Go Alan and Patti 2020

The month of August has been a great month of one week on the boat and one week off.  A nice way to spend the summer.  We're currently at the Champlain Marina in Colchester, Vermont.  After anchoring out for two nights we're sitting out a couple of weather days (yesterday rain and today wind) before heading south to Port Henry tomorrow.  We have learned that two successive days anchoring out is enough on our little tug boat.  Then we need a break to stretch our legs, add water to our water tank and explore. This past month we visited some parts of Lake Champlain that we haven't seen before: Vermont's Inland Sea Islands.  Here are a few photos of Lake Champlain and the month of August. After we anchored out behind Cedar Island on the Vermont side (not pictured), we visited the town of Essex, NY.  This is a stop we last made in 2006 on our Monk trawler.  Beautiful town with failing marinas, and no ice cream. Just off of Essex (on the West side of the lake where it says &q

We returned to the Port Henry marina last Monday (August 3) to prepare for Hurricane Isaias.  At the start of the summer we were pretty sure that a hurricane couldn't reach us in the Adirondacks.  And I think our boat insurance company thought the same.  And what is it about "I" storms?  The first Isabelle in 2003 almost took out our new boat to us "Fairways".  Irene took out our car in Hampton.  And now Isaias (not sure about how to pronounce it). Yet on Tuesday the eye of Hurricane/tropical storm Isaias passed just about right over the boat.  But by then it was a very weakened storm and it passed through quickly, and brought much needed rain. However, it was a good reason to tie the boat up and get off for a week.  And from the tropical storm, the weather was cooler and the river was up for tubing. And not too much else happened this past week.  A nice summer week.  And a cold beer at the Paradox Brewery in North Hudson, NY.  Carol and Roger joined us to celeb

A week ago we got back on the boat.  Joan and Steve Butler drove over for a cruise and cook out.  Joan brought a salad and vegetables fresh from her garden.  It turned out to be a great evening, and it was their first time traveling under the Crown Point Bridge rather than driving over it. Patti and I then set out to "bounce around Lake Champlain".  No agenda, just enjoy the good weather and empty lake.  There are very few boats just bouncing around the lake.  A number of small fishing boats, but not many cruisers.  I think we mentioned on an earlier post that the lake is closed at both the north and south ends.  The biggest impact is that Canadians can't come down to use their boats that they keep on the Lake. We spent two nights in Burlington, Vermont, which was very refreshing! Burlington is the sunset capital of the east. We try to anchor out when possible to swim and just float around.  We went to Valcour Island on a perfect Friday night.  We got there early, but the