Whitehall, NY

 

We leave by 8:00 AM and within ½ hour, pass 3 anchored Canadian boats with their mast down.

Then passing Chipmans Point Marina we see another Canadian sailboat about to have their mast taken down. Hmm, might have some company in the locks. Normally we have them to ourselves. Today is a little warmer and I have our clear vinyl connector in between the Dodger and Bimini to shield us from the south wind. Within a couple hours we are in the narrows of Lake Champlain and the wind and waves disappear.

We reach the first lock #12 at Whitehall around 1:00PM. We have to kill about 20 minutes or so as they are finishing a large water release from the adjacent dam to lower the water from the recent rains. If the water gets too high they can not operate the locks. That happened to us in June 2019, the locks opened a couple weeks late, due to high water.

Boats are only allowed on the east wall of this lock when being lifted. The water fill from the west wall side is quite turbulent. It takes a bit of effort to keep the boat from being pushed around into the wall. Being lowered in a lock is much more gentle. The next three lift locks are much more gentle going up. 

 

My Happy Hooker

The forecast is for rain this afternoon and evening so we decide to stay on the free wall at Whitehall. There is a large Catamaran already tied up and we pull up in front of it and the owner takes one of our lines. I don’t know if boaters are just helpful or protecting their own or a combination of both, but the adjacent boaters are always there to help. After lunch the boat we anchored with last night comes in and we help them tie up. This is their first trip south. After lunch we go for a walk and checkout the “New Whitehall Marina”. When we return there are 3 more Canadian sailboats on the wall, the ones we past this morning. Since the west wall is nearly full one boat ties up on the east side. 

The wall at Whitehall

 

We have stayed on this wall twice on our last three trips. There was only one other boat besides us and I think they were both US trawlers, now there are 8 sailboats. We head to dinner at Bustys BBQ and get ice cream at Stewards for desert, not a lot of dining choices in Whitehall.