The photo at the right is actually from
the evening yesterday (Day 26), and it shows Lucky Us moored at the marina. The
marina restaurant was adjacent to us, and it was undergoing a fairly thorough
upgrade, which according to some locals that we met was sorely needed. They
were putting in new (real) teak deck and trim in the outdoor dining area along
with crank down/up screen panels. They were rushing to hopefully open about 2
days after we ultimately departed. They were going to be close, but the upgrades
and cleaning in the kitchen had a way to go.
Further to the serene setting, the photo
at the left shows a nice sunset over Lake Champlain. All was about to change as
later that evening the wind shifted about 180 degrees to be out of the south
and it freshened considerably. As I said yesterday, the breakwater that protect
the harbor is open at the south end. Fortunately, the waves had to come into
the harbor and turn a bit to run to the north. This cut down the waves somewhat,
but we were buffeted by 1½ to 2 foot waves and strong winds for the next 36
plus hours. Between the noise from the wind, rolling of the boat and having to
re-adjust fenders every half hour or so, we were pretty busy during that time.
We had two fenders that broke and lost air and one fender that was lost
altogether when its line broke. Fortunately, we had put all 8 fenders along
that side of the boat. The boat and the dock were not always moving in the same
direction, and as a result, we had three through hull vents literally break off
flush with the hull. We also had a section of the stainless steel rub rail get
pulled loose and twisted kind of like a pretzel. The good news is that other
than several minor scratches, the fiberglass hull was undamaged.
Right near the center of downtown is this
lovely old mansion with this lovely long front yard that preserves its view
(photo at left). There were other nice homes, but none of them had much of a
view due to the close proximity of their neighbors.
The lake even has its own monster
according to a few reported sighting going back as far as the 17th
century. The most recent sighting was way back in the 1940s, but there are
artistic renditions of the monster all over town (photo at right). The local
minor league baseball team is the Lake Monsters, and on it goes…
One of our lunch stops was this classic
New York style deli (photo at left). It was very colorful, and I had one of the
best Reuben sandwiches ever. Homemade mixed rye and white bread, tasty sauerkraut,
and of course, thickly sliced corned beef and cheese with everything made to
order. My that was good!
The architecture was full of surprises
like these gargoyles (photo at right). This same building also had a lake
monster of its own in the yard.
The
next three photos were taken along the waterfront south of the marina. Vermont
is known worldwide for its quality marble used in construction and art. There
were numerous large pieces of marble and other large rocks that had been used
to armor the shore against erosion. At least 8 of the large marble blocks had
artistic images carved in them by hand. You could still see the chisel marks.
There were no signs describing the art so I do not know anything of their
history. So enjoy…
I will close the pictures of Burlington
with another peaceful sunset (photo on left). It really is a nice city, but I will have bad
memories of the experience at the marina for some time to come…
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