Craunological II -- Great Lakes Cruise 2023

  Tuesday, August 29 -- Ticonderoga anchorage to Fort Edward -- 47 miles and 5 locks We were underway just after nine because we had a long day ahead. The run down the far southern reaches of Lake Champlain was uniquely beautiful -- more like running on a broad river -- with marshes alternating with rock ledges and big mountains in the distance. There was very little boat traffic and very few homes or cottages. But the Amtrak rail line to Montreal ran right along the west shore for almost the entire ride and was often visible.  This progression of photos shows the lake narrowing and becoming more river-like as we headed farther south. The mountain in the fourth picture is 1,045' high per the chart and is on the east side of the lake just north of South Bay (a geographic feature, not a town). The fifth picture shows "The Narrows of Lake Champlain" just north of where the lake ends at what was the junction of Wood Creek and the Poultney River. Wood Creek effectively was tur...

Monday, August 28 -- Westport to anchorage just south of Fort Ticonderoga -- 26 miles We woke to fog and didn't get underway until noon after it had burned off. The early afternoon was sunny and warm, then it got overcast and we had light intermittent rain into the evening. Our destination was a bay just south of Fort Ticonderoga to anchor for the night, with a stop at Crown Point along the way, so it was a big history day.  Here is the Champlain monument at Crown Point, built in 1909 to commemorate the tricentennial of Samuel de Champlain discovering the lake that he named for himself. On the other side of the road from the monument are the ruins of Fort St. Frederick, which was built by the French in 1731 out of wood and upgraded to stone in 1735. They blew it up in 1759 rather than let the British take it. The chimneys and the earthen wall in the distance to the right are remnants of Fort Crown Point, which the British built right after the French left. Fort Crown Point was one ...

Saturday, August 27 -- Burlington, VT to Newport, NY (30 miles) It's been over two weeks since we were last out on the boat, so it was really nice to get back on the water again today. We left the Burlington Harbor Marina at 9:45 for a short run down the lake to the Point Bay Marina in Charlotte, VT to top off the fuel tank (it's the last available diesel stop in Vermont heading south, and VT prices are much better than NY prices due to lower taxes), get a pump-out and meet some friends to give them a tour of the boat. They took this great picture of us as we pulled away after dropping them off after a brief boat ride. The scenery on Lake Champlain is spectacular, with mountains in the distance on either side. The first photo looks west to the Adirondacks just after leaving Burlington (with Dunder Rock in the foreground); the second shows some of the mountains behind Charlotte, VT (with Mount Philo in the middle); and the third shows the village of Essex on the New York side, w...

Wednesday & Thursday, August 9 &10 -- Burlington to Valcour Island anchorage and back -- 28 miles roundtrip  We spent Wednesday morning doing chores. Ashley drove us to downtown grocery and hardware stores before she and Griffin left to drive back to Lexington. It was nice to have some down time. We had lunch onboard and then left at three for a short run over to Valcour Island. John was anxious to take advantage of the nice weather to anchor out after two grey and wet days. We were not the only ones with this idea, however, and the two harbors that we looked at both had lots of other boats in them. We ended up choosing Smuggler Harbor because it was smaller and there were just three other boats when we arrived. (One more showed up later but rafted off against another boat.) Given the small harbor and limited room for swinging at anchor, John decided to run a line ashore from the stern so that we were secured at both ends -- bow to the west and stern to the east. This ...

Tuesday, August 8 -- Marina St. Tropez to Burlington -- 55 miles   This was another grey day on the water, only with rain showers more often than not, so we spent most of the time riding in the cabin. Given those conditions, we took hardly any pictures, although the scenery was nice. More s cattered cottages and longer stretches of natural shoreline than the previous two days.  We got underway just before ten and tied up at the fuel dock in Burlington just after two. The sky cleared briefly after we arrived, but we had rain again when we went into town for dinner.  The buoy in the photo below marks the US/Canada border in the Richelieu River. The ruins are of Fort Montgomery. The first fort at this locations became known as Fort Blunder. It was started in 1816 by the Americans to protect the northern end of Lake Champlain (remember that we fought the British Canadians aggressively during the War of 1812), but when survey work was done the fort was found to be just north o...

Monday, August 7 -- Chambly to Marina St. Tropez -- 19 miles plus 6 locks Today was a very different day on the Richelieu River. It was a Monday and overcast with scattered rain showers, so there were very few boats out. We spent the morning doing the 12-mile long Chambly Canal and its six locks at 6 mph. All the locks again were hand-operated by friendly and bilingual Canadian National Parks personnel. We locked through with another boat that also spent the night with us on the wall at Chambly. There were two couples aboard, both from Longueuil and very friendly with good English. They were on their way to spend a week cruising on Lake Champlain for the second time, so they had some helpful advice.  We left Chambly just before 9:30 and tied up at the public dock at St. Jean-sur-Richelieu at the end of the canal four hours later to get lunch ashore. We found a nice brew pub right near the dock. The photos below show us docked for lunch and the nice flowers along the canal bank in S...