjoy the parks.

 

So far we have primarily been traveling on the Hudson River except for an area where a canal cut was needed. Tomorrow will be almost entirely on the excavated Champlain canal. I’ll miss the river.

After about 7 hours, and 6 locks,  and 42 miles from where we started, we entered the channel to Fort Edward waterfront park, a grassy area with a cement wall with cleats and ladders, free electric (!) and bathrooms. There’s a small town with a couple of restaurants, but since it’s a little rainy we may just stay on board. An official canal representative did come by to greet us – impressive – even in the rain.

I hadn’t realized we had been traveling so long today since the trip is broken up by waiting to get into locks, entering, waiting for the water to lift us and then leaving the lock, done 6 times today. We’ll do 5 more locks tomorrow and then move to the the Champlain River. (That’s what we thought anyway!)

June 29, Kingston to Fort Edward, NY

Yesterday was trip prep day as we continued our stay at Waterford’s Welcome Center with free docks and electric. We had many advisers regarding the maximum boat height in order to fit under the Champlain Canal low bridges, including dock masters that said that 17′ is a good bet. The only way for us to get close to that height was to lean the mast (carrying the Garmin Radar as well as a TV antenna we don’t use) forward or back, and the way it was configured, only the option of leaning the mast back toward the stern made sense. That meant the sundeck cover would have to be moved! Reminder view of boat with sundeck roof…

(Feel free to skip this if this is too much detail.)

Next, how to take apart some or all of the top part of the sundeck awning so that the mast would have room to lean back. Turns out there was a canvas expert in Waterford that we called. He stopped by and helped us sort out where the frame junctions were hidden. Dirk took it from there and dissembled the front half of the awning frame, which we then tied up to the top of back half, still leaving us room on the deck.  Next challenge, what to lean the mast on, since it could only be angled about 35% without disrupting Garmin wires. Dirk thought of buying some lumber and building a simple A-frame, but then – ah-ha – we decided a ladder could do the same job and be easier to acquire.  Unfortunately the hardware store was a mile away and it was warm, but we walked it.

We bought a ladder and some ratchet strapping while discussing our challenge with the store manager.  Being bold and tired I asked her if by any chance she could drive us and our purchases to the marina, and she was happy to do it. Nice people in this town.

With the help of Kelly from ‘In Deep Ship’, the three of us leaned back the mast and tightened the ratchet straps to make sure the ladder and mast wouldn’t move anywhere. We measured again, and we were just bumping up against 17′ (instead of 18.5) so the anchor light had to come down as well to get us down to about 16’8″. It doesn’t look pretty but now we can go up the Champlain canal to the Lake Champlain and then the St. Lawrence.

About old lock mechanisms… We took the canal river walk route to the hardware store which took us over Lock 1 of the Erie Canal. Tom the dock master wasn’t busy and was happy to show us the mechanisms of the locks DC engine (!) built in 1915. We also saw the walls from the original first lock.

Tom walked with us along the old Champlain canal for a while. It is a lovely walk and we even found ripe blackberries along the way.

As we were leaving Waterford today I took a few photos of the Welcome Center. It was a great place to stop for a few days, and we took advantage of two restaurants, the laundry mat and the local grocery store while we were there.

OK – enough for today. Tomorrow is about the Champlain Canal as we continue on our way.

June 27, Tuesday, Day 78, Waterford, NY

Today we’ve finally  arrived at a Great Loop crossroads at the Waterford, NY Visitors Center,  well known by loopers for its free tie-ups and convenient access to  local stores.

This morning we continued up the river towards Albany and saw that the city is a hub for a river-oriented power, gravel, and other heavy industries. In all my years visiting grandparents in the Albany area I never saw this side of the city.

Just as we approached the old downtown it started to rain and then really pour. We had on our light raincoats, I was still taking photos, but it didn’t look like it was letting up and we were cold. So I went to the cabin to suit up for serious rain (it took 5 minutes), and by the time I got back to the fly bridge, the rain had almost stopped!

