Au Revoir Valcour

Valcour Island, NY

44 37.35 N 073 24.39 W

This is our last week on the lake this season.  We returned to Valcour Island yesterday for one final visit.   It is a bittersweet moment.   Today, as I walked the trails, I fantasized yet again about making Valcour our permanent home.  

The trip up here was exciting.  With a 26-29 knot wind behind us, and flying just our jib, Tarwathie zoomed the 20 miles from Porter Bay to Valcour in less than 3 hours.  It was also a clear day affording great views of the mountains on both sides.   The Green Mountain ridge was surmounted by a bank of clouds driven by strong SE winds.  We viewed it from the NW side, and we could see the clouds bend over the top of the ridge, start to descend on the western slopes, and evaporate before it reached ground level.  Visually, it looks like a waterfall, 3000 feet high and 30 miles long.   It was spectacular.  I remember the first time I ever saw a sight like that.  It was in 1967, on my first trip to San Francisco.  I stepped out the front door of the San Francisco Airport, looked west, and there it was; huge clouds coming over the ridge resembling a waterfall.

On Thursday this week, we'll host a delegation of racing sailors from New Zealand who would like  day sail on Champlain.  More on that later.