Julie and I cruised the middle portion of Lake Champlain last week on our M17 (still unnamed). We launched from North Hero Marina on Friday afternoon Sept 4 and pulled out on Thursday morning Sept 10. Approximately 55 NM sailed and motored. Lots of relaxing in pretty nice anchorages The ramp at the North Hero Marina is not great and is shallow. It took the tongue extension and some creative weighting on the stern to get the boat off. I believe we loosened a bunk board at that point. Not noticed till well on our way home. 2 nights in Pelots Bay (just around the corner from the marina). Spent the Saturday doing house keeping, a few on board changes and chores and swimming and some sailing out on the larger Carry Bay. We were waiting for friends who keep their Dehler 36 at that marina to arrive on Sat. afternoon. Dinner aboard their beautiful vessel. Was the full moon on Friday night and still spectacular every other night of the cruise. Beautiful orange trail over the water as it rose, then piercing white all night long. Departed Pelots Bay late Sunday morning, clearing the causeway gap at about 11:00. Wind was light and variable with the large high pressure system sitting over eastern North America. It finally died completely about an hour later, 3 miles SE near the La Roche Reef buoy. Friends on the Dehler powered up to us at about 6 knots, heading south to Valcourt Island to get a spot to anchor in either Sloop Cove or Spoon Bay. Was looking to be a busy Labour Day weekend, with some the best weather of the year forecast. We started up the Honda 5 and paced the other boat a bit to establish speeds. We don't have a GPS or speed log. At the start point on the throttle we did 4 knots, halfway down to the slow setting was 3 knots. We continued south at that throttle setting and reach Valcourt Island at about 3:30. Used about 1.25 gallons of gas for the 11NM / 3.5 hour trip. I was pretty happy with that consumption not having any idea of what extended run time would yield. The time seemed to go pretty fast as we had a James Patterson novel on CD playing on the stereo. As you may know, Champlain is a relatively narrow lake with some very deep sections. Seems to be more sail than power boats. Many of the boats are owned by people from the Montreal area of Quebec just to the north. In the North Hero marina, about 80% of the boats are owned by Canadians. Our friends Yvon and Kerstin are a case in point. With normal border crossing conditions, the marina at North Hero is only 75 minutes from their home. Some weekends however, the border crossing congestion can add an extra 90 minutes, even if using one of the smaller entry points. Still, not a bad set up to be on a beautiful body of water. Took us 10 hours drive from west of Toronto. That included some a lunch stop and a 1 hour+ grocery stop in Rouse's Point NY. The Green Mountains of Vermont are clearly visible to the east, and the Northern Adirondacks of NY are to the west. We spoke with Yvon on the VHF (very busy) and also cell phone as we neared Valcourt Island and he had elected to anchor in Spoon Bay. It opens to the north and was a better choice for the forecast southerly winds over the next couple of days. We rafted up to him for a few hours. Swimming was the order of the day, and also visiting with some other acquaintances on another boat. We moved to our own anchor in 15 ft at about 6 pm. I didn't have my steaming/deck light or fixed mount VHF cables connected. They had taken a crushing the last couple of times putting up the mast. (new pathway for the wires is on the to-do list). I could hear them clinking against the mast when we were back over on the Dehler for dinner (this was getting to be a habit!!). After listening to them for a bit and discussing it, Yvon and I dinghied back over to the Montgomery and dropped the mast just after sunset. While he shouldered it in the cockpit, I trimmed a pool noodle and slid it up the mast. Was a bit fussy going past the halyard cleat bolts. We reset the mast and I also put a lot of tension on the errant wires. Success!! A little more quiet over the crowded anchorage. At least no one could bitch about my mast noises and I knew I could sleep better. I guess we were the only boat in the bay who could drop their mast on the water. Some interested onlookers from the larger boats. Most boats left the bay on Monday afternoon to head home. Went from 35 boats to 7 on Monday night. We spent the day "playing" with the boat. We set up a tent fly we had brought with us as cockpit canopy. Used some old fiberglass sectional tent poles at each end. Had standing headroom underneath and good sun and dew protection. Not too bad for a first try. Wind was still forecast from the south "light and variable" until later Tuesday, when a weak cold front would veer the wind to the north. So we changed our plans to go further south to Burlington Vermont, and headed north on Tuesday, to get back closer to North Hero for Wednesday night. We sailed 4 miles to Plattsburgh NY on the west side of the lake. Stopped there for ice, gas and walked into town for late lunch at a sidewalk cafe. Then departed Plattsburgh, rounded "The Head" and tacked north. Crossed the ferry boat lanes. 