We had a rough start today. At 1:30am, Blue Moon started rocking and rolling. The wind was coming from the South and our bow was pointed to the South, but the swells were coming into the anchorage and we're hitting us on our beam. It was very uncomfortable. It was so bouncy, that items on the counter were tossed to the floor and the dishes stored in the microwave were sliding from side to side. With the help of Mr. Benedryl, we both managed to get some interrupted sleep.
At 7:00, we decided to move to a calmer anchorage before we had breakfast. Our first job was to roll up the porch screens and to get the dinghy onto the davits. This job is usually easy, but with both boats bouncing and Blue Moon's swim platform dipping six inches into the water on each bounce, it was a challenging job. But we thought it though and we able to accomplish it with no damage or injuries. The next thing was to get the anchor up. Every thing was going good as the windlass pulled the 40 ft of line up, but when it got to the chain, it couldn't pull anymore and the windlass was straining. We were in 20 ft of water, still had 70 ft of chain out and the bow was directly above the chain. Our conclusion was that the chain had wrapped itself around something 20 ft underwater and we were stuck. We hadn't used a trip line on the anchor because the water was so deep and the anchorage was so small. We tried several manuveurs to free ourselves with no success. We then let out 30 ft more of line to give it some slack and tied the line to a cleat. Matt steered Blue Moon at a 90° angle to where the chain was hung up trying to dislodge whatever we were hung up on. I then untied the cleat and we used the windlass to pull the anchor up. This time it worked!!! We were free! We quickly left the bouncy anchorage and went around Valcour Island to find some protection from the south winds. NOAA was predicting south winds of 10-15kts in the morning increasing to 20kts in the afternoon. The North Bluff Point anchorage sounded like a good place to be today. We dropped the anchor in 17 ft of water and we dragged. The anchor was full of weeds. So we went out further to 20ft of water and it caught right away. When will we ever learn? It was now 9:00 am. We had breakfast and spent the morning chilling after a very stressful morning. At 3:00, we checked the weather forecast again. Now NOAA was calling for NW winds tonight, so we were no longer in a protected anchorage. We picked up the anchor and moved around the corner to the South Bluff Point anchorage, which is protected from N-NW wind. We dropped in 20ft of water and it caught. It was time for some fun, so we went for a swim. Actually, there was no swimming involved. It was relaxing just floating on our pool toys. We followed that up with a bath in the lake. For dinner, we did Comfort Food tonight... salad, mac & cheese and a sausage sandwich for Matt. Bedtime came early for us both. Trip Log-Day 98: 3 nm, 1 hours, Trip Total: 1817nm, 298.25 hours, 439 gal diesel
0 Comments
It was another cool morning with a temperature of 61° in the cabin and 60° outside. But the cabin quickly warmed up as we boiled water for our morning tea and coffee.
At 10:00, we picked up the anchor and left Malletts Bay. It was a nice cruise across the lake to Sloop Cove on Valcour Island which was today's destination. The wind was suppose to be from the north today and switch to a southernly breeze tonight. Sloop Cove is protected from all wind directions except from easterly breezes. There were already six boats anchored in the little cove when we arrived. We tried to anchor in an area of 11 ft of water but we dragged. When we retrieved the anchor, we brought up a good harvest of weeds. We tried a second time in about the same place but again it was no good. Then a sailboat, which was anchored in 20 ft of water, left. We went to the newly vacated spot and dropped the anchor and let out only 100ft of rode due to the space limitations. Matt tugged on it and it held. Valcour Island is owned by the state of New York, so one can dinghy to shore and hike, if one was so inclined...we weren't. We spent the afternoon on the back deck reading. We had no internet and only a very weak phone signal. Later, I became ambitious and decided to wash my hair using the lake water and a bucket. It was still too cold to actually get into the water, but the bucket method worked well. Still ambitious, I went to work cleaning the head and the inside of the boat. When I was done, it was time for happy hour. I don't know if it was the alcohol or that the outside temperature was approaching 86°, but we got the urge to go swimming. It was a nice swim and gave us the opportunity to bath and to cool off before we started cooking dinner. Matt baked breaded chicken cutlets on the outside grill while I made us a salad for dinner Sloop Cove is a nice little anchorage. We may have to stay here another day...or maybe not. Trip Log-Day 97: 10 nm, 2 hours, Trip Total: 1814nm, 297.25 hours, 439 gal diesel It was only 60° inside the boat when we woke up.
