A Night To Remember

Whitehall, NY
NoLL

Tonight we got to go to the Bridge Theater after all. It turns out that the theater on the bridge really was closed (because the bridge itself was declared unsafe), but the theater moved to another location nearby.

The new location is bizarre. It is a porch added to an old warehouse, and covered with a tin roof. It is so small that there are only seats for 30 in the audience. Libby and I sat only 18 inches from the state. That made it wonderful for amateur theater. In amateur theater, the audience develops great rapport and empathy with the actors and actresses. That was intensified by the intimate setting.

We walked down to the theater with some new boat friends that we met here yesterday. The play was entitled "Champlain Onward." It was historical fiction about Whitehall. It started with Samuel de Champlain himself, and leading up to the present. The most interesting part was about the revolution and the many exploits of our local hero Benedict Arnold. Most Americans know only enough history to remember Arnold as a traitor, but before his betrayal he was an enormously successful general.

As the play started, I was shocked to see smoke rising. "Surely," I thought, "nobody would smoke in here." It was steam from the breath of the actors. That shows how chilly and exposed this theater was. Near the end of the play it began to rain really hard, so the cast of the show had to raise their voices even louder than normal to compete with the din of the rain on the tin roof right above our heads.

The show was delightful and we are really glad that we went. I also learned how badly I butchered the history of Ticonderoga in a blog post last week. I just went back and repaired it; something I don't normally do.

All together, Whitehall is one of the most culturally rich places we've found on the East Coast. It has Skene Mansion (which was part of the subject of today's play) and the Skenesboro museum which is a real jewel, and it has the Bridge Theater. I suppose Charleston SC has a lot more but Whitehall is a tiny town of 2,600 people.

Regrets

Whitehall, NY
NoLL

Well, today the weather is really miserable. Very cold and rainy. It's a good day to stay inside and that's what we're doing. Whitehall is a good place to do it.

One thing we always wanted to do is to go to the Bridge Theater here. It is a unique theater, literally built on a bridge and suspended over the top of a dam. When we got here yesterday, I mentioned it to some other boaters. They told me the theater wasn't operarting any more. Too bad.

It turns out, that was misinformation. This morning I saw a poster with the Bridge Theater's schedule. There is a performance of the history of Champlain and Hudson expoloration tonight. We'll try to do. Worse,
last night there was a cabaret featuring Sue Kapusto.

Oh no, Sue Capusto is a former co-worker of mine and her husband Paul is a good friend. We would have loved to see them again. I really regret not going to the theater last night. Darn misinformation.

Ready, Set, Down

Whitehall, New York
NoLL

Well: we're a motorboat for the next two weeks. The series of pictures below show us taking the mast down at Chipman Point Marina. By the way, I just learned that Chipman Point Marina was established in 1810. Wow, it's 199 years old.

Ready, mainsail bagged.

Set: boom and some sidestays and sheets and poles all removed and stowed.

Down: there she is under the crane just after we lowered the mast.

The whole process takes about 3 hours and it costs $125. We can testify that it is much gladder to put the mast up than down.

As a motor boat, we motored down the southern end of the lake. It narrows even further down there, and at times we are boxed between sheer limestone cliffs. Other times we're flanked with marshes. The marshes are fresh water of course but they greatly resemble the salt marshes of southern states.

Above is the view of the south face of Fort Ticonderoga that the British wanted to see so badly. Built in 1755, the fort is in remarkably good shape.

We were also flanked by two mountain ridges. The ridge to the west is the barrier between Lake George and Lake Champlain.


Above is a panorama I made of the Green mountains. That is the view we love so much. Mount Mansfield, Camels Hump and Mount Abrams are the three tallest peaks. The ridge extends about 60 miles. I hiked the length of it once with my dog. I've also flown sailplanes along the ridge. It is a great place for soaring. Click it to see full size.

Going Away Present

Ticonderoga, New York
43 49.04 N 073 23.65 W

The lake treated us to a splendid sailing day as a going away present. You see, this is our last day on the lake this season. Tomorrow is a working day, we have to take the mast down. By Saturday we'll be on the Champlain Canal.

The day started off very cool. We put on long pants and sweat shirts for the first time in memory. However within a few hours we were back to shorts and tee shirts.

It was sad leaving Vergennes for the last time this year. It was wonderful cruising down Otter Creek. The great blue herons seem to be used to Tarwathie now. Instead of flying away in panic as the boat approached, they just stood there and watched.

When we got out to the lake, surprise, there was a nice northerly breeze. It was just perfect to proceed southward under sail. No noisy motor to bother us.

I notices how splendid the Green Mountains looked from this southern angle. I started to prepare my camera to make a panoramic picture. But when I looked up from the camera, Mount Abrams had disappeared behind a hill. Oh no. A few minutes later, Camel's Hump also disappeared and after that Mount Mansfield too disappeared from our view. I looked back toward Ferdinand (see a future blog) and couldn't see him either. How melancholy.

The southern end of the lake has a very different character. It is narrow, not unlike the Indian River in Florida. However, the mountain foothils come much closer to the lake shore so we can see their details clearly. ALl in all, it is very beautiful.

We're anchored a mile south of Fort Ticonderoga and Mount Independence. Achieving the view from this spot was absolutely central to British strategies in the Revolutionary War and in the War of 1812. In the revolution, the British got here but a year too late for their strategy to work. The colonists had cannons on both sides of the lake at Ticonderoga on the New York side and Mount Independence on the Vermont side. They also had build a barrier across the lake made of stones and logs.

"Oh, the wind she blows on Lake Champlain,

And then she blows some more

They say that you will never drown

If you always stay on shore."

Ferdinand

Deltaville, VA
NoLL

The two pictures below show and island that Libby and I like to call Ferdinand. Of course, we're thinking of Ferdinand the Bull. From a distance, it looks like a bull. Click on the lower image to see it yourself.

In reality, the Island is just a little rock called Sloop Island on Lake Champlain. To us it is more significant as a harbinger of good times to come. You see, Ferdinand sits isolated on the lake so that its profile can be on the horizon from far away. Further, because of mirage effects, it often appears to float in the air and it becomes visible from even further away.

Ferdinand, sits close the boundary between the main part of Lake Champlain where all the mountains are visible, and the lower part where we see Split Rock Point, and Porter Bay, and Otter Creek. Since both parts of the Lake are among our favorites, Ferdinand symbolizes a visible reminder that good times lie ahead, whether sailing north or south.



Click to see full size