Micro Climates

Burlington, VT

No LL

Right now in the early afternoon, I'm looking across the lake to the West. I can see the closest Adirondack Mountains. I can see massive cloud

Right now in the early afternoon, I'm looking across the lake to the West. I can see the closest Adirondack Mountains. I can see massive clouds above the mountains. I can also see that the clouds stop at the Lake Shore. In fact, in this gray rainy day, there is a hole in the clouds showing a bit of blue sky. The size and shape of the hole rougly match the shape and size of the lake. That's a micro climate.

The visual effects are stunning. The closest mountains are about 3,000 feet high. The clouds go about another 15,000 feet higher. That makes a nearly vertical cliff-like face on the clouds 15,000 feet tall. Wow is that spectacular.

I've seen this micro climate effect many times before on Champlain. The most common effect is the one I just described, a cliff-like wall of clouds extending vertially abvove the west shore of the lake. At other times, the effect is the opposite. The surroundings can be clear while the area above the lake is covered by cloud or by fog.

Perhaps the most beautiful effect I'll never see again as long as we live on Tarwathie. That effect comes on warm sunny days in the early spring. The heat of the sun melts water on top of the ice, and then evaporates that water. One sees water vapor lifting off up into the air in long streaming trails. When it gets a few meters above the ice, it forms fog. A few tens of meters above that, the fog burns off and the air is clear.

A photograph? I'll try, but I've tried before to photograph these beautiful scenes, but the pictures don't really show the beauty.

Rescue

Burlington, Vermont

NoLL

Several times in the past we've blogged about dramatic or interesing Coast Guard rescues that we overheard on the radio.

Today we heard another. Perhaps this is the strangest of all.

On the VHF radio we heard the ferry Valcour call the Coast Guard in Burlington. The ferry said that they spotted a scuba diver clinging to a buoy in the middle of the lake. They said that no boat was in his vicinity. No dive flag. Nothing to suggest how the diver got out there. The Coast Guard responded right away. They sent a rescue boat to the indicated buoy which was less than 3 miles from the Coast Guard station. They searched but found nothing.

Boy, that story would make a great opening episode in a Clive Cussler novel. But in this case it isn't fiction. It is truth.

Chased Out

S Burlington, VT

No LL

There is no good sheltered anchorage near Burlington. This week however, the winds have been very light. Therefore we anchored near the shore with no shelter from 3 directions.

Last night our good luck ran out. The wind came up and it started blowing us toward the beach. In recent years, milfoil weed growing on the bottom has made anchor holding chancy. Anyhow, our anchor started dragging. The anchor dragging alarm woke me at 0130.

Oh well, nothing to do but move. I woke Libby, we raised anchor and moved out. Being sleepy, I wasn't in the mood to go far. We went behind the breakwater in Burlington and took a mooring. By 0230 we were back in bed again.

The moorings there are free to use during the day but you have to pay for overnight. Last time we were here they charged $.50 per foot. When I went to pay today, I got a bad surprise -- $.75 per foot. That's way overpriced for a mooring with no showers, no laundry. So it's free for the day but overpriced at night. I'd call that poorly managed.

Visitors

North Beach
44 29.38 N 073 14.23 W

Yesterday we met with Stephan and Lori. They are the couple from the yacht Twin Sprits that we have known for several years. Last summer they "went over to the dark side." That means they sold their boat and put the money into an RV. After 11 years of cruising by boat, they switched to cruising on land. Libby and I were very interested in their stories and curious about their reactions to the switch.

Not surprisingly, Stephan and Lori have been thoroughly enjoying themselves. They started in Massachusetts, then traveled to Florida, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Kansas, Pennsylvania, and back to Massachusetts again. Now they're preparing for another grand tour of the lower 48. They say that there are many similarities between the water and land based cruising life styles, but some important differences too. One disappointment was that they found it harder to make new cruising friends in the RV park. They say it is because the RV cruisers stay in one place only a short time before moving on, and because they choose from an infinite number of routes. East coast boating cruisers go up and down the same coast on roughly the same schedule. That means that they have many experienced in common and that they cross paths with familiar faces much more often. Interesting.

Anyhow, Stephan and Lori drove up here to visit us, and to explore Vermont a little bit. So far the weather has been uncooperative with scattered showers, and no good views of the mountains. I hope that improves soon.

I can't start our outboard motor. We haven't used it since the Bahamas. I suspect bad fuel. I'm going to go ashore now in search of a gas station to buy some fresh gasoline.

Our Groundings Seem Trivial

South Burlington, VT
No LL

We're always so concerned about running aground. But we usually manage to get ourselves off OK. Out troubles seem small compared to the Volvo Race boat in this picture taken today. I'm guessing that the damage to this multimillion dollar racing boat may be severe.