For breakfast, Matt made french toast which heated up the cabin nicely. At about 10:00, it was warm enough to be able to sit outside. The north wind didn't seem too bad today, but we are well protected from the north, so it's difficult to tell. Our biggest problem today, was the weekend boaters and their wakes coming across the bay. Since Malletts Bay is so protected, it is a popular place for water skiers and inner tubers to play. So the towing boats went round and round the bay and we seemed to be getting waked constantly. The only good part was that the wakes we're hitting the stern of the boat (most of the time), so we got a constant wave slapping instead of continuous rolling. We spent the day researching, making lists and reading. It was just too cool to go swimming. The high temperature only got to 79° with 39% humidity. After happy hour, we had a light dinner of a salad and sandwich. Tomorrow, we'll move to another anchorage to check out a different spot of the lake. It was sunny morning with a light north wind blowing.
Tomorrow, the wind is suppose to increase to 15+kts from the north. That would make traveling on the lake very uncomfortable, so we decided to leave Burlington today. After breakfast, Matt made a few phone calls to remedy a problem at home. Michelle, our neighbor who is watching our house, sent us an email with photos of a couple problems. The main one was that the air conditioner drainage tube was plugged and water was overflowing the pan. This happened a couple years ago and Matt was able to unclog it, but he's not there, so he called Cool Concepts. They installed our downstairs air conditioner and we were pleased with them. The other problem was that many of the soffits around the house and on the tower have been blown off by the strong winds. That repair can wait until we get home. After getting the A/C repair set up, we left the mooring ball and went to the Boat Club's service dock to fill Blue Moon's water tank. At 9:00 we were in our way. A moderate wind was on our nose as we cruised north toward Mallets Bay. By 11:30, the air conditioner tech had fixed the problem with the house air conditioner (hopefully). Thank you, Michelle, for all your help getting that taken care of. We arrived at the anchorage and dropped our anchor in 22 ft of water, then let out 140ft of rode. The anchor caught right away. The water was so clear that as we dropped the anchor, I could see it 10ft under water. The temperature of the lake water here is 80°, but the air temperature is only 77° which makes swimming today highly unlikely. The afternoon was spent reading until it was time for happy hour and dinner. We plan to stay here for at least another day before continuing north. Trip Log-Day 95: 16 nm, 2.75 hours, Trip Total: 1804nm, 295.25 hours, 439 gal diesel After breakfast, we picked up the anchor. It came up covered with clay, but not one weed was on it. So that's the secret, we need to anchor in water over 20 ft. Since the pump-out facility was so darn convenient (and free), we went back over to the wall and pumped out again. We cruised north through Willsboro Bay, then east toward Burlington. The wind was blowing 12-14 kts from the south and with the long fetch, we anticipated a bumpy ride across the lake and we were right. We arrived at Burlington at 11:30. The sky was gray and the wind was picking up. The old "anchorage" was now a mooring field. So I called the Burlington Community Boat Club for the scoop. The moorings were on a first come-first serve basis and cost $1/ft. The mooring field is very tight with little room to manuveur between the boats, especially in windy conditions. We were glad that we were able to pick it up on our first pass. As soon as we were tied up, it began to sprinkle, so we waited to go to shore. This gave us an opportunity to get caught up on our emails and the blog. When the sun came out, we lowered the dinghy and went the Community Boat Club to pay for the mooring. While there, we bumped into our Canadian friends who own Tintin. They had just returned from the grocery store and were headed to a Shelburne marina for the night. We said our good byes, then set off to explore. After walking all over Burlington, we were getting thirsty. We stopped at the Tavern for a beer and were pleasantly surprised when we saw that they had Bud Lite on tap. Being in the middle of Crap Beer, I mean Craft Beer country, we've had difficulty finding the traditional domestic beers on tap. Finished with the beer, we continued our walk until we saw a bus that had "free shuttle" written on it, so we boarded. It ended up being a very nice 20 minute loop ride through Burlington with stops to the Medical Center and the University of Vermont campus. We got off the bus and returned to the main pedestrian street (Church St) to find something for dinner. We decided on Ken's Pizza and Pub for grinders. They didn't have Bud Light on tap, but they did have Coors Light. After dinner, we went over to the City Market Food Co-op to do some grocery shopping. It was hippie heaven with all the organic and "natural" foods. It was worth going there just for the entertainment value, although we did pick up a few needed items before returning to the boat. The wind is supposed to start blowing from the north tomorrow with increasing intensity throughout the weekend. We plan to go north in the morning and anchor out for a couple days. We'll be coming back to Burlington a number of times before we go home. It's a good boater friendly destination. Trip Log-Day 94: 11 nm, 1.5 hours, Trip Total: 1788nm, 292.5 hours, 439 gal diesel Scenes along the pedestrian Church St.
