Into the Canal System

6-1-14
INTO THE  CHAMPLAIN SYSTEM

As mentioned before, we  decided to change coarse and go up the Champlain Canal instead of the Erie. A lot of people said the Champlain is a nicer ride. With a lot better weather today, we pulled out again not knowing were we would end up. Weather was perfect. Thought we might stop at Troy City Dock but no answer on the phone and when we got there, we are glad we didn't stop. Right past that was the first lock, Troy Lock. No waiting so we got right through. Boat traffic seemed light and the lock master said things were slow. 

After that we came to the point where you have to either go up the Erie or up the Champlain. We kept to the right and called Lock 1 Marina and got a slip for the night. Next was the Champlain Lock 1 and the marina was just at the top side of that. Another quick lockage and we were there. Got a really nice spot looking out into the river and at the hills.

It is a real quiet place and after the wedding thing going on at Coeymans, quiet sounded good. Decided to cook some burgers and dogs and they had brand new grills to use. After dinner,  we chucked the Lil hooker in the water and journeyed up river to the next lock about 4 miles away. Had a great ride up and back. The little thing will scoot.

Got back and hung out on the waters edge till time to call it a night. We need to take care of some business in Mechanicville, only about 5 miles upriver, Tuesday so we are in no hurry to go. Got up the next morning and needed to do some banking and Linda, the marina lady, said she would drive us to town. While we were out we picked up some more supplies, beer and ice. She even drove us up to the Flight of Locks on the Erie to show them to us. Decided to just stay in our cozy little spot for one more night.


6-3-14
Lock One Marina to Schuylerville Marina

First let me say this tablet thingy bites. If you ever want to do something like this, get a laptop and an aircard. This ¥÷£"!/£ thing has got a mind of it's own. Big writing, small writing, spell check that can't spell. If you try and fix it, it just ignores your command and does what it wants. Sorry, rant over.

Got to catch the sun coming up over the hills.

Today we left Lock One after we hung out on the point and had ice cream and strawberries with Linda and Bill, the marina caretakers, last night. They were very nice people. We pulled out and went about 5 miles to Mechanicville to go to the post office and a CVS right near the river. They actually have a town dock to stay 3 nights for free on if you want. 
While we were there, we heard lock 2 calling lock 3 to tell him he had 1 coming northbound, a trawler called the Ginny C. We just kind of chuckled and waited. We first saw the Ginny C at Coinjock Marina in N.C. the day before the bridge incident. Ran into them again at Delaware City Marina. And now on the Champlain Canal. They are from  Punta Gorda. We have been officially passed by a trawler. They putted up and we chatted for a minute and they are also headed to Lake Champlain.

 We got our stuff and got underway and I checked the weather for the rain that was coming. And coming it was. Big nasty cell. We hurried up as much as we could but when we got a little further north there was a lot of dredging in the river. Except they were dredging the edges of the river and smaller side creeks. Well that is one heck of a way to dredge a river I thought. We arrived at the marina  right before the storm and while checking in I ask the marina lady why in the world would they dredge like that. Well apparently GE is removing all the PCB'S they dumped into the river many years ago. Awesome. There were a lot of barges with backhoes on them. We cooked dinner on the boat in the rain and called it a day but the good news is, there is a breakfast joint right up the street. We are going to try and get an early start tomorrow to see if we can pass that trawler back. Not any pics today, kinda forgot.

6-4-14
Schuylerville to Lock 12 Marina

We got up wanting to get an early start and walked up to town, uphill, and looked for a breakfast joint. Apparently nobody starts early around here. Nothing opened till 7a.m. Walked around till 7 and went into a place and ate. Got back to the boat and shoved off. Boat traffic was nonexistent but the barges and work boats were everywhere. After a while we found out where all those PCB'S were going.  

Several barges coming and going to this joint to offload bad stuff. For some reason they all looked at us funny. I think they have been around PCB'S to long, it's them not us. Did get a "nice boat" from one of the little barge guys. The next excitement was a barge bow coming around a narrow corner in the cut. We were at one of the guard gates that drop down like a guillotine into the river I guess to control flooding. I got onto the radio and let him know we were here and he responded with "I can't see you yet". Perfect! He finally got around enough and said "oh I got you". We had just enough room to get next to the bank and let him squeeze by. The rest of the trip was uneventful, almost.  

I found a marina to open and put my old shrimp boat we found earlier.

We got down to lock 12 and final lock about 4p.m. and decided to stay at Lock 12 marina instead of running several miles up river to another marina. The speed limit on the last long stretch of the canal was 10 mph. As we were leaving lock 12, the lock master said "I understand you are going to lock 12 Marina but they are closed along with Whitehall marina across the river". He did say that the resteraunt owner was trying to open it back up and was helping out with transient dockage and another boat just pulled into there. We pulled around the corner and low and behold, the other boat was the Ginny C. We docked up next to them and called it home for the night.

Another trawler pulled in and we all 6 went up to the resteraunt where the waiter was the chef/owner. The marina, or what there was of it, didn't have power or water but it was a cool night so we just ran the fan off of the inverter. We are either early or late for boating up the Champlain. We only passed or saw a couple boats the whole trip up. We had the whole Champlain pretty much to ourselves. I'm not complaining. Hard to believe I know.

