| The book you want is:
Cruising Guide to Lake Champlain
Published by:
The Lake Champlain Publishing Company
176 Battery Street
Burlington, Vermont 05401
The cost of my 1989 edition was $18.95.
While you're up in the Champlain area try to get to see:
The Shelburne Museum, Shelburn- Plan a whole day for this.
Burlingtion, VT - A very pleasent city with lots to offer a tourist.
The Grand Isles - Nice farm country.
Ausable Chasm, Ausable Chasm, NY - Awesome geology.
Fort Ticonderoga, Ticonderoga, NY - Ethan Allen & Benedict Arnold
I'm going to be up in Lake Champlain myself the week of July 29th.
|
| Having cruised the general Burlington area of the lake here are a few places
we found enjoyable.
There is a chandlery in the immediate vicinity of the ferry docks in Burlington.
It is just to the left as you approach the loading area. Last time I was there
they had a reasonable selection of gear, charts etc, would expect to find a
cruising guide there.
The Ice House Resturant (yup, it's in the old ice house) is also in the
immediate area of the ferry. The meals we have had there were better than
average, prices were getting up there but not outragous. Probably, you'll
want to get a reservation during peak hours. If you get carried away at the
place you can easily crawl back to your boat since the docks are right there
also.
Willsboro Bay, just across from Burlington, is very nice. All down the west
side there is ledge coming almost straight out of 100' of water, rising steeply
into forested hills. There is a marina at the head of the bay. If you moor
on the east side a little north of the marina you can spend the night with
almost no sign of civilization in sight.
Valcour Island, north of Burlington toward Plattsburg, is a state park. There
are several coves that are nice places to spend the evening. It is easy to go
ashore for a barbarcue. You can count on having company in the coves, but I
have not seen it get really crowded.
|
| The August/September 1991 issue of Coastal Cruising has an article on
cruising Lake Champlain---I'll send you a photocopy.
[Coastal Cruising is a funky regional magazine that seems to be trying
to get a little more broadly based. It's focus still seems to be
mainly Southeastern U.S. Each issue has a 'cruising guide' to a
different harbor or area. PO Box 444, Beaufort, NC 28516 919-728-2233]
|
| Well, we're back and we ahd a great time.....sort of. Let me start by
stating that Lake Champlain is a great place to sail. The scenery is
fantastic, not at all unlike the Carribbean. Combine that with
pleasant temps at night, and fresh water to swim in, what a treat!
We left Shelburne bay last Sunday around noon and immediatle y popped
the chute for a relaxing screaming reach up to Valcour Island. 7.5-8
knots in flat water made for really exciting sailing. We poked into
Smuggler's Bay which is very sheltered from all directions anchoring
stern to the island with a line ashore to keep us sterady. Some light
rain delayed our trip ashore for exploring but not for too long.
Monday dawned slightly overcast but the forecast was for fair weather
later. Off to Converse Bay where we snuggled behind a small island
with several other boats. We had a great reach down with the winds out
of the North and West. Another truly delightful sail. On the way, we
stopped in Essex for an ice cream cone, and to allow my wife to make a
few urgent phone calls for real estate. By dusk, the clouds had all
gone away and we spent the evening counting satellites and watching
shooting stars.
Tuesday found us lazy so we poked around and headed off to Westport.
On our approach in, the motor became uncooperative and failed to start.
STO-LAT features an Atomic 4 with badly corroded plug wires and a
penchance for fouling plugs. After a regapping, and sanding the wires
to improve the contact, she started back up. Into Westport for some
stuff and off to Partridge Harbor on the N.Y. shore across from
Westport. What a beautiful and pristine anchorage this is. Small and
deep, again we anchored stern to with a stern line ashore. In the
middle of the night, about five other boats came in and rafted to the
Beneteau 325 next to us. unfrotunately they did not read about the
need to be extra careful here with throwing stuff in the water as
remains of their dinner and breakfast were very visible in the water.
Highly recommended stop here though get there early.
Wednesday we motor sailed down to Crown Point to visit the fort there.
We stopped in Port Henry which has no real redeeming value as far as I
could tell. We did get pumped out there though for a small fee. Crown
POint is a must see for history buffs. The fort was abandoned several
times before any battles were ever fought there. It also has links to
Benedict Arnold who is famous for the battle of Valcour and imfamous
for his desertion/treason during the revolutionary war.
After Crown point, we beat up the lake under a number one at a good
6.5-7 knots again in absolutely flat water. What a feeling! We ducked
into Button Bay near the state park on the Vermont side. A really nice
place to anchor and some good fishing too. I snagged an 18" Pike which
thoughtfully snapped my line before I brought it in the boat. Neither
my friend or I wanted to deal with his sharp teeth. We declared
victory and went back to the boat.
Thursday is when things went sour. We were planning to head back up to
Valcour and pulled up anchor. Button Island where we were anchored
behind has alot of rocks to the south and east of the point.
Instructing my wife carefully where to go and emphasizing the need to
give it a wide berth blah blah blah was all for naught. As I was
stowing the rode and anchor, the bow pulpit lurched toward the water.
We hit a rock ledge, hard, twice. Looking at where we were, she had
taken us to the precise spot I told her to which had all of 4 feet of
water. We drew 6. Some pandemonium followed by my buddy slipping over
the side to tow us out to deep water by swimming us out. A power boat
was on station to help if needed but we had bounced over the rocks and
floated clear. We put on fins and masks and dove the keel, rudder and
prop to find two good size gashes on either side of the keel. My wife
was terrified at "what she had done" I was terrified for "what Tony was
going to do to me." After studying the damage and ensuring no water
was coming in, we resumed course worrying about what to do next. There
were no cracks in the hull forward or aft and the keel to hull joint
was intact so we decided to go to Valcour as planned and I would call
Tony with the news.
We motored North and hove to mid afternoon in calm seas (lakes?) near
the four brothers and went swimming as the boat drifted along. Kind of
neat to get out of the water and not feel all sticky from the salt
drying. The day was cloudless and windless so we motored all day only
stopping at essex again for water and more beer and ice.
Back at Valcour late afternoon we picked up a courtesy mooring at the
Valcour Lodge. This is a quietly rustic/elegant old Adirondack lodge
on the lake. Nice surroundings but the food was expensive and only
so-so. The mooring was free with dinner but I would have rather
motored across the lake to the island where it was quieter. The crew
was not interested in any more adventure that evening so we stayed put.
My call to Tony was a relief as he did not scream but inquired about
how our trip was going etc. and not to worry if there was no real
visible damage.
Friday dawned gray and we decided that enough was enough and we would
head back since Saturday was supposed to be nasty also. We motored
over to Crab island and walked the perimeter looking at fossils and
cleaning the trash up that washed ashore. Back on the boat for the
long motor home. By this time our fuel was getting lower than expected
so we hoisted the sails and had another romp down the lake as the
breeze finally freshened. We passed the time in the rain looking for
Ferris rock and the colchester reef/shoal. We were at the Shelburen
shipyard by five to get fuel and pumped out again before tying up and
unloading.
We met Tony on Saturday AM and he was genuinely not upset. His first
words were "Ann did it !" which will become the often used excuse
whenever we race and screw something up. He inspected the gashes which
he declared healthy and decided to leave it until fall haul out. We
had a nice afternoon with him and his family and ended up taking them
out to dinner before coming back Sunday. I can still feel the crunch
and really don't ever wish to experience that again. As my partner
would say "the first time's the worst time's". So, go cruise Lake
Champlain, it's great but watch out for the rocks because they are
there.
Brian
|