Sliding Through The Muck

So there I was...attempting to enter a small cove on the very southern end of Lake Champlain before you get to the locks in an area called The Narrows.  It is a very desolate area with no cell phone reception and you rarely see another person.  It was getting toward evening and though none of the cruisers had ever attempted this cove for anchoring, it's 75 ft high rock wall on one side and grassy marsh on the other side toward the main channel drew me in with it's beauty and secluded atmosphere.  The entrance was going to be tight but there was 8 feet of water once you got in.  My 17,000 pound boat requires a bit over 3 ft of water and it concerned me when I read 2 ft on the depth finder.  As I slid through the muck holding my breath the thought was going through my head that even if I got in, would I be able to get back out in the morning?  After succeeding and dropping my anchor I heard an airboat, the kind they use in the everglades, come flying through the marsh and into where I was with a look on the occupants faces that said, "How did you get that boat in here?"  It was a fantastic anchorage and after a narrow escape in the morning I made my way into the Champlain Canal and now sit at a dock in Mechanicville, NY, just south of Lock 3, where tie-up, water, and electricity hook-up are all free.  They like boaters.  Last night the previous owner of Eventide, who lives not too far from here, came to see his old boat at my invitation.  We talked and told boating stories until 11pm and one of the stories was how he had run Eventide onto the rocks at Colchester Shoals in Lake Champlain (see previous post) after leaving Fourth of July fireworks festivities in Burlington after dark.  Fortunately, very little damage was found after the Coast Guard pulled him off but what a coincidence that I just wrote about that shoal.  Checked out a museum in Shelburn, VT, aptly named Shelburn Museum, that has an incredible collection of Americana spread out over many acres.  It's worth a road trip and you can take in nearby Burlington while you're there.  Lots to do in that town and a great waterfront.  I'll finish up the Champlain Canal and locks tomorrow morning, then it's onto the Hudson River heading toward New York City.

Back In The U.S.A.

So there I was...coming across Lake Champlain from an incredibly beautiful anchorage with crystal clear water on the New York side heading for Burlington, VT  at about 10 am this morning.  I had charted a course on my GPS and paper charts before I left the anchorage to make sure I gave a wide berth to a clump of submerged rocks about two miles off the Vermont shore called Colchester Shoal.  As I passed the shoal in 332 feet of water I watched as a dive team, with the State Police and Coast Guard assisting, attempt to free a 40+ ft very expensive looking "go fast" boat as it sat atop Colchester Shoal.  The damage looked substantial.  Their efforts must have been in vain as I noticed a barge, with a crane on it, heading for the boat from Burlington.  Gotta be careful out here.
Kim joined me in Canada last weekend to help me go through the 9 locks on the Chambly Canal.  We met some wonderful Americans while we were all tied to the canal wall at lock 3 and had an impromptu cocktail party that evening then went through locks 4-9 together as a group the next day.  As much as I enjoyed the Canadian hospitality, it was nice to converse with those you have so much in common with.  The canal and locks looked like a picture you might take in Europe and were so clean and well run.  Kim thoroughly enjoyed the experience and after clearing lock 9 with me rode her bicycle, that we carried on the boat, the 19 km (about 12 miles) back to lock 1 on a bike path that paralleled the canal to where her car was parked.  I passed through U.S. customs, at a dock set up for that purpose near the border, the next day and it felt good to be on American soil again, albeit the soil was under a lot of water.
As I write this, I'm anchored near the town of Burlington VT and the view across Lake Champlain of the 1000 ft high mountains on the New York side is stunning.  I've heard good things about this college town and am looking forward to checking it out.  So I need to quit writing and start exploring.

French Quebec

So there I was...pulling Eventide out of the harbor in Montreal after dropping Kim off at the train station and stopping by our favorite breakfast place for a cafe au lait and croissant.  The current outside the breakwall was moving the St. Lawrence Seaway along at almost 6 knots, fortunately in the direction I was going, toward Quebec City.  I was playing hopscotch with freighters all afternoon that were over 700 feet long as they passed me going the same direction or squeezed me to the side of the channel coming toward me.  My boat never felt so small.  Half way to Quebec City I anchored for the night behind a beautiful island and early the next morning turned south, for the first time in over a year, as I left the St. Lawrence River to enter the Richelieu River.  There would be over 75 miles of this river to navigate and 10 locks to go through before I drop my anchor in American mud again at the northern end of Lake Champlain.  As I write this, I am anchored in Chambly Basin in the town of, you guessed it, Chambly, Quebec.  When you get away from the bigger cities in these regions nobody speaks English.  So I've been walking around more confused than usual.  My French is for introduction only and on occasion to order pasteries.  The people here are kind and patient with me so we finally succeed in exchanging information.  In the U.S. I can be perplexed in a grocery store but the one I went to here left me dazed and confused.  Everything is written in French.  It makes for a great adventure when you're a bit lost and through it all I'm having a blast.  Till next time, au revoir.

