Aisling goes Looping

Though we have had Aisling for 4 years, I’m happy to say I have never heard the sound of something hitting the hull, until today!! And a frightening sound it was! Are we sinking? Did we bend a prop? Do you feel any vibrations? We were approaching a channel on southern Lake Champlain where the areas outside of the channel were marked ‘drowned timber’. No lie, ‘drowned timber’!! So yes we were being cautious and in the deepest part of the channel and bang! “What was that?” slow down, listen, check stuff…. Ok, speed up. Any vibrations? Anything sound wrong? Did we just get lucky?

One can imagine that long ago lumberjacks cut trees and floated them to this area and then, well I don’t know why they left them there….. But I do know that this channel was used to move jet fuel north to the Strategic Air Command Base in Plattsburg, NY until it closed (Reagan years I think). So SAC was moving jet fuel to keep our country safe from communism through ‘drowned timbers’. Really? Perhaps my confidence in our Military should increase as someone thought to shutdown this base (maybe because they were not sure they could get fuel…..? ;-))

Thankfully, Aisling seems no worse for wear.

It doesn’t look like much of a hill from the waterfront, but Burlington’s Church Street Marketplace pedestrian mall, the place to be and see, is a breathtaking hike uphill from the marinas. We made the climb once or twice a day in our five day mini-vacation and have the calf muscles and lung capacity to prove it.

The photographs belie the fact that we were belayed for five days due to high winds. We had intended to anchor out off several of the islands in the northern part of Lake Champlain, but thankfully made the right call to stay put in Burlington. What a great city! The Burlington Harbor Marina which opened last year is architecturally cool, comfortable and linked to the parks and greenways that connect the city. We wined and dined at many creative restaurants; August First, Leunigs, Pascolo, Splash and Spot on the Dock. We missed many more that we will need to catch on the next visit.

Our side trip out of the city included the Shelburne Museum, a collection of buildings, boats, art and ephemera amassed by Electra Havemeyer Webb. She fortunately had the means to share her love of collecting with the rest of us. I have become a aficionado of decoys based on the collection at Shelburne. The craftsmanship is fantastic!

As I write, I am watching the sun set in the northwest sky, the highest compass point that the sun will reach in the northern hemisphere. We also watched the Strawberry (super) Moon rise in the southwest, over the city, upon our arrival. The park system, the city’s commitment to net-zero energy use by 2030, city-owned rentable electric-assist bikes, clean air, clean water and healthy living made the city shine. But most of all happy, gracious and content people made our visit most memorable.

It was welcome to have this urban(e) experience. Next such prospect: Cleveland or Chicago!

Our ‘glimmer of hope’ for going to Canada via Lake Champlain was dashed recently as it was announced they will keep the border closed and review yet again next month. It’s disappointing but not the end of the story (more later). Sitting here at Willsboro, its easy to see that the closed border has had a devastating effect on the Canadians. These pic’s tell a story(click them to enlarge);

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So sad. They can’t get here so their boats sit on the hard, shrink wrapped, and their summer plans wait for their own glimmer of hope. Given the shorter season here, I’m guessing many will not get wet this year. Our disappointment is minor compared to their loss.

So, I’m washing the boat today, cause Lyn said I had too, and I’m not using any soap cause this Lake is really clean and they prefer it stay that way, when a helicopter begins to circle the marina at tree top level (not exaggerating, tree top). I’m a little freaked out thinking maybe I’m not supposed to even be washing down with water and this is the Environmental Police…. and after like 15 circles, it slowly begins to fly away. Turns out this was US Border Control. I told you there were a lot of Canadians here, usually, and apparently they know that and where checking to see if any had decided to slip past the border.

(Updated 6/23: It was the Border Patrol Helo, but they were assisting a search for a stolen boat. Someone thought they could steal a 50′ boat and hide it… not so easily done and they were caught within 24 hours…)

BTW, the red line in the Sat Image is me crashing into the dock yesterday..;-) Not really, we actually handled it very well with a strong wind on our stern.

We spent the night ‘on the hook’ at Crown Point NY. Lovely if not quite as bucolic as I was hoping for on our first night anchoring. The Champlain Bridge loomed large to our port, though given the light wind and current was just as large when it was on our starboard…. But we had good holding and good protection, so all was well. We woke up to a forecast that was difficult to assess. Just as soon as we said ‘leave in an hour’, thunder was apparent from the south. To be clear, we are fair weather boaters and thunder storms are not within our acceptable parameters. The forecast for the afternoon was for severe storms. Not to be taken lightly anywhere and especially on Lake Champlain. A window in the morning was evident and the prospect of spending a night on the hook at Crown Point in severe weather was not appealing. So we motored on at 830 and found reasonable conditions with increasing wind. Just be be sure we were not over extending ourselves, we pulled into Point Bay Marina where we had be told had the best diesel price on the lake. $299/gallon is good, free pumpout (always appreciated). Approaching their fuel dock, the wind was strong (cant tell how strong because the mast is still down and the anemometer is on the mast thus useless….) but they provided capable dock hands and we got her set quickly. We had some thought of staying at this marina but having seen the direction of the wind it was clear they would take a direct impact from the south winds and the dock hand confirmed this. So we pushed for Safe Harbor Willsboro and watched the sky and the NWS radar.

Many of our family followers are not boaters so excuse me for describing ‘fetch’; Fetch is the distance wind can run unobstructed across water. More fetch, more impact. The impact is water is moved from the beginning of fetch to the end and waves start small and build further along distance wind can travel. Lake Champlain runs for the most part south to north and in a south wind the impact of fetch increases, pretty dramatically as it turns out….

