July 9, Day 26 - Shelburne to Valcour Island

Following the normal procedure, Linda walked early this morning and Gerry slept in. After breakfast, Gerry did some research on the cell phone boosters and decided to order a system on line and have it shipped overnight to Rouses Point so it will be there when we arrive on Sunday. We wanted to make sure it got shipped to a U.S. address instead of a Canadian one. We called the marina to make sure we could get reservations and confirmed they would accept a package for us (for a small fee?).

We checked with our mail forwarding service and they told us our mail should have arrived on July 8, but for sure by July 9. We waited for the marina to get their mail …. but, as suspected, nothing for us. We were getting antsy being in a marina and since we had already provisioned and visited with friends, we decided to head out. We were only going to Valcour Island which was less than 2 hours away. Decided we could check back with the marina on Friday and/or Saturday and if the mail is there we could go pick it up before heading to Rouses Point.

The sun was shining brightly as we left the marina and with hardly no breeze at all, the lake was flat. According to the guide books, Valcour Island is one of the highlights of a Lake Champlain cruise. There are at least five anchorages and once ashore there are sandy beaches and miles of hiking trails. It was only Thursday, but as we approached the Island, it became obvious that with the good weather everyone was playing hooky from work. There were many boats in each of the anchorages, but still plenty of room for several more. We decided on Spoon Bay as the book stated it has the clearest waters, a sandy beach and is less crowded than some of the other anchorages. We were amazed. When we let the anchor out, we could see it all the way to the bottom (15 feet). Once we were settled in, Gerry got out the Brownie Hooka Third Lung and went down to check out the boat bottom. He did a little cleaning, but overall thought it looked pretty good.

Decided to go for a dinghy ride and went around the entire Island. We’re including several pictures of what we saw. This is a neat place – wish everyone could join us here.




Burlington from the water

On the way to Valcour Island --- taken while sitting on the bow -- flat water

Monk's Vineyard at anchor in Spoon Bay


Typical shoreline on the Island

Cape Diem, a Canadian boat, at anchor in a cove. We had cruised alongside this boat for awhile on the way up. We noted (or Gerry did) that they were sailing naked. Seemed a bit nippy for that.

Bluff Point Lighthouse

Valcour Island on left and Spoon Island on right. Our anchorage was just around the corner to the left.

Typical shoreline of Valcour Island and associated smaller islands

Lots of camping areas on the island. Here a group of campers had a camp fire.

Caves in the rocks at shoreline

Looking into the Spoon Bay anchorage as you round the Island between Valcour Island and Spoon Island