August 30 - Approaching the end of summer

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 "Ferry Landing") we recorded 415 feet depth. The Lake is 94 ft. above sea level.

After leaving Essex we anchored in Barn Rock Cove.  This cove is small with steep rock cliffs protecting it.

We dropped the anchor in about four feet of water and walked a long line to a rock on shore to keep us from swinging around the anchor.

That is about how deep the water was.  How about that physique? It was a great temperature for floating in tubes for Happy Hour & watching a turtle, a mink & some big fish doing their things.

The following week we hiked to the top of the mountain overlooking Riverside.  This is a summer ritual and it gets steeper every year.

We met my brother Mike and Kathy at a campground near Lake George.  Can't see them, but their grandchildren are going crazy in this elaborate pool.  About 8:00 at night and 60 degrees didn't even phase the kids.

This picture of the sky and clouds was taken at the Westport golf course.  Patti and I had a great dinner and enjoyed the view.

Heading back to Burlington we passed a speedboat race (with following airplane) and then a sailboat race.  Whereas the lake during the week was very empty, this beautiful Saturday in August brought everyone out.  It was good to see activity in this very different summer boating season.  Also, the lock repairs at Whitehall enabled the canal North into the Lake to reopen 10 August so we are seeing pent up demand as boaters eke out the last of their Summer fun.
 


And in Burlington harbor making dinner and preparing for sunset...

Patti at Burlington's version of Stonehenge - The World Clock.  A little cloudy, but we estimated it was about 6 hours until happy hour and approaching the next Solstice.

And Burlington claims fame to the world's tallest filing cabinet.  Bet you didn't know that. Eat your heart out Google data!

After two nights in Burlington we traveled into the Inland Sea to Burton Island.  Burton Island is a Vermont state island park with camp sites & hiking trails.  Can only get there by boat.  And this shows how busy they were (not).  Normally this protected harbor would be nearly full.


We next visited North Hero, Vermont and the Hero's Welcome General Store.  They have almost everything, including red (Republican) and blue (Democrat) benches to socially distance while eating their deli goodies. 

We had dinner at the North Hero House Inn facing the lake.



Then we went out and anchored in front of the Inn.

And watched the sun set.

Tomorrow we explore more islands and hole up in Malletts Bay for a few rough days then head down the Lake to get ready for trailering the Patti Ann to Virginia.





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