Rattled Confidence

South Burilington, Vermont
44 28.211 N 073 09.716 W


Well, we made to Vermont.  We had a week with John, Katelyn and Victoria.  Now, we are Jenny's house.  We'll stay here until Libby has her fill with gardening.  (It is evident that Libby misses gardening more than any other thing.)

It was something of a relief to leave the Mohawk Valley of New York.  The depressing news about flooding just kept pouring in.   Worse, every day brought new downpours causing fresh flooding.  The Erie Canal has been closed much of the time for the past month.   Twice they had to remove all the gates from the dams to empty the river and the canal in preparation to receive fresh flash floods from the mountain areas.

On the way, crossing the Champlain Bridge, we noted that the lake waters are about four feet higher than when we last saw them.   We also stopped in Vergennes, hoping to see some of our cruiser friends.  When we got there, we were shocked at the sight.

Otter Creek was flooding.  It was about 6 feet higher than when we left last September.  Not only that, the current was extremely swift, and the water was full of mud and debris.   It was similar to, but not as severe as, the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.

Normally, one would find a dozen or so boats there at this time of year; one of them being Tarwathie.  Yesterday there were only two.  One was a Krogen 49 from SC.  The other was a sailboat from Quebec.   I think both of them were trapped there, unable to leave because of the swift current.  The sailboat was beam on to the current and being pressed to the dock with tons of force.  The sides of the Krogen and the adjacent dock also showed signs of very much swifter water.  Perhaps it had been as bad as 2011 in recent weeks.

I was also reminded of a radio program we heard in Canada about the flooding in Calgary.  They said that the entire provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan had been saturated all srping and ripe for floods.  That is definitely not normal.

Lets review.

• We started cruising in 2005.   
• In 2006, they had a  flood of the century on the Mohawk and Susquehana Rivers.   
• In August 2011, Tropical Storm Irene caused devastating floods in Vermont and the Mohawk Rivers. 10 days after Irene came Tropical Storm Lee causing a new flood of the century.
• The winter 2008-2009 was so cold that we nearly froze in Vero Beach Florida.  The freezing weather that winter extended as far south as Mexico City.   Even the trade winds in the Virgin Islands reversed direction.
• The winter 2010-2011 was so cold, and the spring rains in 2011 so high that we dared not come to Champlain in June.  We killed a month on the Erie Canal, to delay our arrival. 
• The winter 2011-2012 was so warm that they had no snow.  The following summer of 2012, the lake level was so low that we almost got trapped in Vergennes aground in the creet.  
• Now in 2013, both Vermont and the Mohawk Valley are being flooded again, but this time with the floods of the century coming repeatedly less than a week apart.

I had imagined that we could continue to navigate the same waters that we are used to since the 1970s forever.  Now my bubble is popped; my confidence rattled.  I realize that coming to the inland areas of The Northeast is fraught with risk.  If we continue to choose summer cruising grounds as in the past, we will certainly get caught sometime.

I am not one of those who rushes to attribute all change to global warming.  But the climate sure seems to be changing.

Two Boats, maybe stranded, in Vergennes, July 6, 2013

Vergennes Falls, top 2013, bottom 2009.

2011, ten days after Irene.  A different sailboat and a different Krogen 49 still stranded in Vergennes.

2009, Tarwathie in Vergennes, normal water level.