Too Much Of A Good Thing?

Valcour Island, NY

NoLL

After blogging so enthusiastically about Valcour Island, can we complain about having too much of it?  Well, we planned on leaving here Sunday.   We had a date to meet with our friends Emily and Baden in Burlington on Monday.   It was much too rough to leave on Sunday.

The weakest aspect of Westsails is beating dead into a stiff wind in choppy seas.  That's exactly what we would have had on Sunday.   Instead I sat on the rocks here and watched the boats out in the lake that did venture out.  There weren't many.  Most of the sailboats were sailing downwind.   A few sailboats and a few powerboats were seen trying to motor against the wind and waves and they were having  a terrible time.  They bounced so hard that I could see air underneath their keels.

Isn't it much rougher out at sea?  Yes and no.   At sea, the waves can be much bigger and the wind stronger.   However, the waves are much farther apart and the boat simply rises and falls with each wave.  Big waves come 8-12 seconds apart.  Today, I timed the waves here at 1.5 seconds apart.  That makes the boat rock forward and back dizzily, and tends to stop forward progress dead.

Anyhow, this morning it appeared to be blowing less hard.  We hauled up the anchor and left this protected cove.  Not for long though.  It was much rougher than I expected.  Also, we started hearing thunder from a storm behind the nearby mountains.  We changed our minds and headed back in; thus missing our date with Emily.

We found and alternative though.  There were only two other boats here in Sloop Cove.  So we introduced ourselves to those new people and invited them over for a Balderdash game this afternoon.  That worked out fine,  the game is over and everyone had fun.   It is nice that the Quebec vacation period is over, once again we have fellow boaters nearby who speak our native language.  That greatly greases the social rails.