 

After a while I went back to normal gear, and we continued to the Federal lock at Troy NY. It was a little tricky to “tie up” because we needed to put a rope around a pipe that runs up the wall, and therefore had to be pretty close to the cement wall to do so. We managed and I learned some techniques to use the next time. We continued on to Waterford, NY and the sign letting cruisers know which way is which (Erie Canal versus Champlain Canal).

Tomorrow we will determine if we can go up the Champlain Canal, our intended route to Canada. We learned yesterday that the web sites we were using to check bridge heights don’t match the NOAA charts, and we re-measured our boat height. We’ll at least need to make some adjustments to the tallest parts of the boat in order to continue north to Lake Champlain and will find out how much after we speak to NY canal lock personnel.

June 26, Monday, Anchored out

Knowing that there was no rush to leave the marina until the tide turned around noon, we relaxed and I walked a few blocks to town for coffee and fresh pastries and some additional photos of this unique river town.

We took advantage of our new museum membership (included with the docking fee) and thought we’d enjoy looking through the museum for a few minutes. More than an hour later, we were still there, thoroughly enjoying the well organized, well documented variety of Hudson River historical themes, from riverboats, to lighthouses, to  river industries of the 1800s, and so much more. Among so many others, I was particularly interested in the exhibit about the lights in lighthouses, the genius of  Robert Fulton, the elaborate steamships (with rectangular grand piano of the Hudson River) and the fact that this little Rondout Creek had been key part of the steamship travel industry in its day.

Just before we were to leave, a boat pulled in, we said ‘Hello’, and proceeded to learn a lot about boating the great loop as we talked with Tom Hale and his wife Cristina aboard the very pretty and spacious 34′ Trawler. Turns out he is an editor for Waterways Guide and has written number of articles on cruising and sailing. They’ve been living aboard for a number of years, traveling up and down the east coast, spending as much time as they want where ever they want!

As we left and moved up the Hudson River we continued to enjoy the beautiful river and unusual lighthouses. Note we’ve been traveling north from NYC for 4 days and haven’t reached Albany. Steamships in their hey-day would make the trip in less than a day with hundreds of people on board. The Mary Powell, Queen of the Hudson, was one of the fastest and ran from NYC to Albany in 7 hours.

We easily found a great anchorage, already shared by two other trawlers with AGLCA (looper) flags. Hopefully we’ll meet them tomorrow in Waterford. After a brief rain shower and rainbow, the day ended peacefully.

 

 

June 25, Sunday, Kingston NY at Rondout Creek

This morning we relaxed, as we needed to wait for the tide to come in before we could leave the shallow inlet of the marina. I made french toast, Ruth and I walked, Dirk and Geoff chatted with the the dock master,  and we watched river rowers. Lucky for us,  Geoff and Ruth decided to come with us to Kingston before going back to get their car in Croton-on-Hudson.

As we traveled up the Hudson we small some of the small island light houses on the  river that actually look like small stone houses with a tall top. Families lived in these, some until the mid-1900s.

We reached Rondout Creek inlet of Kingston NY about an hour before Ruth and Jeff’s taxi arrived  to take them back to their car. Fortunately there was time to enjoy ice cream, see some of the boats on display have some fun in front of the Maritime Museum.

We sadly waved good-bye to them, and relaxed back at the boat a while. After supper we took a long walk down the riverwalk, appreciating how much work has gone into making it welcoming. The tall sailboat is the actual Clearwater – Pete Seeger’s environment awareness ship, which a great influence on cleaning up the Hudson River.

We ran into another looper and chatted a bit, and at the end of the river walk, headed up to a neighborhood street to walk back to town another way. I saw a man watering a nicely landscaped garden at the corner of a street, complimented him and he invited us over so he could tell us the story of his unusual house.

Many years ago he and his wife bought a circus storage barn; half of it was stables and the other half storage, and they turned the brick barn into a unique home for their family over the years. They also restored a small house next door into an Airbnb and seemed to have a small apartment building as well. He was very friendly and I think there are many in Kingston that have done well buying run down buildings and bring them back. Our dock master told some similar stories. It made for a very interesting walk and was nice to talk to someone that lives in the town.