The summer of 2014 started with a wimper as Echo's 20 year old motor started showing signs of terminal illness on the way north from home. I found a place in Plattsburg that sold Yamaha outboards and arranged to have my boat repowered at the Plattsburg boat basin.

I headed north on a Thursday evening to avoid a weather front due around midday Friday. Essex to Plattsburg is about a 40 mile run so I figured I'd run 25 miles to Valcour Island, spend the night at anchor and scoot on up to Plattsburg early Friday.

Approaching Valcour at 10PM I was surprised to see a huge cluster of lights in the sky. They looked like fireflies. Took me a minute to realize they were the masthead lights of boats anchored behind the island. I carefully nosed around till I found a safe spot to anchor for the night.

The next morning I completed the voyage. Sadly after 4 days sitting around waiting, the folks at the yacht basin took a look at my boat and decided they couldn't do the work. I ended up limping back to Essex and doing it myself.

The next notable event of the summer was the 4th of July fireworks display in Essex. I happened to be spending the night on the boat and caught the show quite by accident. It was really cool. :-)

Lastly, summer wouldn't have been complete without spending some time anchored in Smuggler harbor on Valcour Island. Heading out...

Swinging at anchor in Smuggler Harbor. Notice the 40 footers out beyond the harbor. You can't get in here with more than 4 feet of draft, so the bigger boats can't crowd us little guys out.