Getting ready to Leave

We drove the boat over to Champlain Marina on Wednesday, September 16th, where we normally haul it for the winter, to take our mast down for the trip through the Champlain Canal. Right, after we tie up to the gas dock we find out that a fellow Malletts Bay Boat Club member is being towed over for a quick haul out, they have a leak. A classic well kept wooden boat had sprung a leak some where. By the time someone noticed and called the owner the cushions were floating in the cabin. A bucket brigade, quickly bailed it out so the bilge pump could keep it afloat. Well, they certainly have priority. We have a long list of other things to get done with the house and cars, we decide to leave the boat at the dock and come back the next morning.

 Almost ready to go

Thursday, the mast was quickly pulled and put into the wooden cradle on the deck. There was a line of boats ready to be hauled out for the winter as soon as we were done. I take the boat back to our mooring and left it there for a day or so, while we finished packing up at home and cleaning up the house for our house sitters, John and Rose Peters.

We were very lucky to find John and Rose. John is the brother of one of our dentists' employees, who we have known for years. John and Rose grew up in the area and most of their family live here. They both just retired from their jobs in the Washington DC area and had a house in Delaware. They sold the house and put everything in storage and want to have some time to decide if they want to purchase a home in Vermont. 

 Rose and Linda

Little did we know we were getting our own personal interior decorator. Rose, a fan of HGTV, loves to decorate and rearrange and we were happy to tell her to have fun with it. Linda and I moved to the guest room/office downstairs so we could continue to work on boat stuff without disturbing John and Rose who generally go to bed early and rise early. For the last few days Linda and I have been staying overnight on the boat and working at the house during the day. John is off with his brother for a few days, so Rose has been having fun. Each time we come back to the house Rose has rearranged furniture in a number of rooms, and we like what she has done. It is nice to have a fresh perspective, Rose has made some excellent changes. Linda told her please do not change anything back because we will probably like her way better. Coming home in June will be fun.

Friday, we move the boat to the working dock at our boat club. The working dock is a filled, bulkhead, pier that we can drive cars onto. The club boat lift is there for the dry boat sailors, J24's, Lightnings, etc. There is room along the side for one boat this time of year, so we don't interfere with the boat lift. We pull the boat in a far as possible so it is just barely off the bottom. Now we can back up the van and quickly load stuff into the boat, a big time saver.

Friday night we finally get together for dinner with our good friends Steve and Joanne Payea. They are long time boat club members who moved to Florida a few years ago, but summer back in Vermont. They brought their boat back to Vermont a few years ago from Florida. We will see them again in Florida in December. We had a very good time visiting with them a number of times when we were last down there with the boat.

Saturday was our day to finish cleaning up our boat stuff and getting the cars put up for the next ten months. John and Rose have been itching to play ping-pong, but that table hasn't been cleared off with the net up for a couple years. It is now. Our cruising friends, John and Genie come by around 7:00 PM to pick us up and return us to the boat after a stop at Bayview Eats for coffee and dessert.

We had hoped to leave Sunday morning, but the wind was averaging over 20 knots and gusting to 30 on the main lake. Too rough to be motoring with a mast precariously suspended over our deck. So we spend the morning storing away gear. I pull our mooring pickup buoy. Finally by mid-afternoon the wind abates and we decide to take off. I guess we are living up to the “Manana” name. Two years ago we left at noon-time, this year we try to leave around 2:00 PM. We waited a little too long. A J-24 regatta at the club had just finished and people were starting to use the boat lift. We try to leave between J-24's.

I put the boat in reverse. SOB! We have not even started our trip and we are aground. The high winds from the north last night had pushed the boat forward towards shallower depths. Full reverse no movement. We take one of the dock lines and try to winch the boat back. No movement! Next we take the fuel cans off the rail and start pumping out water from our forward tank. Finally the boat slowly pulls free. We quickly leave between J-24's.

Once we get out to the outer Malletts Bay the wind and waves pick back up a little and the mast is bouncing around a little too much for my comfort. We head northwest to Robinson Point. That is one of our favorite bays with good protection from the north wind. We drop anchor for the evening.

Hmm, we have motored for a grand total of a little over one hour on our “first” day. At this rate I don't think we will get to the Champlain Canal before they close down for the winter. Tomorrow we will have to pick up the pace a little.