Again, it was chilly in the cabin this morning.
We decided to stay here another day. We like this anchorage and we have no place that we have to go, so we'll stay. After breakfast, we spent the morning reading and Matt playing the uke. We have a trickle of internet which is enough to check the email, facebook and if we are swinging in the right direction, we can Google something, but to do that, one must be very patient. I wanted to get to work on cleaning the hull today, but it was cool and very windy. I had my work clothes on, but everytime I started to get motivated, the cool wind would blow....brrrr. At 13:00, I decided to finish cleaning the top side and the stern. Matt made a list for the marina since we're just going to leave Blue Moon in their hands to winterize and store her. By 14:30, we were once again sitting on the back porch reading and relaxing. During happy hour, a dinghy passed by. I mentioned to Matt that the dog on the dinghy looked like Tintin and it was. He was with our Canadian friends that we had met in Vergennes. They came over to chat. He gave us more information about cruising in Canada including possible places that we may want to visit in the future. We also discovered that they were married 12 days before Matt and I were, in 1986. We are heading in the same general direction and so we might see them again in our travels. For dinner, Matt barbacued Hawaiian chicken and I made a salad and pasta fettacini (Knorr's) for dinner. We're expecting some rain tonight into the morning hours. We awoke to a gray and gloomy day. We had expected today to be rainy and were planning on staying here today.
It was 60°outside but a toasty 67° inside the boat, so we lounged around in our sweats all day. We have no heat in the boat. At 2:30, we were getting tired of reading so we watched a movie. Happy hour today was wine. It was just too cool for a beer. For dinner, Matt made his Mattatoui. It was a good Soup Day, but Mattatoui was close enough. After dinner, we retired under the blankets in the v-berth to watch another movie and to get warm. It rained again last night and it was officially cold. When we woke up at 7:30, it was 57° outside and 62° inside the boat. We have no heat and I was freezing.
We started the hot water for breakfast and the temperature inside was soon 67°. At 8:00, the rain has stopped. We lifted the anchor at 10:15. We didn't get any weeds, but we had collected about 20 zebra mussels on our chain. I picked them off the chain as we brought the chain and anchor up. We cruised up the lake into about 5kt wind from the north. Upon entering Willsboro Bay, we turned south into the bay and went looking for a pump out station. At the far SE corner of the bay, next to the boat ramp, was a do it yourself station. It was very shallow there, but deep enough for Blue Moon. We pulled up and pumped out and there was no charge. With that job completed, we went to the anchorage. The first two attempts were in water under 20 ft and they were failures... we dragged. When we brought the anchor back up, it was completely covered with weeds. So we found 25ft of water, lowered the anchor and put out 150ft of rode. It held when Matt went into reverse. The Canadian sailboats don't seem to be having a problem anchoring in water less than 20ft, but then again they just drop the anchor and let the line out. It is fine when it is calm, but if a thunderstorms comes up, there may be lots of boats dragging by us. Once we were settled, we relaxed on the back porch. The sun came out and was starting to warm up. This motivated me to do some work. Blue Moon had three months of dirt and grime on her. I used the Slimy & Grimy for the first time and I'd give it a 7. It's better than lemon juice but not as good as On&Off, but is much better for the environment, so I'll probably stick with the Slimy & Grimy. I cleaned the back third of the hull (whatever I could reach when I stood in the back porch). Then I cleaned the cabin top. I rinsed using buckets of lake water. I saved the main portion of the hull for later. That will require the dinghy and it's a two man job. Once it's all clean, we'll start the job of waxing. After that chore, I was ready for happy hour, but first it was shower time. For dinner, we had a salad and leftover Mattatoui from last night. After dinner, we continued our movie bing and watched another one. Trip Log-Day 92: 16 nm, 3 hours, Trip Total: 1777nm, 291 hours, 439 gal diesel After enjoying a leisure breakfast on the back porch, I baked Matt more brownies while we had shore power. Then we hiked up the hill into town to buy some ice. It's interesting that ice is usually sold in bags of 8lb, 10lb or 20 lb. But since we've gotten into NY, the ice has been sold in either 5lb or 7lb bags. Maybe it's part of New York's downsizing of portions. Back at the boat, we topped off our water and filled our drinking water containers. We also took this opportunity to chat with our new Canadian friend, Jean Denis who we met yesterday (he and his wife own Tintin). He speaks good English but his wife speaks very little (kind of like my French). He works at