We spent a very uncomfortable night. Winds shifted to Southwest and increased to probably 15 to 20 mph. The waves were moving the boat noticeably and it was hard to sleep. After a couple hours the winds then shifted to the Northwest and it quieted down somewhat. The land configuration of the Burlington bay helped with the Northwest winds. We had a lot of rain overnight also and the sky was pretty gray in the morning.
We got underway pretty early because we wanted to make Rouses Point at the top of the Lake Champlain and I was afraid that with the wind the water would not be kind to us. I was wrong. Lake Champlain, for whatever reason, does not appear to kick up big waves. The wind was out of the Northwest for the most part and the lake is oriented north to south. But the worst the waves were was maybe 2’ in some places. Not that we were disappointed.
It was pretty quiet on the lake. We left Burlington just after a car ferry did and we were with him for about 5 or 6 miles on the lake before he put in on the west shore. This part of Lake Champlain is fairly wide and has some islands in the center that almost break it into 2 pieces, an east half and a west half. We stayed on the western portion. Not many buoys on the lake but then when the water is anywhere from 200’ to 350’ deep you can go anywhere you want.
As we got further north we started to see a little thinning in the clouds and actually by the end of the day we had just a peek at the sun. The wind pretty much stayed for the day.
We stayed at Gaines Marina in Rouses Point. It is a fairly large marina that is located about 1 mile from the border with Quebec. There is a US Customs Station just a little north and about 1 ½ miles over the border is a Canadian Customs Station.
Gaines Marina appears to be a very popular spot for Montreal Boaters. While we are about 100 miles by water from Montreal, it is a 45 minute car ride. This makes it a great place for the city folk to enjoy Lake Champlain. About half of the boats in the marina are sailboats and while we were there they probably stepped 6 masts on the sailboats and they started about 6:30 in the morning.
It was a real nice quite night. Our slip was in the center of the marina and although the wind was still quite strong we did not feel it at all.