Ahh, Valcour Island. :-) My favorite place to just hang. It's part of the Adirondack Park and is open to what they call primitive camping. In other words it's undeveloped, just forest. The southern end of the island is a Great Blue Heron rookery. Rumor has it, it's a madhouse in the spring. I hope to get there early enough next year to hike on down and check it out. There's a beautiful old lighthouse on the west side of the island facing the New York shore. There are 4 excellent anchorages but only Smugglers Harbor (arrow lower right) offers protection from all wind directions. The other three can get a bit bumpy if it's blowing the wrong way.

Anyway, I decided to head up there on my Bristol. I figured 2 days to get there, 2 days to get back and 2 days to just hang on Valcour. A friend of mine signed on for a couple of days of the trip and we arranged to meet at the Peru boat launch (arrow on left), right across from Valcour. So, I stocked the galley and headed out.

Valcour is about 45 miles north of my home port of Port Henry. In perfect conditions I can get there in about 8 hours, but a more practical plan includes an overnight stay at the halfway mark in Converse Bay. It's a really pretty bay that offers both great protection from all winds, and gorgeous sunsets over the corner of Cedar Island.

Here's a closer look at the bay. The anchorage is due east of Cedar Island. I've heard stories of tricky shoals to the southeast of Garden Island, so I always approach the bay from the north.

After a restful night on Converse it's time to head north again. After dodging a couple of ferrys just north of Converse, the first point of interest is Burlington Harbor. It's on the east shore a few hours north of Converse Bay. Being a college town, it's a very cool place for a weekend visit. With an eclectic calendar of events like local theatre, bluegrass festivals and balloon races there's always something to do. The town has moorings that boaters can pick up for a modest fee and grab a water taxi to shore.

Ah! I love the sight of Spinakers in the morning. :-)

I made Sloop Bay on Valcour by early afternoon, dropped anchor, cooked diner and spent the remainder of the evening exploring the bay.

The next day I picked Don up at the Peru Dock. We headed back to Valcour and Smugglers Harbor where Don cooked us up some chicken for dinner. Fortunately for me, all my friends are great cooks. Anyway, Don set up camp on the beach, we did a bit of exploring, hanging by the fire and called it a day.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

The next morning we headed for Malletts Bay. I almost always sail alone so it's a real treat for me when I can give up the helm and move about the boat freely.

Malletts bay is another unique spot on Champlain. It's a bay within a bay. The outer bay is formed by a breakwater with a rather narrow entrance. It offers refuge from the lake proper when it gets ugly out there. The inner bay provides sailing grounds for smaller boats. The last time I was there I ran smack into the Lightning Worlds. It was really cool to see them as I had sailed a lightning in my youth.

The red arrow on the left is the entrance into the outer bay. It was in the 90's so when we got to the inner bay we dropped anchor in the cove marked by the arrow on the right and took a swim to cool off.

This time out the locals had their lightnings out for their sunday afternoon races.

After a great day of sailing, I dropped Don off at the Peru dock and headed south. About a half hour later I watched the sun go down over the Adirondacks. A full moon rose and I motored on south. It was really beautiful out there. There's nothing like the sight of an Adirondack sky on a clear night. Anyway, I used a flashing white light on the end of Split Rock Point to guide me back to Converse Bay. Just for reassurance, I checked my GPS chart plotter every once in a while to make sure I wasn't wandering off course. I made Converse bay by about 11PM and dropped anchor by moonlight.