Final Days on Lake Champlain

PM's Perspective

I have some catching up to do on my part of the adventure.  I'll start with Rouse's Point, our northern most spot on Lake Champlain, where we docked at Gaines' Marina.  This marina gets my highest kudos for dock design.  The docks themselves were wide and steady enough so that you didn't have to perform a balancing act just to remain upright.  The spacing between slips was such that plenty of room existed between boats, so no tight squeezes which we have experienced at other places.  At the terminus of one of the docks was a public space with railings and seating for gatherings -- a nice touch.  The marina was very well landscaped with very colorful flowers and flower boxes, decorative lampposts and international flags.  The marina store was well equipped and even had propane tank fill-up service which we benefited from as our propane tank for the stove emptied in the middle of cooking one of my delicious dinners.

The bathrooms were marbled tiled.  That being said, the women's room must have been designed by a non-woman because the layout made no sense whatsoever!  As one entered, one is greeted by a small well appointed waiting area with upholstered chairs, so far so good and a nice touch.  Then a corridor with five doors on the left -- four private shower rooms and one half bath.  What was the designer thinking?  One toilet and one sink in the entire women's room that services a marina with more than one hundred slips?  At the end of the corridor was another area with base cabinetry and a nice wide counter.  What was this area for?  Diaper changing, putting on make-up?  And without a sink?  Back to the drawing board on that one, buster! But overall, I really liked the marina.  The town, though, not so much.

As we approached Rouses' Point on the boat, the dominant architectural feature was a large dark red brick building with twin square towers capped with parapets that almost looked like crowns.  Eye candy for me.  This gem turned out to be St. Patrick's church.  I was looking forward to walking through the town to see what other architectural jewels awaited.  Bob and I desperately needed to do laundry and the only laundromat was in town about three blocks from the marina.  The dirty laundry basket was so full that both of us were required to carry it.  We walked into town and found TJ's North Country Laundromat/Car Wash.  TJ is definitely an entrepreneur.  The front portion of the corrugated metal building was a laundromat and the rear a car wash -- do the laundry and clean the car at the same time, not a bad idea, I thought.

Upon entering we found that a goodly number of the machines had out-of-order signs on them.  We found some working washers and put in our dirty laundry, detergent and quarters.  While the washers were doing their thing, Bob and I decided to scope out the town.  I was not disappointed in the downtown buildings -- a delight to view their older facades, storefronts, fenestration, soffits, lintels and sills.  We returned to the laundromat, emptied the washers and put the clothes in a dryer.  While waiting for the clothes to dry, we sat down at a table and started to look around whereupon we saw a sign that struck us as very odd that read, "anybody that is seen or caught on camera picking through our garbage or removing signs from our walls will be permanently banned from using this facility and info will be turned over to law enforcement."  Questions started to flood my mind.  What was the precipitating event that warranted this particular sign?  What could possibly be in the garbage that would attract pickers?  Does someone, TJ perhaps, sit and watch the security camera tapes?  How much time do they spend watching the tapes?  How does someone get permanently banned from the premises and how is the ban enforced?  Does law enforcement really care about garbage picking and sign removal in the laundromat?  What goes on in this town?  When our clothes were dry, we quickly folded them and headed back to the security of the boat.

Next morning, Friday, we got out of town and headed south to Burlington Harbor where Kathy and John on the good vessel Serenity and several of their friends parked their boats on the public moorings.  We picked up a mooring thanks to John's saving one for us.  We went ashore and re-provisioned at City Market and spent a wonderful evening with new found friends.  The next day, we followed Serenity to Willsboro Marina joining up with other folks and enjoying a fabulous dinner at the marina restaurant known for its cuisine.  The next day, Sunday, we invited Mike (who is interested in buying a Monk) and Sharon for a test drive and took a short cruise around Schuyler Island.  When we returned it was time to say goodbye to all our new found friends as they left for home port.  Bob and I stayed another night so I could review appraisal reports where the internet reception was good.

Monday morning we headed back to Burlington to prepare for our journey south.  We have liked it so much and ran into some other boaters we met at Burton Island that we decided to spend more time.  This passed weekend I missed a mini college reunion of folks associated with the former Gryphon Fraternity at Hamilton College.  Several of the attendees and invitees e-mailed back and forth about life circumstances.  One of the e-mails contained the information that Tony Stapleton had a serious bike accident resulting in broken facial bones, nose bones and ribs!  I called Tony and was thrilled to hear him answer the phone.  He sounded like healing was well underway and thankful to be alive.  He also asked if I had been in touch with Cordelia, one of our college buds who lives in Vermont on Lake Champlain, and he gave me her contact info.  Bob and I just spent a delightful afternoon with her catching up and renewing our connection.  This is the sweetness of life!

Bob's View:

Course:  none, as we have been in Burlington on a mooring for three days 
Weather: perfect for swimming and doing outside maintenance on the hull
Crew Morale:  finest kind
Battery State: really impressive as we have not run the genset for the past three days and we are registering 13.2 v.

As we make preparations for our final departure (we have been here three times now) from a mooring in Burlington, we have a long day ahead of us.  We had intended to travel half of the distance to Chipman Point today but PM got in touch with CB, an old and dear friend (the adjective referring to the length of time they have known each other since college, not their age, in fact "young" gets redefined for us each year).  We will need to cruise about 50 miles tomorrow, 7 hours more or less, to make Chipman Marina by mid afternoon. A two night stay will provide time to do another laundry, a pump-out, and to set up VELOMER for the locks by dropping the radar mast, readying the fenders, and making her shipshape for our trip back to salt water.

The sadness that had been casting a shade over our time aboard in the past week has lifted, I suppose this to be as we realize the journey continues in another phase and adventures await us around the many turns and through the 12 locks we will encounter in the next few days.  If Mike Sheehy is able to join us for the passage down the Champlain Canal, PM will get lots of practice negotiating the locks as he and I can handle lines, pipes and cables along the lock walls while she maneuvers VELOMER from the fly-bridge helm.  I am a bit nervous about this change in duties but it is really good that PM acquires new skill sets in boat handling. She really only lacks the confidence not the knowledge as she knows what to do, but has not had the experience I have in doing it.

I still awake each day, curious as to where the time has gone and anticipating new vistas, new people to meet, and new opportunities to become better loopers.  While on board, each day melts into the next and the days and weeks are fluidly passing across our calendar much as smoothly as the waters of Lake Champlain pass under our keel.  Each day has highlights, like last night when I arose at three AM to watch the moon's kumatage on the lake waters between VELOMER and  Adirondack Park on the western shore.  And a previous night when I awake again at 3 AM to listen to the howl of wolves in the wilds of upstate New York.  The only howling I heard last night in Burlington was of the college crowd as they consumed copious amounts of alcohol.

PM has taken the dinghy to shore to return CB to her life as a pastor for the South Hero Island community where she has been for the past three years.  We rarely get visitors on board, which frankly has been a bit of a puzzle for us, (why would anyone not want to spend time on VELOMER, maybe its us?) and so this afternoon was special for us, both as PM had not seen her old friend in years and for me, a chance to get to know another really amazing Kirkland student from the charter class.  Those women from the class of 1972 are all really phenomenal and I hope to meet as many as I have time to know.

So today ends with another beautiful sunset, a swim in clear water and a tasty dinner of grilled vegetables, chicken and of this I am sure, several glasses of really cheap but surprisingly good Pinot Grigio which PM found at the local market. We got 6 bottles because of our senior discount and 10% off for a half case deal.

Meals and wine are better on the water as is sleeping and waking.