Home for the wedding break

This morning we couldn’t get off the boat fast enough—strong south winds began tossing us around after midnight, making sleep difficult. This is our third time in an unprotected marina on Lake Champlain. The other reason we were eager to abandon ship is that we’re heading home for Danielle & Jay’s wedding, which is next Sunday. We drove into Burlington for breakfast at Henry’s Diner (“clean, wholesome food since 1925”), dropped off our rental car, then got to the airport early for our flight home. Danielle picked us up in Minneapolis and made us lunch, then we caught up with each other, a month’s mail and settled back into condo living.

Fun fact: In 1849 near our marina, an 11,000-year-old beluga whale skeleton was found in what was once the Champlain Sea.

We likely won’t post much while on our break. We hope our readers have a Happy July 4th and enjoy these photos.

This boat has five outboard engines. The proper nautical term
for this type of vessel is “ass hat”

Who doesn’t love a sassy VW beetle?

Damselfly on Dragonfly

Dragonfly on Dragonfly

Most of the small towns we’ve been to have
these Hometown Hero banners on the streets

These two Hometown Heroes share a last name with the
street and the historical site marker

Shelburne, VT, with bonus side trips. Happy Birthday to Me!

We awoke on my 60th birthday yesterday to a gorgeous day, with a clear blue sky, light north winds and mild temperatures. Our celebration began with breakfast at the Shelburne Farm Inn, which started in the late 19th century as one of the 40+ estates of the third-generation Vanderbilts. This location consolidated 33 private Vermont farms into a 4,000-acre retreat on Lake Champlain. Today’s inn was the beautiful family home and the surrounding land is a working farm and educational center with day use and residential programs. The ten miles of walking trails are open to the public at no charge.

Next was the Shelburne Museum, an incredible collection of 38 buildings on 45 acres, with art, artifacts and memorabilia of all kinds, including multiple galleries, historical buildings, a carousel, covered bridge, lighthouse and the 220-foot side-wheel steamboat Ticonderoga. The museum’s creator and benefactor was Electra Havemeyer Webb, an heiress to the Domino Sugar fortune and wife of a Vanderbilt descendant. The scale of the display is jaw-dropping, as were the costs of acquiring, dismantling, relocating and reassembling large and complex objects. We were impressed, entertained, educated and grateful that we got to see this museum, but were also very aware of where the vast wealth came from to make it happen. The Vanderbilt money was created from shipping and railroads, in an era of little government regulation and nonexistent labor laws. Domino Sugar, originally the American Sugar Refining Company, relied heavily on slave and immigrant labor, working and living under harsh conditions, and enjoyed a monopoly in its US markets.

We were museumed out, but I still had more birthday left and great weather to enjoy it, so we made a mad dash east in the rental car to see the Vermont State Capitol in Montpelier, then 15 minutes later we were in line for the Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory tour in nearby Waterbury. Montpelier, population 8,000, is the smallest state capital in the country, and its gilded-dome state house and grounds are lovely. 

The Ben & Jerry’s visit was okay—you don’t see that much during the 30-minute guided tour, but there are free samples.  A cute display outside the factory is the Flavor Graveyard of discontinued varieties that didn’t sell. Ben & Jerry fun facts: Ben had a poor sense of taste and smell, so bold flavors with lots of chunky ingredients were necessary to get him excited about a new variety. The company is now part of Unilever, but the two founders refused to sell unless their board of directors remained independent and all of the milk for their two Vermont factories would continue to be sourced from local farmers.

Ticonderoga, NY

Today was a sightseeing day, so after some morning rain moved through, we caught an Uber to Burlington, picked up a rental car, then drove south, crossed the Champlain Bridge and went to see Fort Ticonderoga, which we glimpsed from the lake a few days ago. Quick refresher—the fort was built by the French in 1755, and originally named Fort Carillon. Fun fact: The French were regarded as the foremost military engineers of the era, and many of today’s words to describe fortifications come from their language. Rampart, revetment, bastion, parapet, redoubt, palisade and other fort terms were all derived from French. 