The Heart of Montreal

So there I was...pulling Eventide into the dock at Heart Island found not far from the shores of Alexandria Bay, NY in the Thousand Islands.  I wanted to take Kim here because she has this thing about hearts, being the romantic that she is.  The story goes that George Boldt, one of the movers and shakers in the New York City hotel business in the late 1800's, blasted the island into the shape of a heart then with 300 workers took four years to build a castle patterned after 16th century European architecture as a testimony of the love he had for his wife.  He was going to present it to her on Valentines Day in 1904 but Mrs. Boldt died in January of that same year.  A telegram was sent and the 300 workers dropped their tools and left the island never to return.  Such a tragic love story.  The 127 room castle and grounds are amazing but three hours later we got under way to head for Brockville, Ontario to check our vessel into Canada with customs.  After three nights anchoring behind islands and as many days going through seven locks we pulled into a beautiful marina in Montreal right in the middle of Vieux Montreal (Old Montreal).  There is so much here to see and the people are wonderful.  Our French is slowly improving and when we leave, it will be too soon.  I will miss the crepes most of all.

Tortuga

So there I was...scrambling to get the boat clean and in some kind of order before Princess, I mean Kim, came on board for vacation.  The place was beginning to look more like a man cave with nobody around to create any kind of decorum conscience in me.  In my haste I knocked Tortuga on the floor.  Who or what is Tortuga?  Let me tell you.  For those who know Spanish, you know that it is the word for turtle and he is indeed a turtle though only a soft plastic one.  He was brought back from Florida by Kim on a business trip where she stayed in a Ritz-Carlton Hotel and he lived on the bathtub with the little bottles of shampoo and conditioner.  His new home was on our boat until our good friends John and Jan kidnapped him without our knowledge and whisked him off to Martha's Vineyard on their sailboat for vacation.  We received a treasure map with instructions of how we might find our beloved pet from the devious abductors since they knew we were vacationing on the Vineyard a week later.  It was quite detailed and after following it with fear in our hearts we found Tortuga shaken but alive in the hollowed out section of a tree just off the path that snaked through a woods in a harbor on the Vineyard called Lake Tashmoo.  After that harrowing experience Tortuga stayed with us and he was in all kinds of pictures with Kim and I as we traveled through the islands.  In restaurants waitresses would take pictures of Kim, Tortuga and I dining together and there were shots of him having hor'derves in the cockpit of the boat at sunset as well as laying out at the beach.  All of these were sent to John and Jan to show them how happy he was to be back with us.  Eventually, John took him on the high seas with him for a multi-day blue water adventure when he helped to sail a boat to Bermuda.  Yes, this little turtle has had an exciting life and shows no signs of slowing down.  He, again, sits above the helm station on Eventide looking for the next harbor.       

The Daggett House Mug

So there I was...sitting in this beautiful harbor amongst the Thousand Islands this morning having my coffee as I listened to the call of the loons drift over the still glassy water.  Today I'd chosen the coffee mug that had "The Daggett House" scribed across it with a picture of what the house looked like on the back.  Fond memories came to the forefront of my mind of the day I bought this mug from the establishment that is no longer a bed & breakfast/restaurant  but now a private residence.  Several of my closest friends were anchored on their boats near Kim and I in Edgartown Harbor on Martha's Vineyard a few years ago.  We all dingied in to have breakfast at The Daggett House one morning having heard so many good things about it.  Though there was a wait to be seated they provided coffee out on the veranda and beautiful gardens to stroll through making the wait almost not seem long enough.  When we eventually sat at our assigned seating and ordered our food the playful banter and back and forth good humor was all that you could hope for from friendships that had been forged years ago.  Once the food arrived the conversation continued until all at once everyone got very quiet and started staring at Kim.  Tears were flowing down her cheeks and of course they all looked to blame me.  What had really happened is that Kim and I had gone on this diet months before where carbohydrates were strictly prohibited and this was the first time we were allowed to break that rule.  As Kim bit into the incredibly tender biscuit smothered with melted butter and jam her tear ducts took over and you would have thought she'd lost a loved one.  The group, after being stunned, went crazy over what they were watching and for the first time I think they realized how deeply Kim feels about things.  Even biscuits.  She was trying to have a private moment but they would have none of it.  This particular display of emotion is mentioned to this day by our friends and warms my heart while producing a chuckle every time I take my coffee in The Daggett House mug.   

A Tern of Events

So there I was...coming out of the main cabin of the boat into the cockpit early one morning last week to get into the dingy and make my way to shore for a cup of coffee.  What I soon realized is there had been yet another hatching of a different bug on the previous evening so now I had hundreds and hundreds of these small white moths all over the boat.  What is it about the Thousand Islands and bugs?  Lots of bugs.  As soon as I moved across the cockpit heading for the dingy they all went air-bound flying in my face and landing all over me.  This attracted the birds, I think they were Terns, that started diving with incredible acrobatic skill to catch the moths in flight.  Problem was they were diving at me and the moths fluttering all over me coming inches from my head.  I was swinging my arms trying to get the moths off me and with head down sheilding my eyes from some tern that may have failed flight school, I stumbled with a tremendous lack of grace into the dingy.  I'm sure the locals enjoy watching these little shows.  Even there, the onslaugt didn't end while I got the motor going finally clearing the war zone and knocking the remaining hitch hikers off me.  A few days later the moths were mostly gone and the run for the dingy became unnecessary.  Until the next hatching.