Bessie Lets Us Down

Shelburne Bay, Lake Champlain
44 25.443 N 073 15.028 W

We anchored here in Shelburne Bay for a couple of days hiding out from thunderstorms.   This is the location where our famous rainbow picture was taken.

Well, last night the front passed around 10 PM.  With it came some strong winds.  I estimate 65-70 mph.  To our great surprise, Bessie, our 80 pound Luke anchor broke loose and set us adrift.   Tarwathie turned beam to the wind and a big gust heeled us over more than 45 degrees.

I scrambled out in my underwear, started the engine and used it to relieve tension on the anchor and to keep the bow into the wind.  The rain was intense and I was plenty cold out there.

Like most thunderstorms, the strong winds didn't last long; perhaps 5 minutes.  But even then Bessie continued bouncing across the bottom.  We dragged more than 300 feet.

Libby and I both put on full foul weather gear (I appreciated the warmth) and set out to haul Bessie up to re-anchor.   30 minutes later we were anchored again, this time in shallower water.

My confidence in Bessie is rattled.  It's possible that we dropped her on a bare rock shelf.  I wonder if we had one of those fish-finder type of depth sounders, could we see the difference between a bare rock bottom and a muddy bottom?

This is not what it looked like last night.

Recent Pictures From Valcour Island

Somewhere on Lake Champlain

All the pictures below were taken on Valcour Island last week.

Mushroom overlooks our anchorage in Sloop Cove

Dick's blogging spot.
I wrote and posted many a blog article while sitting on this log.

Libby rows back to Tarwathie

Delicious wild strawberries.

Bluff Point Lighthouse.  Never been there before.

Good Home Needed

South Burlington, Vermont

It won't surprise you if I confess to being a technophile.  I've always been like that.  Well, last year I saw a youtube video about a new product called Neverwet.   It is a spray coating that makes surfaces hydrophobic.  (there you go; I just used phile and phob in the same paragraph.)  I bought some for Tarwathie.



Since then, I've had it on board but I never found any application for it.  The problem is that it is not durable.   If I sprayed my shirt to not get stained when food dribbles from my chin, it would last only until the next time the shirt is washed.  The trouble is, I can't find any non-durable applications for it.

So here's an offer you can't refuse.   I'll give my cans of Neverwet free to the first reader who asks for them.  I'll even pay the shipping.  All that I ask in return is that you tell me what you did with it so that I can blog about it.

Independence Day

Burlington Vermont
44 28.116 N 073 13.364 W

We enjoyed a specially good fireworks display last night here in Burlington Harbor.   It lasted nearly 30 minutes!   The weather was perfect.   As a bonus, just after sunset, someone with a Pitt Special stunt plane gave us a one-man air show.   He was silhouetted against the pink sky to the west.  That was uniquely beautiful.

But we saw the show despite trepidation.   We usually avoid crowds and festivals, but this time we decided to make an exception.   We sailed here from Valcour and the harbor was crowded before we arrived.  We had to anchor uncomfortably close to nearby boats, and before the show still more boats came and anchored in the between slots   Of course, most of the other boats were Canadian and Canadians are exceptionally  bad at anchoring.  They seem to think that 2:1 scope is plenty.

Then add to that the fact that a cold front with severe thunderstorms was approaching, and that the anchorage in Burlington is especially exposed to a long fetch.  I was very nervous and ready to haul anchor and flee that harbor in an instant.  But the front passed 2.5 hours before the fireworks.  It wasn't severe  Nobody dragged.   After the front passed, the sky cleared, the wind became totally calm, making perfect weather for an air show and a fireworks display.

Note the stunt plane's smoke trail in the sky.

By the way, I assume you've heard of the controversy about the missing period in The Declaration of Independence.   It was in all the news yesterday, no doubt timed for release on the 4th of July weekend.  The gist of the controversy has to to with the tone and meaning of the preamble; whether it emphasizes individual liberty as superior to government or vice versa.  Now, that's the kind of fight I can sink my teeth into. Very juicy.  Where do you stand on Ronald Reagan's famous quote?

government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem

Therapy for the Soul

Valcour Island
44 37.332 N 073 24.417 N

We are spending three days on Valcour Island.   The weather has been partially rainy every day, but on this island we don't care.  

Regular readers know that I've blogged numerous times singing praise for Valcour Island.  We think that it is the most idyllic place we know.  I have been visiting this island for 40 years, and every time I come it brings out feelings of contentment and satisfaction.   My soul is happy here.   If it wasn't reserved as a "forever wild" place, I would have tried to live here.

I also have recurring fantasies when visiting Valcour.  My favorite is living here and using the deep water in the lake as a near infinite heat sink to provide heating and cooling.   I could also gather firewood from numerous downed trees to fire a boiler to make steam and drive a turbine to make electricity.  Of course, I would also use solar and wind power too.  It would be a tinkerer's dream for an engineer like me.

Valcour lies at roughly 45 degrees north, halfway between The Equator and The North Pole.  But the climate, geology and ecology must more resemble Scandinavia at 65 degrees north.  That makes it unlike nearby wildernesses in New York and Vermont.   This week we were delighted to find a bumper crop of wild strawberries, that we never saw before.  Libby pointed out that we arrived here several weeks earlier in the summer than we ever did before.  Wild strawberries are called smultron in Swedish.  They are the sweetest and choicest of all berries, and they grow only at high latitudes (and on Valcour).

Yesterday we went hiking on the trails and found several places on Valcour that we've never seen before.  It is nice to know that we still haven't seen it all.  We hiked 7.5 miles.  Foolishly, we forgot to bring drinking water, so we were bushed and dried before finishing.   However a skinny dip in the clean, cool, sweet, fresh water refreshed me.  Poor Libby though over-stressed her back, so she has been laying low since then.  She is substantially better today.

Severe thunderstorms are possible yesterday, today and tomorrow.  But we're well sheltered here and pretty secure.

By the way, the place we call "Pearly Gates" on the Pasquotank River is our second favorite beautiful spots.  But that is in the middle of a swamp.  We can't go ashore and explore.  On Valcour we can and do explore the trails and the cliffs, and the limestone rock formations, the fungi and the wildlife.  I've published hundreds of pictures of Valcour on this blog over the years.  It inspires.

Tomorrow, the stormy weather is supposed to pass before the evening 4th of July fireworks in Burlington, so we'll move down there.   Friday the 4th, we'll anchor near Shelburne Farms to listen to The Vermont Symphony concert on the lawn at Shelburne Farms right on the shore.  At the end of the symphony we'll make a night passage to somewhere fun to anchor.   Nighttime boating on Champlain on a calm night is a delight.