The British next held the fort, renaming it Ticonderoga and surrendered it in 1775 to Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold of the Continental Army at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. The British would lay siege to the fort in 1777 and take it back when the Americans withdrew without a fight. Ticonderoga was already falling into disrepair after the War of 1812, was purchased in 1820 by the Pell family and painstakingly restored in the early 20th century and opened as a historical park. Today it is an interesting and entertaining place to visit, with guided tours and costumed reenactors describing and demonstrating early fort life. Also open to the public are the gardens and grounds of the Pell family, who built a summer residence here while supervising the fort’s restoration. You can even take a boat tour on Lake Champlain, but we skipped that. Map Link: Fort Ticonderoga, NY

After Fort Ticonderoga, we drove up to Mount Defiance, where the British placed artillery overlooking the fort during the siege of 1777. From this vantage point, one can understand why the Americans abandoned the fort, with mortar shells easily lobbed through the roofs of their barracks. 

We explored the town of Ticonderoga, NY, and discovered the Star Trek Original Series Set Museum, dedicated to preserving detailed recreations of the sets used in the TV show. When the series went off the air in 1969, much of the sets were dismantled and destroyed, with most surviving pieces ending up in private collections, and the museum’s owner built everything from scratch. Apparently, William Shatner visits regularly. Yes, he is still alive. 

We had dinner at Burleigh’s Luncheonette, across the street from the Star Trek Museum, a restaurant that is proud that its decor hasn’t changed much since the 1950s. We sat down at 4:30 PM, with the other senior citizens getting the early bird special.

The countryside here is just as beautiful from the road as it is from the water. Seeing all of the farm buildings in the region prompted today’s Bonus Question: Why are barns painted red? (Multiple choice, answer at end of post).

A. So cows can find their way home.

B. To make them look like brick, a sign of wealth.

C. Red paint was easy to make and cheap to buy. 

D. To ward off evil spirits.

Bonus Question Answer: C—red paint was easily made out of linseed oil, milk, blood and/or ferrous oxide, and usually the cheapest or the only option to buy back in the day. Fun fact about Answer A: Cows have no red receptors in their eyes, so they can’t distinguish red barns (or bullfighting capes).

Vergennes to Charlotte, VT. Stopping here for two weeks.

We lingered at our waterfall-view berth in Vergennes until 9:45 AM this morning, then worked our way back down Otter Creek to Lake Champlain. It was only 12 miles to Point Bay Marina in Charlotte, VT, where we’ll leave Dragonfly for a couple of weeks to attend Danielle & Jay’s wedding. There was a moderate west wind, and we’re finally seeing boats under sail again. This is one of the few places where sailing would have been an option—we envy those out there, but are still glad we don’t have to deal with carrying our mast on deck everywhere you can’t sail. And the scenery is breathtaking, power or sail, with mountains and beautiful vistas in every direction. Map Link: Point Bay Marina, VT

We tied up around Noon, got oriented, ate leftover pizza for lunch, then did very little else this afternoon. It’s a long walk into town on a two-lane road with no shoulder, so we ate dinner onboard. Tomorrow we’re getting a rental car to do some land-based sightseeing until our flight home on Saturday. We didn’t take any other pictures, but here's a screenshot of our daily track report from Nebolink.

Port Henry, NY to Vergennes, VT

Today turned out to be as amazing as yesterday was challenging. Lake Champlain settled down overnight and we slept well. The sun was out all day, with light southerly winds and no rain in the forecast. We took a small side trip, and traveled 16 miles north to Otter Creek, then continued 7 miles upriver to Vergennes, VT.  Named for the Comte de Vergennes, the French Foreign Minister during the American Revolution who greatly aided our cause, it is Vermont’s first city and its smallest, with a population of 2,550. Situated around a stunning waterfall and natural source of energy, it was a shipbuilding hub in the 18th & 19th centuries, and built much of the fleet that fought in the War of 1812. Map Link: Vergennes, VT