3 medium sized car ferries cross the lake here at fairly narrow spot. Their track is slightly NW to SE, and they make an arc so the west bound track is north of the east bound track. Sailed parallel to east bound track then tacked over after the ferry passed us. Wind was light so we were stalling in the ferry wake. Started up the motor and cleared the other ferry track as well. Sailed in light wind for another hour and only made maybe 2 miles. We then motored again straight north 3 miles on a glassy surface to Deep Bay with the sun setting. This is in a state park. There are free moorings in the bay. Pretty quiet on the day after Labor Day. Only 5 boats in a 50 boat mooring field. Even motoring was hot work so a swim was in order after we tied up in 10 feet. The cockpit canopy went up in 5 minutes this time, now that we knew how we wanted it. Dinner in the cockpit. Reading in the cabin seats till the moon came up later. Left Deep Bay around 10 the next morning (Wednesday). Circled counterclockwise around Treadwell Bay, following the beach, then east across the lake to Nicols Point and the entrance to "The Gut". This is a round, shallow (less than 10 feet) enclosed bay about 1 1/2 miles across. It is actually a channel between North Hero Island and Grand Isle. The west entrance is through an opening in the abandoned railway causeway that runs north and south down the islands. The east entrance is a bascule bridge on highway 2. Exiting this puts you into the eastern section of Champlain. It is a whole other body of water to explore on another trip. We anchored for lunch, then headed back out onto the main body of the lake. Wind had increased from the north and was reported at15-20 knots on the NOAA weather channel.They cycle through local weather and a Champlain open waters forecast regularly. Stayed in a sheltered area while we changed headsails from the genoa to the working jib. Tacks across the lake heading north took 20-30 minutes on each leg. We were in a really good groove and overhauled a larger boat. He finally gave up and motored straight north to the same place we were going. He only beat us to the gap by 15 minutes and I could see we were having the more comfortable ride and more fun. Very dry going to windward. Only took spray on us 2 times in 2 1/2 hours. We dropped sails inside the old railway causeway and motored around into Pelots Bay for our last night. Wind was forecast to swing 180 dgrees to the south again after midnight so we stayed out in the middle of the bay for the night with 2 other boats. Lots of room to swing, no lee shore to worry about. The north wind slowed to midnight, then dead calm till about 4, when the lapstrakes started chuckling again so I knew we had swung 180 degrees. We hauled out at the ramp again. Found a bit deeper spot I had missed at launching. Probably where power boats had blown out the bottom a bit. Was a great cruise on a very nice piece of fresh water. We had only slept aboard this boat for 3 other nights, so a week long stretch got us very accustomed to the boat, its performance, our storage systems, and spending long stretches aboard. Can't wait to do it again!! Some details. We took a five gallon jug of water, and did not use it all. Used lake water for dish washing. WAG bags for toilet with a bucket for support of the bag, not a porta potti. Philips Environmental is now known as CleanWaste. Website is still www.thepett.com. We have used these before and were satisfied with their performance. More costly, but for a week long cruise they were worth it. 2 small coolers instead of one large one. Easier to move around, although I think one large one would hold the cold a bit longer. At 72-75 F days, and 48-52 nights, we needed to get ice once during the 6 days. Cooked in the cockpit with our Trangia 25 alcohol camping stove. This worked very well for us with the Norseboat and camping. Methyl hydrate is pretty cheap. We used just over a liter for the week. Don't have to worry about propane cans leaking. Anchored from the cockpit with our knock off Bruce. 10 feet of chain, 100 feet of 1/2" rode. We don't have bow chocks yet, so I tie wrapped a 1 foot length of 1" hose to the forward stanchion of the bow pulpit over the toe rail. Bowline through the aft starboard cleat, forward in side the toe rail, out through the hose, then aft to the cockpit, where we stored the anchor and line in a plastic bucket at the rear of the cockpit sole. Would lauch the anchor over the cockpit side, and then take the line forward, pulling in any extra through the hose and cleating it at the bow. We placed a couple of the rubber interlocked rubber grid mats over the coaming to protect from the chain when launching or retreiving the anchor. Have not set up permanent reefing lines yet. We did not have to reef on this trip, but had loose lines ready to do so. Looking for a small towable hard dinghy design that would work with a 17. I guess it needs to be less than 7 feet. Hopefully could overturn it into the cockpit when trailering. Will look at plans on Duckworks. I will post some pictures from the trip on the TSBB Montgomery forum. Bill Wickett M17 #622