OK, so you can almost set your watch by
us. We left at 6:30 a.m. The Adirondacks were smothered in fluffy
white, low-lying clouds. They were
a beautiful sight to start the day.
As we were leaving, I tried to take a picture of all the boats in
the anchorage, but there was just no way to get them all in. I got as many of
the boats as I could in the picture.
Here are a few more pictures of the
Vermont and New York mountains. There were sailboats out all over the lake.
We had read that the fuel prices were
cheaper in Vermont so we stopped at Point Bay Marina to buy our usual 30-35
gallons of diesel. It was an easy
in and easy out fuel dock. Those
are the kind we like.
After we passed under the Lake Champlain Bridge, we entered the “river” portion of the lake near the restored Fort
Crown Point. The first fort in the
area, Fort St. Frederick, was built by the French starting in 1759. The fort
was captured by the British in1759 and renamed Fort Crown Point.
Then we passed the cable ferry at
Ticonderoga Light. We know what to
do by now so we waited until after it crossed the lake.
Next we saw Fort Ticonderoga. The French built it on a high bluff
overlooking the lake in 1758. In 1759 the British took the fort. In 1775 Benedict
Arnold and the Green Mountain Boys surprised the British and took the fort
providing the Americans with their first important victory in the Revolutionary
War.
In 1777 the British put cannons on top of
Mount Defiance (See the tiny little stick on top of the mountain. That's the flagpole in the second picture.) overlooking the fort and the American General St. Clair ordered
the fort abandoned. The fort
remained in British hands until the end of the Revolutionary War.
This is a picture of what some people
believe Champ, the Lake Champlain sea monster, looks like. Supposedly there have been many
sightings of the monster and each one seems to describe him differently.
In this stretch of the lake, the markers
are on very sturdy concrete and steel towers. I’m sure glad Gary is being careful not to hit any. He is always careful. I just like to kid him sometimes about
getting too close to things.
Most of the anchorages in this area were
choked with tons of weeds and water hyacinths so we had to keep going. We came across some machines that were
harvesting the hyacinths on the edge of the lake. Gary thinks they might be going to make fertilizer out of
them.
We came across what must have been a flock
of at least 60 to 70 ducks just sitting by the side of the lake. Gary said they must be lost. Just like the anchored boats, there
were so many I couldn’t get them all in the picture.
There were only a few hills left before we
almost reached the end of the lake.
We were doodling along and saw a family of deer eating the weeds very
close to the water’s edge. They
didn’t seem startled by the sound of our engine at all. They just kept right on eating.
We finally came to Whitehall and Lock 12
(up 15 feet). We are now going to
lock through the Champlain Canal Locks.
We finished the ones in Canada several days ago, but now we have several
more to do in the US.
We tied up
for the night at the free with our pass wall just past the lock. We traveled almost 82 miles in a little
less than 13 hours. Our total is now 2223 miles.
I was exhausted, but you know Gary. He likes to walk around so I sent him
with the camera to take some pictures of Whitehall. Most of the storefronts in
the downtown are dressed to appear open, but they were really closed because of
the economy. There was a concert
in the park. They sounded like a
high school band. Near the park
are the other free docks.
The hull of the USS
Ticonderoga was there also. I’ll let the plaque
tell you about it.
We went to bed after supper since we
had such a long day. We’ll
probably be up early tomorrow as usual.
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