Thanks for the advice Connie. It's printed and stored in my Lake Champlain cruising guide. I hope to make it there next summer, but I've been saying that for a couple of years now. One alternative to your approach is to sail up the Hudson River, through the canal and into the lake. That's a trip I've always wanted to try. We'll see. Summer always seems longer, with more available time from the winter perspective. Yours for a fair tide, Rick

Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2006 15:47:50 -0500 From: chbenneck@juno.com Subject: Re: M_Boats: Lake Champlain Cruise To: montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com Message-ID: <20061113.171316.828.0.chbenneck@juno.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Hi Rick,

When Katrina and I went to Lake Champlain the first time, we launched at the New York State launch ramp in Willsboro, NY. It is a very wide, paved ramp, that also has docks for mooring or loading the boats after launch. There is also a large parking lot where you can leave cars and trailers.

Willsboro is a few miles north of Essex, NY - and the excellent Essex Marina where we got dock space.

Initially we would launch at Willsboro then sail out of Willsoboro Bay and down to Essex. Later we used the Essex Marina ramp - a dirt ramp at the bottom of a steep driveway that takes you up to Main Street. The first time I used it, I had a friend pull us up the hill with his pickup truck.

Later, I used my VW GTI and launched and retrieved at the Essex Marina, once I got more familiar with the car's capability, and the M15. Launching at Essex saved the 15 NM (or more) trip from Willsboro ramp to Essex and back by boat, and eliminated the car ferrying that was needed with car and trailer at Willsboro and B&B in Essex.

...

From Essex you can sail across Lake Champlain and you have some nice corners to explore - or to spend the night - on the Vermont side.

Further down the Lake is the Champlain Marine Museum - a nice place to visit.

At Essex Marina there is a very good French restaurant (and practice your French, because as of Friday afternoon, all the Montrealers arrive, and they all talk French with each other). They depart again Sunday evening, heading north) Most of them are sailing Benetous 35, 38, & 45 foot sailboats.

There are very few power boats. A few trawlers pass by, but most of the power boat traffic are fishermen trolling. There is one exception however. Someone has a Cigarette with a duck painted on the side of the hull. You can hear him coming 5 minutes before he gets there, and for 5 minutes after he passes. The Essex Marina attitude is there should be an open season on ducks all year long............

If you have a bad weather day, you can drive up the lake from Essex to Port Kent, NY and catch the ferry to Burlington. The ferry arrives in downtown Burlington, so you don't need wheels to explore Burlington. You can do it all on foot. (We took the car over from Essex to Vermont, but that gets expensive. By driving to Port Kent, you can leave the car at the Port Kent ferry terminal and just pay for yourself as a pedestrian)

If you have cars available, then don't miss a visit to Ausable Chasm. It really is worth an excursion to see this.

Have fun, it's a great sailing area, and the scenery is terrific.

Connie