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The travels of the "Leah Gent"

Lake Champlain, NY and Vermont

8/20/04  We arrived in the town of Vergennes, VT today. We walked around the town which is all up hill from the boat. We will spend the day here and maybe tomorrow depending on the weather. Nice little town.
8/21/04  I'm at the Library using their high speed connection and it's great. I rained all night and is still raining so we will stay here and leave in the morning. The town offers boaters a free dock and electric for 2 nights. This is the only free dock we have found on Lake Champlain so far. This is a big lake. We hope to get to the maritime museum that we hear is really neat. The trip to Vergennes is via a 7 mile long creek with a 5mph speed limit. Debbie's kind of cruising. It was strange to be in waves again yesterday on the lake. It's been a while since we have had anything but flat calm.
 
8/22/04 We arrived at Burlington,Vermont after a nice cruise up Lake Champlain. We got a slip at the Community Boathouse docks. This is really just a marina owned by the city and is very nice. Right on the waterfront with the center of town just up the hill. Burlington is the cleanest city we have seen on the trip. The people are also very nice to strangers and boaters. This town seems like the residents all went to school here in the 60's and 70's and just stayed and opened businesses. A very mellow atmosphere. Burlington is a destination if anyone ever needs a reason to take a trip somewhere nice. The slips are $1.75 per foot, a bit on the expensive side but they have a great location.
8/24/04 Tonight will be our 3rd night here, we like it that much. We have mastered the city bus routes and went to the Shelborne Museum south of here and also to West marine to get supplies. The museum is wonderful. Don't miss it if ever up this way. It's a 45 acre village with several different themes. They have a working Carousel in one area and then a light house and the passenger ferry, the Ticondaroga, that was a means of transportation up and down the lake for almost 60 years. There is a lot more but you'll just have to visit to see the rest. 
 
8/25/04 We left Burlington to head to Valcor Island without listening to the weather. Big mistake!! We got up the lake a ways and the wind went to 20 knots from the south. This lake has a 50 mile fetch and is 100-300 feet deep and that makes for some huge waves. This part of the lake is 8 miles wide. We will hide behind a small island for the night.
8/27/04 We decided to try and get to Malletts Bay, about 5 miles from our hiding spot. The wind was fierce but we made it to Lake Champlain Marina and this will be our second night here. It's good to be tied to something solid when the wind is raging and it is raging now. We are hoping the wind dies down tomorrow so we can head south towards the saftey and calm of the lower lake and the Champlain Canal. We will listen to the weather before we leave from now on as long as we have any big water ahead of us. It's supposed to blow 5-15 from the south west tomorrow. I hope it's closer to 5.
 
8/28/04  We got up today and checked the weather report first thing. NOAA was calling for 5-15 out of the south. Not the best wind to head back down the lake but after looking at the trees and flags in the marina and lots of discussion between the captian and Crew we pushed off. Malletts Bay is very protected and not a good indicator of the lake conditions but the lake ended up being very managable and we are sitting in Westport Marina on the New York side. The lake at this point is getting more and more narrow so the weather is less concern for us now. It looks like we will be back in Waterford a week earlier than expected so we will either talk with the boat hauler about an earlier date or rent another car and do some land cruising while we wait. We didn't really get to see all of Lake Champlain but it is a beautiful lake with a lot to offer. The people here are nice. We even had a Canadian fellow stop last night in his dingy to tell us he saw this page on the internet and was suprised to see the boat in person. We gave him the tour and he told us about the junk rigged sailboat he built and cruises on in the summers. We went around the corner on our way out today to take a look and were suprised to see how big it was. A very good build and an interesting fellow also. I've posted a picture of it on this page. 
8/30/04  We are in Fort Edwards, NY for the last two days and will head to Mechanicville tomorrow.
 
8/31/04  Disaster struck this morning!! Debbie got up and found herself standing in water. Now the first rule in happy boating is to keep the water on the outside of the boat!!!!! So much for rule number 1.  We bailed water for an hour and finally got things dried out enough to look for the leak. I knew we were not sinking and the water was hot so I stated at the hot water tank. It seems the hose I bought from Lowes or West Marine failed between the inner liner and the outer reenforced sleeve. There was a pin hole size leak that must have run all night. Luck me, I had filled the water tanks before we went to bed so I wouldn't need to do it today. A trip to town for a new section of hose and things are back to normal if only a little soggy. The same hose that runs to the hot water side of the galley faucet looks like the day I put it one. I guess this brings me to my suggestion for new boat builders: Coat all your wood with epoxy (I did) before you put it in the boat. It WILL get wet sooner or later. This is the second time for us.
9/02/04   We are back in Waterford, NY at the junction of the Erie and Champlain Canals and the Hudson River. We will be here for the Labor Day weekend and then haul the boat out at a near by marina on Tuesday. We will fly home while the boat goes by trailer. We have a car rented for the weekend so we will use the boat as a hotel room while we see the countryside. Lots of the boats that are tied up here we have seen before on the canals and it's good to see people you know. We will miss them but I expect to see some of them on the way south. We have gone thru 109 locks in the last 3 months and put over 2000 miles behind us. It's been a lot of fun and I highly recomend it to anyone with a boat. I'll start a trip south page when we get the boat back in the water in a week or two and get going again but for now we are looking forward to getting home and seeing family and friends for a few days. Thanks for tagging along with us.
 

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The falls at Vergennes, Vermont
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Beautiful Burlington, VT waterfront.
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Another nice homebuilt sail boat
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