The minute we tied up at the free town dock in Macdonough Park, a man approached us and asked for help. He explained that his buddy had launched his boat nearby and ran aground in the shallows between the boat ramp and the falls and he was hoping that we would be willing to go over and pull him off. We could see that neither the man nor his vessel were in distress, and were very hesitant to venture into unfamiliar, poorly charted, shallow water at the base of a waterfall. As I continued to discuss the situation with the buddy, the fire department showed up, launched their rescue boat and quickly pulled the boat off of the sandbar that he was stuck on—problem solved. As he motored away from the falls and towards us, I admired his classic craft, which appeared to be powered by a wood-fired steam boiler. I did not admire his boat-handling skills, however, as his course was erratic in the strong current, it took him several attempts to land his vessel, he almost ran into Dragonfly, and he generally appeared to be in over his head. There was lots of room at the public dock, but he chose to tie up to a private pier, whose owner came outside to assist. The boat stayed there briefly, then went back to the launch ramp, where it was pulled out and he drove away. Kathleen and I looked at each other and said “what just happened?” We later spoke with the dock owner, who said he knew the guy, and he was visibly shaken from the experience and was done boating for the day.

Vergennes is a gem of a town, with parks, paths and a charming, vibrant Main Street. It was a warm day, with a high of 86F, and we took a break from exploring to visit the public library, one of the ways we cool off without air conditioning aboard. We had some outstanding pizza at Rockers Pizzeria, then came back for our nightly cribbage match, reading, blogging, and enjoying the beautiful waterfall that is 500 feet from the bow of our boat.

Orwell, VT, to Port Henry, NY. Big afternoon blow.

Today rhymed with yesterday, and the two days before. We had a multi-hour window of clear weather in the morning, with bad weather expected in the afternoon. We left Chipman Point Marina at 8:00 AM and headed north, with a light to moderate southerly wind and soon came upon Fort Ticonderoga on the New York side of the lake. Originally called Fort Carillon when the French built it in 1755, the fort was strategically important due to its location on Lake Champlain and its proximity to a portage to Lake George. In 1759, it was captured by the British and renamed Ticonderoga, which is Iroquois for “junction of two waters.” Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold took the fort from a small British garrison in 1775, who were unaware that the Revolutionary War had begun a few weeks earlier. In 1776, Fort Ticonderoga’s artillery was relocated and proved vital in breaking the British siege of Boston.

It was mostly a pretty tame travel day, covering 19 more miles in three hours to Port Henry, NY. As we passed the Champlain Lighthouse and turned the last corner towards our marina, we saw a large rain squall headed our way. We didn’t want to accelerate and speed into an unfamiliar harbor, so we took our lumps, got soaked and tied up in the rain. At least the nice dockhands from Bridgeview Harbour Marina met us to assist. It rained on and off and the wind blew hard all afternoon, as expected. What wasn’t expected was how poorly protected the marina is from the waves that built up from the steady 15-20 mph winds, and Dragonfly tossed and turned on the floating dock, along with every other boat in the harbor. I’m actually writing this from the laundry room, since it was difficult to type on the rolly boat. We did get a break in the rain and grabbed lunch at the onsite Dockside Cafe. In case you’re wondering, we keep rolling the dice on the weather to get closer to Burlington, VT, where we have plane reservations for Saturday the 29th to fly home for Danielle and Jay’s wedding. 

The rain finally quit at 6:00 PM, and we practically ran off of the boat to explore the Village of Port Henry in the Town of Moriah. Once a prosperous iron ore mining and processing center, it’s now another small waterfront community that appears to be struggling. The attractive town hall in the pic below was once the 1875 office building for the iron ore company. 

We ate dinner at the town’s only open restaurant, Gene’s, a roadside fast-food joint with a Dairy Queen menu. When we returned to Dragonfly, we found that one of the marina’s mooring cleats had broken loose from the dock, and our boat was kittywampus in the slip, with the stern untethered, the bow angled in, our anchor hitting the shore-power pedestal and our dockside electrical cable loose and in the water. Fortunately, nothing was damaged, and all was restored after a little hectic effort. The wind finally died down, but as the sun set at 8:40 PM, we’re still rolling, although nowhere near as much as this afternoon. Map Link: Port Henry, NY