Button Bay - September 10, 2011

Judy arrived from Kansas after a long, frustrating day flying from Wichita to Boston via Dallas, only to find that Colgan Air (a contract airline for USAir and Continental) "couldn't find a crew" to fly from Boston Logan to Plattsburg on the evening of September 5th. Due to Colgan's poor reputation for flights in and out of Plattsburgh (we learned too late) she didn't want to take a chance that the first flight the next morning would have a crew and certainly didn't want to spend the night in the airport (after being told that USAir would not put her up in a hotel for the night). She rented a car from Hertz for a one-way dropoff in Plattsburgh and drove about 240 miles through the beautiful mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont heading northwest in rain and fog most of the way, took the ferry across Lake Champlain at Gordon Landing, and arrived (in rain) at the Plattsburgh Boat Basin about 0100 on the 6th! It was a terrible experience for her and a lesson for both of us: don't ever trust Colgan Air!

Since we had a rental car for the remainder of the day on Wednesday we did some major reprovisioning at Hannaford's (a great supermarket chain, BTW) and got Sanderling ready to depart the marina the next day.

We departed the Plattsburgh Boat Basin on Wednesday, September 7th and after pumping out the holding tanks arrived at Shelburne Shipyard about 1425 that same day. We had arranged with the shipyard to install a new shaft saver when we were at the yard several weeks earlier, and at 0745 on Thursday (September 8th) morning John came aboard with a new shaft saver and had it installed in short order. We then topped off the water tanks, took on 100 gallons of fuel, and departed at 1105 heading south on the lake.

We stopped for the day a few hours later at Mile Bay where we wanted to visit the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum (http://www.lcmm.org/). We took a mooring belonging to the Basin Harbor Club (a resort fronting on the next small bay to the south) http://www.basinharbor.com/. After getting the boat secured, we lowered the dinghy and tied to the small dock where the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum has some of its boats, walked up the hill to the museum to ask how to get to the Basin Harbor Club's dock master's office, then walked a mile or so to the office, paid our $20.00 for the night's use of the mooring, and went back to Sanderling for the rest of the day.

On Friday, September 9th, we went ashore again, this time to visit the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum. What a great place to learn about the history of Lake Champlain, the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. The exhibits start with the history of the area with a major emphasis on the contact of cultures in 1609 and Samuel de Champlain "The Father of New France," a French navigator, cartographer, draughtsman, soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat, and chronicler. He founded New France and Quebec City on July 3, 1608. There is an exhibit of the 1902 ice yacht Storm King and a collection of dugout and bark canoes, kayaks, rowing skiffs and other small watercraft; the story of the Revolutionary War in the Champlain Valley; an exhibit featuring steamboats, lighthouses, early powerboats, engines and outboard motors; a nautical archeology center where work is underway to preserve artifacts and the 300 shipwrecks in Lake Champlain; a blacksmith shop; an active youth boatbuilding and outdoor education program; and an exhibit of photographs taken by local amateur and professional photographers. One of the things we learned that impressed both of us is that Benedict Arnold wasn't just a traitor; he played a major role fighting for the revolutionaries in the war on Lake Champlain. After touring the LCMM we had a late lunch at the Red Mill Restaurant (part of the Basin Harbor Club) and then headed back to Sanderling.

(Pictures to follow)

We departed Mile Bay and the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum at 1505, September 9th. The NOAA weather forecast from Burlington, Vermont, predicted winds from the west gusting to 25 mph early the next morning and Mile Bay and our mooring were fully exposed to wind from any direction except the south and east. A very congenial fellow at the 1776 gunboat replica of Philadelphia II suggested several bays on the western shore of the lake, but when we checked them they were either too small and deep, or provided little protection. We ended up in the bay we had originally identified as a good spot, Button Bay, just south of Mile Bay on the eastern shore and fully protected from any northerly winds. As it turned out, the 25 mph gusts did not materialize (consistent with non-NOAA forecasts).

The lower locks and the northern-most lock of the Champlain Canal remain closed today due to high water (the lake level is still three feet above "normal"), so we're going to stay here in Button Bay for at least another day. No rain is forecast until next week, so perhaps the lake level will lower a bit and the canal can reopen to traffic. We'd like to get heading south, but for the time being we are unable to leave Lake Champlain. Not a bad place to be, but it's starting to get chilly up here in the north.