2006.09.30....

0730 we cast off Whitehall after a nice shower and had breakfast underway... As soon as we passed the first lock the fog got denser and the radar worked beautifully.











Diane was on board Solitaire and Richard on Jem and their help going through the locks and looking out for buoys was invaluable.
















We wondered if the lock masters had a competition going for the nicest kept lock, they were pristine and beautifully landscaped... regretfully we did not get any fried fish from the lock master on #7, he must have known that Diane does not eat "swimmies".



After doing the 12 locks (actually only 11, there never was a #10) of the Champlain Canal and the Federal Lock we arrived at Troy dock... amazingly in the last lock we saw a couple of guys on Seadoos, who had locked through the whole system with only backpacks on... no piano or washing machine for them.

We had another nice meal at Brown's and bade a fond and tearful farewell to Rick & Diane ...what a great pair of friends they are.

2006.09.29.....

0710 cast off Shelburne, raining and miserable, James is driving as David sits under the dodger using the remote control, gift of Mother Joan, which worked beautifully and kept him nice and dry.

Pretty uneventful day and we docked at Whitehall Marina at the South end of Lake Champlain.

The weather had turned beautiful and soon Rick and Diane joined us for the next leg of the trip, we had a very nice supper again at Finch & Chubb where Brian had taken us last year.

2006.09.28....





0550 cast off WBM and discovered we had no autopilot. Not good!!!
It was raining and the wind was starting to come up.

I spoke to David Hudson and we agreed that it might be a loose connection so I unscrewed the back of the instrument panel at the helm, with some trepidation, jiggled and tightened a few wires and voila auto pilot functional... whew!!!

0720 tied up at Shelburne Marina and started to undo the rig, turn buckles etc, we even took down the boom that weighs a ton... good for my granny wings!

They unstepped Jem first and then it was our turn, frankly we were not very impressed with their work, quite sloppy, I was trying to keep track of the turn bucles and clevis pins which they were dropping all over the deck , they even dropped the drum of the furler in the water, the excuse was that the wind was coming up and they were rushing!!!

Had supper on board, ravioli and a delicious apple cake (ma tante Loulou's).

2006.09.27 .....





With the kind services of Allan, the Babys and the Allins were picked up with their gear ..10 bags in total and delivered to WBM. After a quick lunch we unloaded and bade a fond farewell to Allan (lots of hugs from Mom).


I somehow managed to make everything disapear , Louise had a bit more of a challenge but of course we do not carry a piano nor a washing machine on board Solitaire.. we trust Andre to entertain us and Louise to keep us in clean rags!


Had supper on board , Chunky soup, compliments of Jem.

2006.09.24 Safely tucked next to Jem at WBM

2006.09.24....

2006.09.15 Sailing from Knysna Indian Ocean (SA)