Transport Canada(the equivalent of the FAA in the USA). He was a jet pilot and now works in safety. He tests the commercial pilots on flight simulators. Very interesting and friendly guy. He gave us his card and told us several times to call him when we come to Montreal, so that they can show us around. After bidding au revoir to our new friends, we pulled off the dock and cruised the 7 miles down Otter Creek to Lake Champlain. It was blowing only 10 kts from the north, but due to the long fetch, it created quite a chop. Of course, the wind was on our nose and Blue Moon was getting wet, but fear not, it was fresh water. We cruised up to Converse Bay, on the Vermont side. We attempted to anchor in 18ft of water behind the island and it didn't hold. When we lifted the anchor, our chain and anchor were covered with a big ball of seaweed with zebra mussels inside of it. Then we dropped again, around the same place and again it didn't hold. We moved to a nearby cove where a lot of boats were moored, but it was 30 ft deep there. So we moved back near our original area but closer to shore in 16 ft of water. Again it didn't catch and again the anchor was covered with weeds and zebra mussels. So we moved real close to shore in 8 ft of water with lots of scope, but no luck. The anchor didn't even try to catch and we brought up the biggest harvest of weeds yet. We went over to a nearby boat moored there and asked them if the moorings were private. They told us that the balls belonged to a yacht club. Apparently boating clubs around the lake put moorings out in the different anchorages so that their members don't have to go through what we were going through. They suggested to try to stay in water over 20 ft, any less and we'll have a weed problem. Then they directed us to anchor near Cedar Island. We went over the the spot recommended and dropped in 20-22ft water and let out 160 ft of rode. It seemed like the anchor wanted to grab but we dragged. When we picked it up, there were less weeds on the anchor compared to our other attempts. At this point, we were checking the cruising guide for a nearby marina with mooring balls and we found one a couple miles south of us. But, being determined, we decided to try one more time. We dropped in about the same area as the last drop, put out 160 ft of rode and pulled on it. It STUCK!!! What a relief. That whole anchoring process had taken us 1.5 hours. But we could sleep soundly knowing that we were securely anchored. I'm glad that we didn't give up on this anchorage as it is a very pretty place. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and reading. We still have no internet or phone service from our carrier or any other carrier. Soon it was time for a well deserved happy hour. We had planned on having chicken sandwiches for dinner, but Matt got a hankering for chicken marsala. So we had that over noodles for dinner. The weather forecast is for rain for tomorrow so we'll probably stay here. Trip Log-Day 90: 13nm, 3 hours, Trip Total: 1761 nm, 288 hours, 439 gal diesel Wooden boats on Otter Creek.
Woke up at 7:30 and I was very surprised when I saw the crazy Canadians up and working on their boats. I thought they would still be in bed.
It was another sunny, beautiful day. We had our breakfast on the back deck once again enjoying our wonderful view. Today was chore day. First, we needed to do laundry as it's been almost two weeks. I changed the sheets and gathered all the laundry from the various hiding places in the boat. Then we called Uber. The Laundry & Car Wash was only a mile away, but it was all uphill and we had lots of laundry to do. Unfortunately no uber drivers around here were working. So we carried our two large bags of dirty laundry uphill to the laundromat. Instead of walking the steep road to the center of town, we walked in the park along the creek then walked up the 70 steps that were next to the waterfall. Then we continued to walk uphill through the town center, then downhill to the laundromat. By the time that we got there, both of us had ibuprofen on our minds. After we finished, we lugged our clean clothes a mile back to the boat. When we arrived, we found that the crazy Canadians had left the dock and different boats we're in their place. After that walk, we needed a break and nourishment. We had our left over pizza and a glass of ice cold cranberry juice and water for lunch. We spent the afternoon reading, napping and enjoying the waterfall. During Happy Hour, we made plans to meet Professor Phil for dinner at a restaurant in town. We dined at the Squeezed Park restaurant. It was very good and we learned a lot about Phil's life. He owns three pocket cruisers and alternates which one he lives on. He is a full time live aboard trailering his boats from place to place. After dinner, everyone on the boats at the dock went outside to chat. All of the boaters except for Phil and us spoke french, but they knew enough English to be able to have a good conversation. We're gathering lots of information from the Canadians on places that we need to cruise to in Canada. Tomorrow, we'll leave Vergennes. |