The 6th Great Lake

Lake Champlain is one of the most beautiful views from any direction - looking north, south, east or west. As we travel north on the lake, NY state and the Adirondack mountains are on our port side and the beautiful state of Vermont is on our starboard side. Celebrating the 400th anniversary of the discovery of The Lake, Champlain has served as a highway and battleground for the armies and navies of several wars. Two places on the lake - Whitehall at the end of the NY canal system and Vergennes where we visited - claim to be the birthplace of the US Navy. As mentioned in the previous post, our intention was to stay in Whitehall overnight but we decided to make it a long day and arrive in Westport early. Turns out this was a great decision. We arrived at the marina around 5 PM on Thursday and quickly realized that the boating season in the central/north part of Champlain doesn't really begin until mid June. The marina was still "preparing" for the launch of the season but the facilities were adequate. We were their 2nd transient of the season. On Thursday evening, after a long day, we had dinner on the boat along with a well needed nights rest. Friday was a great weather day and we spent most of the day on the boat cleaning and completing a long list of projects. On Friday evening, we walked - about a mile - into Westport and had dinner at the only evening restaurant in town which was located

in a small hotel. On Saturday morning, at the urging of everyone we spoke with, Pia was up at 5 AM to take pictures of the sunrise over the mountains of Vermont. I will download a few of these pictures but will tell you that the pictures do not do the view justice! Absolutely Stunning views!!! This final picture of Westport is "Still Busy" in the slip we stayed at for 2 nights.

We left Westport on Saturday morning and decided to make a side trip to a small town in Vermont named Vergennes which is 8 miles off the Lake up Otter Creek. The trip to the entrance of Otter Creek was about 10 miles and we traveled on the NY side of the Lake. Again, the views from the water are great. This next picture is the entrance to Otter Creek as we picked up a passenger along for the ride (you may need to enlarge and look on top of the light). The entrance to the creek was VERY shallow with a narrow channel but once we were in the creek, our depth was more than adequate at 8 - 12 feet until we arrived at the Vergennes town docks. So made the 8 mile trip and came around the curve on the creek to see the waterfalls beside the town dock. This was actually our view as we were tied to the dock. In the Revolutionary War, the colonists build the Saratoga at this very spot and entered the Lake through Otter Creek to prevent the British from using this passage to New York. We launched the dingy to get closer to the falls and explore the creek. This is a picture of Jack driving the dingy with "Still Busy" tied to the town dock.

We had a great evening in Vergennes. We walked into town, had dinner, viewed the small city, and attended a jazz pianist - Fred Barnes - in concert in the Vergennes Opera House which is located above the police station and city hall. We returned to the boat after the concert and had this view of the moon rising over the falls sitting on the aft deck of the boat. A perfect ending to a great day!

On Sunday morning we untied around 9 for the "easy" trip to Burlington. After the 8 mile trip back into the Lake, Burlington is less than 15 or so more miles. The departure was smooth, sunny day, no wind, and calm lake. Here is a picture of the Garmin measuring our depth in the middle of the lake - in the lower left corner the depth reads 430 feet deep! Everything was smooth until - HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM. The port engine sputtered and shut down in the middle of the lake. Good thing we have 2 engines! We thought it could be water in the fuel so Jack changed the fuel filter as Pia continued the trip using the starboard engine. We still could not get the engine started so we were able to make it to Burlington and are now at a marina. Yesterday - Monday - we were able to get a mechanic to come out and the problem may be one of the low pressure fuel pumps. A replacement was ordered on Monday and will hopefully be here today. To add to the misery, today is 55 degrees and raining in Burlington so we have arranged for a rental car and will do some shopping and sight seeing. If we can get the filter on today, we will leave Burlington tomorrow and should be in Canada in a couple of days. Guess we have to take the bad days (not very many) with the good days. We look forward to seeing Burlington and also look forward to hearing the port engine run smoothly. On the bright side, here is a picture of the sunset at our marina in Burlington on Sunday night - not too hard to take.