Fw: Lake Champlain 9

7-15-09

I forgot to mention that Reed and Judy on "Filamingo" finally joined the group yesterday at Burlington. They lost a wheel on their trailer, which slowed them down, but the big delay was trying to find orange juice with extra pulp for Daniel on "ONDAS".

Left Burlington this morning about 10 am.

After seeing us with our jackets on all the time, my pal Rich emailed me to ask which day was summer in Burlington. I checked with the locals, and they said that summer this year was from about 3 pm until 5 pm on July 3rd. There were no clouds, and it got up to 67 degrees. What a day !

We're anchored tonight near the NW corner of Valcour island. It's another picturesque setting.

Some of the participants have had to leave today, but it's still quite a sight to see 11 boats anchored in one place.

Everyone either anchored and backed into the beach, or took their dinghy ashore. We recently upgraded our dinghy to one that doesn't leak. (My inflatable doll) However, this trip our motor is acting up. It's been very reliable until now. We have oars. They're back in the truck at Fort Ti. I have one paddle, but we just keep going around in circles.

There was talk of a campfire on the beach tonight, so Jan from "Jessie M." found firewood.

Ballew from "Cloud Nine" took Craig for a kayak ride.

Tomorrow we go on to Burton Island. That will be our last night with the group. We'll head back down to Fort Ti Friday and start the drive home Saturday. (Assuming we're able to make the entire run back on Friday.)

T & P