Moving north we had a following sea with waves 2-3 feet. By Narraganset Bay standards, not a bad day, but we knew things had just begun to build and getting off the water sooner than later was a good idea. Making the turn around Hatch Point into Indian Bay headed us south directly into the wind. It was loud and near our defined limits, but both crew and boat were capable. Arriving at the marina and having 3 dock hands help secure our lines ensured a safe 2 day stay.

So as we tightened the lines and deployed the fenders against the forecasted severe weather for the night, we decided it was time to break out some lovely docktail presents we had received and enjoy a well deserved Margarita( actually plural as we are not boating tomorrow!)

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My AutoX hobby, which occupied many weekends from May to October each year, was severely impacted by the purchase of a boat. The seasons coincide and boats are demanding mistresses, financially, as well as in time and attention. But we had a dream, a vision, (an Aisling;-)) to do the loop and some compromises had to be made. I barely drove the Miata this spring and when I put her up on casters (in May!, not as per usual in November), fed her some ‘Stabile’, sprinkled dryer sheet about her engine and trunk, and then covered her up for a long nap, it was a sad day.

Yesterday, as we drove up the Hudson, past our first locks, into a section with a long sweeping turn, I got that AutoX feeling again and realized driving the cones and driving the cans (ATONs(aids to navigation), red and green channel markers ) is just about the same thing!! In AutoX drive poorly you go slow, hit a cone 2 seconds penalty, go off course your run does not count. In boating drive poorly you waste fuel and look stupid, hit a can you sink, go off course you go aground you call SeaTow for help.

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Aisling pays tribute to those among us who live according to simple truths, take inspired chances, go against the grain, throw themselves all in, and trust Karma to pay tribute where and when it is earned and due. (plagiarized verbatim from Druthers Brewing Co. of Albany. The New England IPA is quite good as well;-))

Lyn will have to provide the historical view of the Hudson River, as she did for me reading aloud accounts from Hudson’s first trip to the creation canals for transporting bricks and coal that help NYC become what it is. For me, having grown up near the Hudson and NYC, the image in my head is always the skyline, the Palisades, the GWB, Lady Liberty….. But now, that has changed. I have been across nearly all of the bridges; The Tappan Zee (not Mario whatever….), Bear Mountain,Kingston, Rip Van Winkle…. all by car at a pace that afforded no real sense of the river. Beginning at The Battery, the Hudson is mighty, rolling like you are on the ocean, full of marine traffic, then slowly, ever so slowly, she narrows and gets more rural until you can’t imagine that this is the same river. Here in New Baltimore, NY, it’s like a quiet backwater with a slow flow, nearly nothing but flora and fauna except for the occasional ocean going 35 ft draft ship headed to/from Albany. It’s pretty surprising to see these hulks glide past the marina ‘constrained by maneuverability’ in the midst of this bucolic scene.

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Getting off the dock in Warwick on June 1st was based in large part on wanting to get to the annual Pig Roast at Shady Harbor in the upper Hudson River. While I have only been to one other pig roast in my life, and it was very good (thanks brother Frank), this was more a matter of meeting the many Loopers we knew would be here. No disappointment. There are maybe 30 Looper boats, many boat cards exchanged, many names not yet remember, and many suggestions of places to go and see. We are clearly the newbie Loopers here( only 11 days in). Some have nearly completed their loop. Some are on their 2nd and 3rd. Every conversation provides interesting and useful info and insights. Not quite a firehose of info, but you don’t want to miss that special place or experience. Long ago I realized I learn much more from listening than I do from talking….

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Traveling the coast of New England by car, boat or bike has been part of my entire life. So many familiar and memorable places! We have been cruising on the ocean waters of Narragansett Bay and Long Island Sound for six days as of yesterday. Today we leave my comfort zone and head down the East River through New York City and then turn north on the Hudson River to our marina stay at Half Moon Bay. Now I will learn the ways of the inland rivers with their currents and micro-climates. It will truly be a new adventure that I must admit comes along with a bit of trepidation. I have never been transported in a lock before; never tied up at a town free wall for the night; never had to fight spiders off the line to leave the dock in the morning. So much to look forward to!

But before I make that turn to the world of the river, I find myself nostalgic for the people, places and seasons that I leave behind, even though the distance home will only be 4 hours by rental car for the next few weeks. The Spring of 2021 seemed to linger, perhaps because we all savored nature more intensely after the isolation of another Covid winter, but also for me as I knew that our departure date was approaching on June 1st. While I will miss the flowering sequence of our gardens and the comfort of knowing that the weather will be fair for a few days as the fields are hayed, I will follow the seasons in new environments with new clues to weather patterns.

I am ready to turn up the river.

How do you leave your ‘normal’ life for a year? Who chooses to do that? Your cozy nest that you have worked for 30+ years to make just right, your land based activities, your beloved Miata….. Landscaping and mowing the lawn! Oh yeah, that’s how you do it!! No holes to dig, trees to chainsaw, weeds to pull…. Whew! Happy to have those behind me;-) Emotionally, it’s a roller coaster and in the end, at least for me, it’s a return to a feeling I had several times in my life; that feeling of being more alive, more aware, more conscious of my surroundings, more connected, less automatic, less taken for granted, less filtered due to familiarity. I think that is why people travel. Not just to see what you haven’t seen or experienced, but also to just get out of the normality of daily life. Now add marine living/travel aspects and you are in a very different place.

Video to the right courtesy of Russ Browning our dock neighbor and all around good guy!!