2006 LK. CHAMPLAIN WEEKEND with the NETTINGS

As the summer headed into August we began to wait for word from our friends, Dave and Sandy Netting, who had been doing the Loop Cruise and were due to be coming down the Richelieu into Lake Champlain where we hoped to meet up with them. Sure enough, one day their call came and we hitched up Cloud Nine and headed out to meet them. Deep Bay on the New York side of the lake sounded like a good place to meet. We were excited to see the Rosborough they had gotten the previous summer, a 1999 RF246 Sedan with an I/O engine.

Cloud Nine arrives Deep Bay

As we headed into Deep Bay, there she was! So exciting!!!

This was the 1st time we had seen Dave and Sandy since the evening they dinghyed up to us last June when we were anchored on the Wye River off Chesapeake Bay - and that was just a week or so before they were heading down to Florida to pick up the Rosborough they had purchased. They named the boat Second Wind, as they are former sailors.

Misty takes a dip

It was a lovely day and called for swimming. Their dog, Misty, was in the water in a flash.

Moored in Deep Bay

The next day we headed south down Lake Champlain, enjoying the sights as we went.

Camel's Hump Mt. in the background

 



One of the Three Brothers Islands has been taken over by cormorants. Very eerie going close to it - sort of a post apocalyptic world.


We had to recover by stopping by the Old Dock Cafe on the New York shore in Essex.

Beautiful, quiet Otter Creek

Then we headed up Otter Creek (Vermont side) to Vergennes, Vermont












The boat basin at Vergennes was surprisingly full but a creekside home owner waved us in to the wall in front of his property, giving us a lovely place for the night.




Hiked up into town and found us some ice cream!

Decided this place was worth staying another day so checked out menus in town and made plans for the next day.

Fiberglass generator box made by Dave

In the morning, space opened up for us at the town dockage so we moved ahead and hooked into the free power.

Town dockage with free power

Then we went back to town and explored.

Read the plaque about General McDonough who built the American fleet here in Vergennes for the War of 1812.

The Bixby Library is gorgeous and has a huge selection of cheap paperbacks for resale - good for cockpit reading.

Bixby Library rotunda window

Good photo op of the boats from the top of the falls!

Vergennes boat basin

Just before we went back up to town for dinner a small shower blew through and left behind a rainbow.

The falls at Vergennes

After dinner at the Hungry Bear, Dave & Sandy invited us aboard to watch a video of them restoring their Hunter sailboat. This was a hurricane damaged boat that had endured being submerged and a huge hole smashed in its starboard hull. Dave and Sandy had parked it in their backyard and painstakingly brought it back to its former glory. The work they did is nothing less than miraculous! Lucky for us, they documented the project in video.

Spent another comfortable night at the Vergennes wall and  in the morning had another quiet cruise out Otter Creek to Lake Champlain, seeing lots of wildlife along the way.

Blue Heron

It was another beautiful day and we cruised up near the cliffs on the New York shore.

Cruised by the Lighthouse at Barber Point.




And then continued south to Westport, NY

Westport is a nice town to visit but we had our sights set on anchoring by Cole Island, so we didn't linger.






Cole Island is a favorite anchorage for local boaters and has a reputation for filling up. We wanted to stake our claim and enjoy the gorgeous afternoon there.

Cole Island

Dave and Sandy go ashore

Green Mts. from top of Cole Island

Anchored at Cole Island

 

We anchored between the island and the mainland. The bottom can be quite weedy there - so if you ever drop anchor there, be sure you test your hold with power.

Sunset, looking across the lake toward Vermont

The next day was to be our last together and we decided to spend it visiting the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum (Vermont side of the lake).

At the cove by the Museum there are moorings marked LCMM that visiting boaters can use. Avoid using moorings marked BHC.

This young museum gets better by the year.

 

The Philadelphia II is a replica of a Revolutionary War gunboat. At the time we visited she was dry-docked onshore for repairs.



There are exhibits of many types of small boats, boat building workshops for the public and many on-going research projects on display.

Then we wandered over to the adjoining Basin Harbor Club and took a look at planes on the air-strip.

The time was coming for us to say good-bye to Dave and Sandy and let them get on with their trip. They had really enjoyed cruising the Rideau Canal and when we mentioned that we'd like to cruise the Trent-Severn in 2007, they said they'd consider coming with us! That was music to our ears and left us with new plans for the future.

Dave and Sandy

Returning to Second Wind