6-5-14
From Lock 12 and into Lake Champlain

We got up and said goodbye to the Ginny C. They are going to hang around the Champlain area for a while and then head back down the east coast and home to Punta Gorda. They are very nice people and said look them up when we get there. I had to retrain my brain cause the markers switch from red on stb to red on port from here on out. It was a really nice day to putt down the lake which is more like a river for many miles. 

After several miles, the river like scenery opened up into the lake.

Fort at Crown Point

After Crown Point, the lake really opened up. Big, wide and bordered with mountains on both sides. Wind was light and the weather was great.

 We were not running much at this point but we picked up the pace cause we had a long way to go. We had made arrangements for Plattsburgh Boat Basin to haul the boat Thursday or Friday to service the engines. Plattsburgh is on the northern end of the lake. We decided to stop by Burlington Vt. to check the town out but that didn't really pan out. We stopped in and had lunch and started to walk into town, up a very big hill, and the wind started blowing hard from the north. Just the way we had to go!  Looked out onto the lake to see whitecaps. Got back onto the boat and cut our way to Plattsburgh. Once again, our boat made easy work of 3' chop. Pulled into Plattsburgh and got a spot right next to the restrooms/showers/laundry. Also right next to the bar and resteraunt were it is ladies night, with a DJ and all. Sounds noisy to me. Ate on the boat and called it a day.

6-6-14 Through 6-9-14

Come to find out, a spot right up close may not be the best one. The DJ had his boom box base booming till 2 am. All for like 3 people in the bar. Then there is the usual drinkers outside, howling at the moon or whatever. It was still a nice night. Woke up the next morning and pulled the boat over for the haul out-service first thing. Managed to get it done and back in the water pretty quick despite my help. Cleaned most of the bottom at the same time. They had several boats to put in with the travel lift. Pulled it back into the slip to clean up the mess and get it back together. While we were cleaning, a nice lady that was admiring our 3 million horse power engines said she was headed into town and wanted to know if we wanted to go. Wendy took off and got some needed supplies, water, and beer. Sue was a real nice lady along with a man named Al. They gave us info on where to go and what to see. Several people stopped by and chatted. People were very friendly. They all wanted to know how fast we could go. The owner said we could spend the night for free if we wanted. We got it back together and after talking with several locals, we decided to camp out on Valcour Island, thanks Sue and Al.. We putted over to the island, about 5 miles away, and anchored on the east side in a protected cove.

It was a great place to anchor and check out the area via Lil Hooker. Ate dinner and crashed after a long day. Needless to say, it was a lot quieter here. Drug ourselves up the next morning, which wasn't hard cause the sun came right into the cabin door and it comes up early here for some reason. Decided to mosey around to the west side to check out another anchorage cause the wind was supposed to shift out of the east and there is an old lighthouse on that side. The island is only like about 1 mile by 2 miles so we just towed the dinghy around. Found a great spot with a Sandy Beach to dinghy up to and walk the island. There are a lot of trails to get around the entire island. It has about a 150' elevation so the views were great.

By the time we got back to the cove, our quiet cove was filling up with boats. Took the dinghy across the lake to Snug Harbor about a mile to get some ice. Got back and tinkered with the boat, did some reading, got out the grille and cooked chicken. Fired up the generator to make hot water for the outside shower and right at dark got out in the cool weather and showered. A little chilly but great to have it. Saw a great sunset and buttoned everything up before the mosquito swarm hit. Little rascals can find any crack! 

We saw these guys come through the cove fishing. They need a bigger boat. The dog was looking for a way out.

We set out a front and back anchor and I don't think the boat moved all night. It had to be the smoothest night of the trip. Even in the marinas the boat would rock around a little.
 After a good night on the hook, we got up and decided to go to Burlington and see it due to our first stop being really short. They also had a Jazz Festival going on. Walked up a 10,000 ft hill, or it seemed like it anyway, and did some shopping and got some supplies. Found a nice restaurant and had lunch. A lot of people mulling around at the festival. Best news was, it was all downhill to the boat. We figured we would go back north to Plattsburgh and take care of last minute business before heading into Canada. Got our previous spot right next to the restaurant but being a Sunday, it was really quiet. Decided to have dinner at the restaurant but it was kind of a let down. Called it a day.
First order of business in the next day was to take a short walk to the breakfast joint for some biscuit and gravy. Needed to get a bunch of stuff in order for the trip into Canada so we called a cab and rode into town. Found a Wally World for all our shopping needs, a bank for some Canadian Cash, and a FedEx store to ship some stuff home. Got back to the boat, loaded another trillion pounds onto it and headed out to Rouses Point NY which is right at the border. Walked into the little town and of coarse the restaurant Wendy wanted to eat at was the one that was the furthest away. Got there, closed on Monday. I didn't complain, no siree. Found another place, that just happen to be on the way back, and had a nice dinner. Somehow had enough strength to make it back to the boat. 

We will be headed into Canada tomorrow and with our data plan being limited, we will try and update the blog when we can mooch off of someone's WiFi. Got to get past customs first. If they are like everybody else since we left NYC, they will ask about our 3 million horse power engines.